Arn: The Knight Templar (2:13)

With 23 inches and more of snow outside, it was a good time for a lengthy movie and Arn: The Knight Templar fit the bill very nicely. Arn was the most expensive Swedish movie ever made and well worth the money if you are a fan of historical dramas set a thousand years ago. This epic tells the story of Arn, raised in a monastery but trained as a soldier, sent off to fight in the Crusades as a twenty year penance for sins against a unmarried girl, the woman is in love with but promised to another. At the same time, the story tells of his love, Cecilia, who is sent off to the nunnery for a penance of the same length. The action takes place during the course of twenty years with interchanged scenes of Arn and  Cecilia. Most  of the scenes with Arn take place in the Holy Land. As a fan of historical dramas, I really enjoyed this movie. Yes, there are battle scenes and there is blood but by American standards, the violence would be probably considered mild to the most moderate. The scenery and the soundtrack, especially, add to this movie. The international cast also performed well in their roles. An added bonus was that while the movie is Swedish, Arn was a multi country production so dialogue is in Swedish, Arabic, Latin and in a large part English. I green light this movie.