louisejuel

This is terrible. The story is predictable, a ripoff of Coming to America, which was a good film This one only screams to everyone who knows the slightest thing about Denmark, that it is all wrong. First of all the way the characters speak. The dialog between Edward and the people around him is too - American... Danes would never speak in such a humble tone. Not even when talking to the crown prince. You would never see Danish police helping a prince race. Policeuniforms are by the way incorrect. So are the number plates on the car. Denmark has never had kings named Harald or Edward. (and right now Denmark is ruled by a queen) No one yells the name of the royals as they enter a room in Denmark. The royal family lives in Amalienborg which does not look at all like the castle filmed here. The guards uniforms are incorrect. The crown jewels are not kept in a safe deposit box but in a museum. There is no coronation ceremony in Denmark. None of the royals have any say in politics. Some of the dialog is in Danish (not much) - why not use Danish whenever possible?

A fair amount of research and a storyline less predictable would have made this movie a lot better.

The critics never liked this series, however I loved it. I've seen it time and time again and the only thing, I was annoyed by is that all the Swedish parts were played by Danish actors - speaking Danish. This was changed in the re-release, so on the DVD-version the Swedish characters speak Swedish :o) Perhaps the series is not great art, but the action is quite funny and it stays true to the books on which it is based. The story is what it is, and one should not believe to much of it. It is more a story about Svend than Svend's story. However Svend Gønge was a real-life person from Skåne in Sweden. After the war he ended up as a major in the Danish army.

I first saw the story of Ivanhoe in the 1982-film version which I saw again and again (and again...).

When I was about 12-13 years old I read the novel - and loved it.

Now I've seen this BBC-series. At first I was a little skeptic - could it be as good as the one from 1982. And yes it could - and better.

First of all we really get to know the characters, and prince John is not portrayed as all evil, which I like, as it gives him more substance.

Also the things that takes place does not happen because people are evil, but because they interact with each other - sometimes with misunderstandings as the result.

I rate the series 9 out of 10 - the mistakes in the continuity makes it lose the last point.

/Louise, Denmark