Arthur the King

This movie is based on a true story of Michael, a team leader for a team in the Adventure Racing World Championships held in the Dominican Republic in 2018. This is a grueling race of 3—10 days that brings together the top endurance athletes in adventure racing from around the world. The race covers over 435 miles of trekking, biking, running, climbing and kayaking.

The photography from Colorado, Michael’s home, and the island of the Dominican Republic is breath taking. The weather is part of the challenge, as the teams find the fastest route.

A scene early in the film shows Michael (Mark Wahlberg) in a race 3 years earlier making terrible decisions that appeared to take the team out of the competition.

Michael has issues with his Dad which seem to affect his self esteem and judgment. I saw a theme throughout the film of the importance of family. Michael is married and has a family consisting of his wife and young daughter. He puts together a team, a family, to compete for his final competition. All the teams in the competition are a family of endurance athletes.

Michael seems desperate and has challenges with raising money to fund his team for the competition. He has to admit mistakes from previous decisions in a race. Seeing his struggle with humility reminds me of experiences I have had. I felt empathy for the character played by Mark Wahlberg.

The interaction between characters kept me engaged through the low action parts of the film. His relationship with his wife shows her support and love for her husband. His fast talking, at surface value, shows his desperation.

While we see Michael scrambling to gather his team, we see glimpses of a grungy dog in the streets of a South American city. He appears to be barely surviving on scraps and attacks from other street dogs. A few kind people try to help him, as he looks out for himself with determination.

The dog somehow appears at an early Transition Area in the race and interacts with Michael. The race is well planned by international Adventure Racing organizers with advance transition areas that are supplied with food and aid. The ARWS organization monitors the racers as they check in at the transition areas along the route.

I learned a great deal about Adventure Racing in the movie. The racers progress through each phase of the race dealing with physical issues only an endurance athlete would find acceptable.

The dog appears several times and becomes part of the team—the family. All the racers and the dog have incredible challenges. Michael produces inventive solutions to problems, and the team becomes tightly knit—depending on each other

The human interest factor in the second half of the film make it worth viewing, in my estimation. This true story drew national attention for good reason.

The language became more rough during the high drama. I was sad that they had to use one “F” bomb. I do not recall any characters taking the Lord’s name in vain, which I appreciated. There were too many uses of “sh**” during high action scenes.

I also did not hear any character praising the Lord for His grace in many situations. The characters had good health in strong bodies. “We are fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14). They were in areas of breathtaking examples of the Lord’s creation. God’s provision and great grace was evident as their needs were met.

The love and compassion shown by the team family, as well as the competition family, are engaging and evident to the viewer.

“Let us love one another for love is from God…” —1 John 4:7

All that the team goes through together is a testimony to our need for other people, and animals, in our lives.

• Vulgar/Crude language: Moderately Heavy
• Profane language: Mild
• Violence: Minor
• Drugs/Alcohol: Minor
• Nudity: None
• Sex: None
• Occult: None
• Wokeism: None

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.