12 Best King Arthur Movies Ranked: Worst To Best

Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus made bad movies. Lots of bad movies. The Cannon Film logo is not a sign of quality but a signal that schlock is imminent. Many are beloved. Sword of the Valiant is not one of them. Director Stephen Weeks had already adapted the story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight once before, in 1973 with the cheap-but-charming Gawain and the Green Knight. With Cannon's money, he hoped to do a better job the second time around.

Weeks and company sought to make it a crowd-pleasing sword-and-sorcery adventure. Sean Connery gamely plays the titular emerald warrior while Miles O'Keefe plays Gawain. Weeks hoped to cast Mark Hamill, fresh off the success of Return of the Jedi. Golan and Globus, having already spent the whole budget on getting Connery, suggested the less expensive Miles O'Keefe, fresh off the disastrous Tarzan the Ape Man.

And so our hero is a knock-off He-Man slathered in baby oil, facing off against a screen legend who looks like he would rather be anywhere else. Together with the grating score and terrible production design, Weeks' second attempt is still cheap but not at all charming. There would not be a third attempt.