Blog #197: “Camelot” (1967) and Its Representation of Dreams and Goals as an Autism/Neur
- Jeffrey Snyder
- Mar 8, 2022
- 4 min read
I’m pretty sure that many of those in the autism/neurodiversity community have had ultimate goals and dreams that they wanted to accomplish in life. We spend all of our hard-earned energy, time and money to get those goals accomplished in life. Most ideas come from inside our minds and when those ideas grow and prosper, we will do everything in our power to keep them growing and prospering.
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Richard Harris as King Arthur in “Camelot” (1967)
“Camelot” (1967) is a representation of an idea that grows and prospers only to end up having it be smashed into a thousand pieces. As a self-advocate and public speaker, I have thousands and thousands of dreams that can either end up being born or end up dying at birth. Some dreams have actually grown and bloomed after birth while others are killed by an uncontrollable outside source.
Let’s take a look at the main protagonist, King Arthur (Richard Harris), who had the ultimate dream of creating a roundtable where all knights would sit and be united. Now, Arthur wasn’t just any king. You might say that he was thrown into the fold of being king simply by pulling a sword out of an anvil, so he had to improvise.
But he had an idea like a neurodiverse individual would. Like Arthur, autistic/neurodiverse individuals have a goal to achieve some kind of milestone. Take for example that you want to drive your own car, but you don’t have the tools needed to drive one. So what do you do? You share your ideas with others and hope they can get in on the idea.
In this film, Arthur does that with his eventual wife and Queen of England, Guinivere (Vanessa Redgrave). In the end, after the idea is given, Guinivere not only is hooked on the idea, but ends up getting hooked to Arthur in a sense, so it’s a two-way victory.
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Guinivere (Vanessa Redgrave) and Lancelot (Franco Nero) in “Camelot” (1967)
Speaking of Guinivere, she also comes to represent the ideas and dreams that some neurodiverse individuals have. Her dream is to be accepted for who she is and it doesn’t take long for her to achieve that goal when she met and married Arthur. However, Guinivere also represents what happens when we become sidetracked from our true goals and dreams.
Autistic/Neurodiverse individuals have a tendency to wander both physically and mentally, thus, that is exactly what happens when Lancelot Du Lac (Franco Nero) enters the picture. Suddenly, Guinivere switches from Arthur to Lancelot, but because she is married, has to keep the affair a secret.
In a sense, Guinivere represents the community as someone who can’t just seem to focus on one dream and goal. If you are going to have a dream, try to keep it to one dream at a time. Focus on what is in front of you and leave any dream that cannot be realized out of it.
In addition, Lancelot also had a dream: to answer the call of King Arthur and become a knight of the round table. Instead, he ends up in a way, stealing Guinivere from Arthur thus jeopardizing not only his own dreams but the dreams of Arthur and Guinivere as well. In a way, Lancelot should serve as a representation of our dreams and goals in the workplace as well.
If we fall in love with a colleague, then that is bad for yourself and the business you work in. In a sense, Lancelot was going to work for Arthur as a knight of the round table hence the dream job, and he ends up falling for someone, who just so happens to be with his wife, thus the bosses’ wife. This is where you have to develop self-control, especially in the workplace of a company you have dreamed because one wrong move and those dreams are shattered.
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David Hemmings as Mordred in “Camelot” (1967)
Of course, dreams and ideals are destroyed completely from an entirely outside source either by their doing or in this case, our own doing. Enter Mordred (David Hemmings), a sly slithering snake who is Arthur’s illegitimate son and has a dream/ideal of his own, to destroy Arthur’s dreams and goals.
Mordred represents what happens when our dreams are threatened and our failure to protect them from outside harm or because we have past mistakes that can ultimately catch up with us in a negative way.
That is the case with what happens to Arthur and Guinivere and it comes to show that our past can ultimately catch up with us and ruin not just our dreams and plans, but our lives as well.
In a way, Mordred ends up being a villain who wins in the end, but it’s not entirely his own doing. Arthur, Guinivere and Lancelot are also guilty because they could not control the path of their dreams and that they only have themselves to blame.
In conclusion, if we can’t control our dreams as smoothly as possible, the collateral damage will be massive and that may be difficult for autistic/neurodiverse individuals to understand.
This is why we need to come to the realization that if we want our dreams and goals to be successful in life, then we have to treat our dreams and goals like a flower garden.
But if one flower is destroyed, then another will grow in its place which is what “Camelot” ends on. Arthur knows that his dreams and goals are destroyed but knows that they will live on in Sir Tom of Warwick, who will later end up writing about Arthur and his dreams for Camelot to share with the outside world.
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So, if you are a Special Education, English or even History Teacher that wants to add something to your curriculum to teach your students about how to hold onto your dreams and goals, then “Camelot” (1967) seems like the perfect film for your students to learn from.
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Catch you all later!!
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