SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Blistering performances.

If there is no historical accuracy then why bother and there is very little of that. The characteristics of Alfred's personality does not really seem to fit the historical record either. Because of the significant discrepancies it was hard for me to enjoy it. Not sure I am a big fan of the writing and the dialogue between Alfred and his wife. The Danes invented the shield wall not Alfred. Alfred built fortified towers to keep the Danes from having easy victories. His first child was not Edward. His wife was NEVER called the queen they just did not believe in that in those days. It was not really until Ethelred the unready named his wife Emma queen that the term was used regularly. NOTE: Emma was the mother of Edward the Confessor. At least they got it write that one of Alfred's major contributions was the writing of a code of laws and then education.

This movie is dire. It paints England in the squalid colours of cliché and melodrama, where there should be character and drama. The script is mainly at blame here, with its stagy monologues and all-too-often speeches. But, "once more unto the breach" this is not. It is wooden and bereft of any real sense of emotion or motivation for the characters. As a result we are dragged through the major events of Alfred's life without any real notion of what made the man tick. What we have instead is a real Bastard - a man who is arrogant and tyrannical, self opinionated and full of self loathing. So you wonder if you care at all.David Hemmings is as wooden as the script itself and poor Michael York suffers so much from being a stereotype that he might as well be a cartoon character. Nothing works here. It's long, it's boring, and Hemmings ranting in yet another tirade of opinion does nothing but annoy.The battle scenes are awful - and I don't mean in the light of today's battle scenes. I mean these are terribly choreographed jumbles which, even when they are trying to be clever with military formations, just look like a load of soccer hooligans going at each other in a field. It's wholly uninspiring stuff! Bare in mind that Spartacus was 1960 and The 300 Spartans (which the film alludes to) was 1961, El Cid 1963, the list goes on... and while this film is an English and not Sword'n'Sandal Epic I see no reason why it could not at least aspire to set pieces such as feature in The Vikings (1958).The Danes wander around chanting in formation and the chanting is nothing short of infuriating because it goes on and on and on throughout the entire picture. Also the depiction of these pagans is nothing short of ignorant. Yes, certain Gods are mentioned, but any understanding of how these people really thought of them and worshipped them is sold down the river for yet more clichés of the "evil-pagan" vs the "good-christian" - utter rubbish! There are no "real" scenes of Danes at all, and it is films like this that merely fuel ignorance, not dispel it. It all stinks of really bad direction and ill-thought out production.The colour is drab and lifeless, and life is depicted as not much short of squalid, which we know it wasn't. I kept expecting the Monty Python team to pop up, "there's some lovely mud down 'ere" (a lá The Holy Grail). The costume department do seem to have been more on the ball, but the dull colours only amplify the banal palate of the picture, with it's uninspired wallpaper score and it's pseudo-theatrical pretensions. Even the photography and the editing are dull.Only Ian McKellen appears to come out of this picture without egg on his face - and that's because he looks wholly uncomfortable in the film, probably wondering what the hell he's doing in this tripe.And the "Gutts-Ache" of my title is a favoured saying of Alfred in the film awe inspiring script - "you make my guts ache"!!! Dross...

I've been looking forward to seeing this movie for over a decade. Was it worth the wait?.....No.It's possible to make a great historical drama that combines plausible human interaction, Christian vs. Pagan triumphalism and rousing battle scenes. Franklin Schaffner's "The War Lord" with Charlton Heston works on all the prescribed levels, and has an unexpected emotional delicacy as well. It takes place only two hundred years after "Alfred the Great" does, so if you want a good costume picture that you will remember without regret, track down "The War Lord" immediately and dismiss this glum opus from your mind.James Webb wrote some crackerjack movies, among them "Trapeze," "The Big Country" and "Cape Fear." This is not one of his better ones. Clive Donner directed some good movies, including "The Caretaker," "Nothing But The Best," and "What's New, Pussycat." This is not one of his better ones."Alfred the Great" offers tiresome characters who interact in implausible ways, unpleasant and unsatisfying religious harangues, unattractive physical surroundings (the only picture I can think of offhand that makes the Irish countryside look repellent) and battle scenes that are long but only occasionally interesting. The script is clumsy and inaccurate, the direction is hit-or-miss. The whole proceedings are faintly depressing at best, and if you are feeling uncharitable, a lot worse.Among the actors, only Michael York appears to be having fun, playing a hairy villain for once instead of a saccharine juvenile. However, there is the grim pleasure of watching Ian McKellen in his film debut looking ugly and awkward, with no way of knowing that he would ultimately become a bigger movie star than the entire rest of the cast put together.

I originally saw this film at its first sneak preview when it was originally made and I still vividly recall some of it's beautiful work. I think it was much under-appreciated in it's time and was a terrific work of historical drama. I think it succeeded in conveying the period mood and atmosphere to a modern audience and I especially enjoyed the characters (even down to the names) and the attention to detail in the sets and battle scenes. It was a wonderful experience that has stuck with me.