This movie is based on an old English poem, unfortunately the scriptwriters couldn't match the prose.. It has a wonderful cast all earning a pay check and nothing more. But, it is fun to watch, for all the wrong reasons., The lead hero Gawain is obviously based on Prince Adam, AKA He-man, he looks the spitting image, the music is atrocious and the acting is woeful. Grand Moff Tarkin, James Bond, Gimli, a Time Bandit and Albert Steptoe and it's still awful (but fun in a bad way).

Sword of the Valiant has one sole redeeming quality, and that is the ever charismatic Sean Connery, the material is beneath him, he has very little to do and the green costume and make-up looks ridiculous (in a sort of novelty value way though) but he brings dignity, menace and class to what he has and he was a lot of fun to watch.

Unfortunately, that is it for the things that work. Miles O'Keefe is absolutely dreadful in the lead role, too pallid for a hero and the less said about his goofy and too 80s wig the better, and Trevor Howard and Peter Cushing (who were also incredibly talented performers) are shamefully wasted with badly written and underused characters that don't allow them to show off their acting strengths. It really does have to be one of the worst wastes of talent in the history of film. Also wasted are the locations, they are quite nice but one cannot appreciate them when the production is lit so drably, there is next to no sense of the Medieval period, the special effects at their absolute best are shoddy and when the photography is so disorganised and amateurishly uninspired.

There is also one of the worst, cheapest-sounding and wildly out of place synthesised music scores in film, that would belong more in a very low-budget 80s cartoon rather than a Medieval fantasy adventure where a more rousing approach is needed, He-Man has been mentioned a few times and that isn't inappropriate. People can say all they want and say that a lot of 80s fantasy-adventure scores were of this nature, but how many other 80s fantasy-adventure film scores sounded this cheesy, with the exception of perhaps Hawk the Slayer? The childish, incredibly awkward-sounding and unfunny script (reminiscent of a rejected comedy),slapdash in editing and limply choreographed action, amateurish direction and lifeless and at times annoying characters are further problems, but it was the story that stuck out as particularly bad. There is no sense of time or place, it's very rarely exciting and very little of it makes an ounce of sense. Instead it reads of a series of scenes from different medieval tales cobbled together with no relevance to one another, giving it a disjointed at best and incoherent at worst feel.

Overall, an awful film apart from Connery, and it would be high up in the list of films that wasted its talent the worst. 1/10 Bethany Cox

The Arthurian legend of Sir Gawain And The Green Knight is given a nice big screen adaption with movie Tarzan Miles O'Keeffe playing the earnest young Gawain with Sean Connery as his formidable adversary. That the film does not follow the medieval poem will offend purists, but that won't count with the mass audience.

It's the New Year at Camelot and in the midst of the celebration and libation King Arthur remarks how the Knights of the Round Table have gotten soft. No sooner than a mysterious Green Knight arrives at the court and offers a game. With a giant ax he's wielding he offers any one of them to strike off his head, but if he survives he gets a return shot at their necks.

The older more experienced knights are skeptical and get nothing but scorn from Sean Connery. But eager young squire Gawain accepts the challenge.

What a surprise O'Keeffe gets when after striking off Connery's head with one whack, Connery picks up his own head and places it upon his body seemingly unscathed. O'Keeffe is ready to honor the terms of the wager, but Connery feeling sorry for him as he hasn't really lived and tasted life gives him a year to do so. And a riddle to solve and he'll forego the decapitation.

The King gives Gawain his knighthood and a squire of his own and they have enough adventure to fill up the rest of the running time of the movie. Sword Of The Valiant is grand old style entertainment that fills the big screen with adventure and a little romance. O'Keeffe packs a lot of living in as he awaits his appointment with Connery.

Trevor Howard plays King Arthur in appropriate regal fashion and Sword Of The Valiant is a fine film with all three stars acquitting themselves well.