MovieChat Forums > Arn: Riket vid vägens slut (2008) Discussion > What I missed (spoilers for both film an...

What I missed (spoilers for both film and book)


The Arn trilogy is without a doubt one of the best epic stories I´ve ever had the pleasure to read. As expected, I was disappointed with the movies in many ways. Although I realize alot of content had to be cut to make the script, I find some parts of Jan Guillous story sorely missing. Here is a list of my top list of the points I loved about the book, but missed in the movies:

1. A broader detail of the political action - The books focus on politics, social anthropology and culture so immensely, and it is such a vital part of the epic that I imagined the films had no way of cutting it out. But they did.

2. Arns relationship to his horse, Chamsin. Reading the books makes me wanna buy a horse and learn how to ride.

3. Cecilias torment in Gudhem. I felt nothing of it in the film.

4. The Battle of Hattin - the last battle in the Holy Land was completely altered. The scene where all the captured knights templar were put to their knees on a line and decapitated and Arn said his goodbyes was one of my favorite and the whole trilogy. Richard the Lionheart and the recapture of Jerusalem seemed too important to leave out aswell.

5. Arns journey back to Sweden and a proper rendevous with the other characters - Why the hell did his father die before Arn returned in the movies? And Arns first meeting with his son was such a great passage in the books, but they completely changed it.

6. Warfare, in general. But especially Arns maneuvers to weaken the danish army as they marched. The last battle was also in no way how I pictured it.

7. Arns death: Why not let him grow old like he does in the book?

If anyone else would like to comment or add stuff, I´d be delighted!

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i'd like to read the books at some point..i did however enjoy the movie
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Eric C 4 Prez

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1. A broader detail of the political action - The books focus on politics, social anthropology and culture so immensely, and it is such a vital part of the epic that I imagined the films had no way of cutting it out. But they did.

I agree. In the books, Mother Rikissa had claimed, that Queen Blanka had taken holy wows, so her sons with the king were illegitimate. And because of that, Cecilia would have to become an abbess too, so she could nullify Mother Rikissa's claim. But none of that was mentioned in the movie.

3. Cecilias torment in Gudhem. I felt nothing of it in the film.
That happened in the first movie, not in this one.

7. Arns death: Why not let him grow old like he does in the book?

This is true. In the books, Alde was at least seventeen years old, when her father died.

Yes, it's true! IMDB has reached Sweden!

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7. Arns death: Why not let him grow old like he does in the book?


To me it seems like Peter Flinth changed most of the scenes from the book in to a scenes with more shock value.
This includes Arn's death which was apparently supposed to be a shocker of some sort, I just found it pointlessly stupid.

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