Fair use from Lionsgate Films

An inspiring true story, “Arthur the King,” was released on Mar. 15 and met expectations. The stressful movie left the audience in awe as they marveled at the real pictures of people (and the dog) who inspired the film.

“Arthur the King” starts out by depicting the unsuccessful race of Mikael (Mark Wahlberg) and his team. Mikael is humiliated, but a few years later, he decides to give winning one last shot. It proves to be hard to get a team together again, as well as finding sponsors to support the pricey race. One other thing, it’s no normal race — it’s a super extreme endurance race lasting around five days, and spanning, at a minimum, an incredible 435 miles. Mikael and his team must run, trek, bike, climb, kayak and more through the humid jungles of the Dominican Republic.

Along the intense journey, they encounter a stray dog at one of the rest areas. Mildly interested and out of pity, Mikael feeds the abused dog a freeze dried meatball, before setting off again to try and win the race. The dog is all but forgotten when the team encounters him again after several days and several hundred miles. They are surprised and baffled by how he was able to catch up to them, but also by how he was able to cross the extreme terrain, especially since he had some pretty serious injuries. While admiring the courage of the dog, Mikael gives him the name Arthur.

Despite what might seem like a heartwarming premise, the movie is not for the faint of heart. I found it to be stressful at times, and I have to admit I ended up in tears several times throughout the film. I love dogs, and there were some points that were hard to watch, since anything bad happening to animals, especially dogs, is my weakness when it comes to watching movies. “Arthur the King” was exciting, motivating and inspiring, but it was also stressful and full of adventure.

The cast proved to be successful in portraying the real life people in the movie. Mark Wahlberg as Mikael led the cast through the adventure of a film, and starred along actors such as Simu Liu, Nathalie Emmanuel, Juliet Rylance, Ali Suliman and more. The acting felt realistic and perfect, not overdone, but also not lazy.

The soundtrack accompanying “Arthur the King” mostly featured songs about running, and as a runner, I enjoyed the motivation they added to the film. The music helped the film move along smoothly and was an element that helped with the overall feel of the movie. The music, costumes and set all tied together to help you feel like the events were unfolding in real time. That caused it to be a bit stressful at times, but that was the purpose. I felt myself rooting for the characters and stunned that most of the main events were real.

On a personal level, something I especially enjoyed about the film (aside from the dog, of course) was the actual race and running. Obviously I don’t do super extreme races like they did in the movie, but I do cross country and track, and “Arthur the King” turned out to be incredibly motivating. It helped put things in perspective for me; even though a workout or race might really hurt, there are people out there who can do so much more with the right training. It really reminded me how important it is to be dedicated to a sport — in my case, running.

I had seen a preview for “Arthur the King” when I was at another movie a few months ago, and I made it a point to come see it. However, I didn’t have too many expectations coming into it, but I ended up loving it.

“Arthur the King” proved to be a success as it told the true story of Mikael, Arthur and their team, through an incredibly talented cast and crew. I don’t really have any complaints or critiques about the film, as I felt like overall it was very well done. It was an exciting, stressful and emotional movie, and I would recommend it to someone seeking a motivational film.

“Arthur the King:” ★★★★★