The Templar Knights have been given a renaissance lately, much due to a renewed interest in the crusades in these troubled times. The real spark came with Dan Brown’s pretty overrated novel ‘The Da Vinci Code’, which admittedly contained some jolly good puzzles. But before this release, the famous swedish writer Jan Guillou had invented his saga of Arn, the nordic crusader. The trilogy was immensely popular and Guillou strengthened his reputation as Sweden’s most successful novelist. The righs for the movie was secured by SF, and Peter Flinth was appointed the task of directing. The filming was also reinforced by the largest budget in any nordic production ever, about 42 million dollars.

The story centers around Arn, the son of a swedish nobleman, around the twelfth century. There’s a fierce struggle for the throne going on, and alliances have to be picked carefully. Arn’s family are more or less at war with the ruling family, the Sverkers. The films starts off somewhat exciting, with the murder of Sweden’s current monarch, but takes another turn when Arn falls to the ground and goes into coma. His mother is fervently religious, and promises that the boy will serve God, if he’s allowed to live. When Arn gather his conciousness, he’s shipped off to a monastery. The dull life within the walls, is only dimmed by his military training.

Years go by and the munk Arn is released to go home. He arrives to heated arguments over land, as one of the Sverker knights refuses to obey the family’s property borders. It’s decided that the Ting (or council) must resolve the dispute. Arn’s father offer money for truce, but is severely insulted – resulting in a preplanned duel. Arn is an expert swordsman, and finishes off the Sverker rival to the crowds astonishment. Now the family must fortify their lands, to repel coming attacks. But Arn falls in love with the local beauty Cecilia. He wants to marry, but alliances and intrigue makes the idea unheard of. So when the opportunity to murder the Sverker king comes along, Arn joins in. The ruler is slained, but Cecilia is pregnant. Her treacherous and jealous sister tells the Abedisse of the monastry she is serving (being unmarried, this was the custom). The chief nun is a Sverker by blood, and writes the Bishop about this abomination. Before soon, both Arn and Cecilia is committed to separate monastries, about to serve twenty years for their sins.

Although this represents a sad point in the narrative, it feels like a relief. The lovelife of Arn Magnusson is tideous, slowly building, and resemble the atrocity that was ‘Pearl Harbour’. When they’re separated, you can’t be bothered to give a rat’s ass, really. You can have a monumental budget, nicely woven clothes and the correct armaments, but if you dwell on nothing, the film is gonna suck no matter what. To put it short, Arn is made to serve in the holy wars, while Cecilia is being abused by Mother Rikissa back home. They never make contact, but promises to stay true to each other. Even Cecilias abuse is disengaging, as I’ve seen countless prison movies that portray suffering better. Arn, on the other hand, does a great job in the middle east, being an elite knight Templar. He even manages to meet with Saladin before the charge, and wins his trust. Saladin is awfully portrayed by a dead wrong actor, and by this point you might just as well switch movies with ‘Kingdom of Heaven’. Not a very good film this either, but at least one with a decent budget. The makers of ‘Arn’ has managed to blow their money on fine garments and interior scenes, lacking the finances to portray the film’s climax. The city of Jerusalem looks cheap, and doesn’t even live up to the Hollywood standard of the fifthies. The ensemble of characters are very limited, so are the extras. No nice panoramas of the city and landscapes are shown. It’s just sad.

The final battle between Saladin and his Christian opponents, is reduced to quick and confusing scenes of fighting in the dust. Whereas the book depicted thousands of soldiers, we only glimpse a hundred. I wanted to leave the cinema several times, but regrettably, I stuck to it. A sequel is already in the works, but there’s no chance in hell that I’m going to suffer that again. 2/10