King Arthur (2004)

Clive Owen: Arthur

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Quotes 

• Cerdic : You come to beg a truce, you should be on your knees.

  Arthur : I came to see your face so that I alone may find you on the battlefield. And you would do well to mark my face, Saxon, for the next time you see it, it will be the last thing you see on this earth.

  Cerdic : Ahhh, finally, a man worth killing

• [Lancelot finds Arthur praying in the stable] 

  Lancelot : Why do you always talk to God and not to me? Pray to whomever you pray that we don't cross the Saxons.

  Arthur : My faith is what protects me, Lancelot. Why do you challenge this?

  Lancelot : I don't like anything that puts a man on his knees.

  Arthur : No man fears to kneel before the God he trusts. Without faith, without belief in something, what are we?

• Arthur : Pelagius told me once: "There is no worse death than the end of hope."

  Guinevere : You and I are not the polite people that live in poems. We are blessed and cursed by our times.

• Guinevere : Arthur and his knights. A leader both Briton and Roman. And yet, you chose your allegiance to Rome, to those who take what does not belong to them. That same Rome that took your men from their homeland.

  Arthur : Listen, lady, do not pretend you know anything about me or my men.

  Guinevere : How many Britons have you killed?

  Arthur : As many as tried to kill me. It's the natural state of any man to want to live.

  Guinevere : Animals live! It's the natural state of any man to want to live free... in their own country. I belong to this land. Where do you belong, Arthur?

• Lancelot : Arthur! This is not Rome's fight. It is not your fight. All these long years we've been together, the trials we've faced, the blood we've shed... what was it all for if not for the reward of freedom! And now when we are so close, when it's finally within our grasp... Look at me! Does it all count for nothing?

  Arthur : You ask me that? You who know me the best of all?

  Lancelot : Then do not do this. Only certain death awaits you here. Arthur, I beg you! For our friendship's sake, I beg you!

  Arthur : You be my friend now and do not dissuade me. Seize the freedom you have earned and live it for the both of us. I cannot follow you, Lancelot. I know now that all the blood I have shed, all the lives I have taken have led me to this moment.

• Arthur : [praying]  Oh, merciful God, I have such need of Your mercy now. Not for myself, but for my knights, for this is truly their hour of need. Deliver them from their trials ahead and I will pay You a thousandfold with any sacrifice You ask of me. And if in Your wisdom, You should determine that sacrifice must be my life for theirs, so that they can once again taste the freedom that has so long been denied to them, I will gladly make that covenant. My death will have a purpose. I ask no more than that.

• Arthur : Knights... Brothers and arms... Your courage has been testet beyond all limits.

  Bors : Yes

  Arthur : But I must ask you now for one further trial.

  Bors : Drink.

  Arthur : We must leave on a final mission for Rome before our freedom can be granted. Above the wall, far north, there is a Roman family in need of rescue. They are trapped by Saxons. Our orders is to secure their safety.

  Bors : Let the Romans take care of their own.

  Gawain : Above the wall is Woad territory.

  Galahad : Our duty to Rome, if it ever was a duty, is done. Our pact with Rome is done.

  Bors : Every knight here has laid his life on the line for you. For you. And instead of freedom you want more blood? Our blood? You think more of Roman blood than you do of ours?

  Arthur : Bors! These are our orders. We leave at first light, and when we return your freedom will be waiting for you. A freedom we can embrace with honour.

  Bors : I'm a free man! I will choose my own fate!

  Tristan : Yeah, yeah, we're all going to die someday. If it's a death from a Saxons hand that frightens you, stay home.

  Galahad : Listen, if you're so eager to die, you can die right now! I've got something to live for!

  Lancelot : Enough. Enough!

  Dagonet : The Romans have broken their word. We have the word of Arthur. That is good enough. I'll prepare.

• Guinevere : My father told me great tales of you.

  Arthur : Really? And what did you hear?

  Guinevere : Fairy tales. The kind you hear about people so brave, so selfless, that they can't be real.

• [about Arthur's father] 

  Guinevere : He died in battle?

  Arthur : It's a family tradition.

• Arthur : Knights! The gift of freedom is yours by right. But the home we seek resides not in some distant land, it's in us, and in our actions on this day! If this be our destiny, then so be it. But let history remember, that as free men, we chose to make it so!

• Arthur : Deeds themselves are useless unless they are for some higher purpose.

• Arthur : Think very hard upon that vow Bishop for I will hold you to it. Break it... and no Roman legion, papal army, nor God himself will protect you. That is my promise.

• Lancelot , Arthur , Bors , Gawain , Tristan , Dagonet : [the knights line up on the hill near the fort and charge towards the Saxons]  For Arthur!

• Arthur : How many times in battle have we snatched victory from the jaws of defeat? Outnumbered, outflanked, but still we triumph? With you at my side, we can do so again. Lancelot, we are knights. What other purpose do we serve if not for such a cause?

• Arthur : [kneeling over Lancelot's body, looking up to the sky]  It was my life to be taken! Not this! Never this!

  [as Bors, Galahad, and Gawain approach, bearing Tristan's body] 

  Arthur : My brave knights, I have failed you. I neither took you off this island, nor shared your fate.

  Merlin : [to Arthur]  No fate is shared.

  [to other knights, and more confident] 

  Merlin : No fate is shared.

  Bors : They chose their own fate.

  [turning to Galahad, he spoke more assuredly] 

  Bors : As did we all.

  [quietly, facing Arthur] 

  Bors : As did we all.

  [Arthur's eyes drift to the sword briefly, and back to Lucan who looks down sadly] 

  Arthur : One day you'll be strong enough. And you'll come back for it.

• Arthur : I tell you now, Marius is not of god, and you, all of you,

  [assertive] 

  Arthur : were free from your first breath!

• [Arthur has re-set Guinevere's broken fingers] 

  Arthur : How's your hand?

  Guinevere : I'll live, I promise you.

• Lancelot : To try and get past the Woads in the north is insanity.

  Arthur : Them, we've fought before.

  Lancelot : Not north of the Wall! How many Saxons? Hmm? How many? Tell me. Do you believe in this mission?

  Arthur : These people need our help. It is out duty to bring...

  Lancelot : I don't care about your charge. And I don't give a damn about Romans, Britain, or this island. If you desire to spend eternity in this place, Arthur, then so be it. But suicide cannot be chosen for another!

  Arthur : And yet you choose death for this family!

  Lancelot : No, I choose life! And freedom! For myself and the men!

• Arthur : There is no worse death than the end of hope.

• Arthur : What is this madness?

• Arthur : For men to be men, they must first all be equal.