YES and the majority of adaptations completely fumble both these things. The Bing Crosby musical from 1949 has Hank, Sagramore, and Arthur frolicking around singing in commoner clothes for the majority of the segment. It’s got very little to do with any self reflection or compassion.
And you’re right Hank is wild and most adaptations can't handle his freak. The best ones in my opinion would be:
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1970)
This animated movie is the most faithful to the book. It covers a lot of ground, stretching through the fall of Camelot which most adaptations cut out. Hank still feels like Hank, he’s an arms manufacturer, so it makes sense he has a gun (so many just give him a gun from no where?), he gets to smoke his pipe and meet a variety of knights of the Round Table. It’s so accurate, La Cote Male Taile even directs Hank to Morgan’s castle, just like the book. Clarence isn’t made annoying which is a common problem. Sandy is cute, she tells Hank stories about other knights including Palomides & Aglovale of all characters. Whoever made this loved Arthurian Legend. Good narratively, bad to look at. I think there's like 10 frames in the whole thing. Pretty uggo.
New Adventures of a Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1988)
This movie is insane. (affectionate) It diverges from the book significantly but it’s right in the title that it’s “new” so they’re forgiven. It’s a 2.5 hour meditation on life/death. It literally opens with Lancelot & Mordred discussing a dream they shared & then preparing to ring this bell in the Valley of Death which draws out your life force (it seems allegorical for the Holy Grail) when the “Iron Dragon” barrels towards them & Mordred flees. Lancelot ends up pulling Hank out of the wrecked plane—he’s a commercial airline pilot. He’s so deranged from moment one, crawling around on the Round Table smoking a cigarette & name dropping the knights he recognizes by their coats of arms. (Kay mention!) He’s just like me fr. But basically all the knights are wandering around a desolate wasteland looking for Eldorado. Yes really. Hank keeps returning to the “Iron Dragon” & hanging out with the skeletons of his dead coworkers & has vivid flashbacks of them all hanging out in the cockpit. He ends up winning Sandy from Sagramore & takes her with him, she’s also a freak. They have sex in a cave only for Hank to wake up in Morgana’s bed??? Insane. Apparently Hank’ll do anything a pretty lady tells him so he signs a contract with Morgana to be her king or something. She bites him & he signs in blood??? Then he wakes up again & he’s back in the cave but there’s no Sandy. Was she a tool of Morgan? Who knows! He runs into Arthur, who has taken it upon himself to dress as a commoner, & this movie takes it a step further as Arthur & Hank are sold into slavery. So they’re all in chains & Arthur refuses to get chummy with the slave driver & when Arthur starts shouting that they’re all people he gets beaten. Crazy movie. Also extreme in the religious symbolism they literally show a guy getting crucified. Hank becomes Jesus. It’s a whole thing. Anyway so once they’re back at Camelot, Morgana reveals that Hank has signed her contract & Hank sets it on fire because he’s a coward who won’t admit he messed up. Mordred ends up challenging him & they battle on top of the Round Table. Mordred wins & puts the sword point at Hank’s throat & Hank has a vision of death. So he panics & takes out a gun he had pulled from the airplane & shoots Mordred in the chest. Morgana freaks out & sobs over his body as Arthur descends his throne toward the chaos. He removes his gauntlet & throws it at Hank. Then all the knights of the Round Table throw in their gauntlets. They’re going to war against Hank for killing Mordred! So it cuts to them all in the desert wasteland, Hank is like Connecticut Rambo he has a machine gun somehow don’t worry about it. But Morgana & Arthur are in armor & embrace, they’re combining their forces to kill Hank. A huge battle ensues & Hank mows down knights with bullets. But the ending happens abruptly when Morgana sets the plane on fire & the explosion kills everyone. Hank keeps having dream visions of death (& Merlin) talking in his head so it’s all surreal at the end until Lancelot & Mordred’s conversation from the intro plays again, about the bell & how it drains your life force but they will be brave & do it. It ends on a long shot of Lancelot pulling the bell all alone as the only survivor of the story… for now. Standing ovation from me. Insanely powerful. I love when weirdo directors transform a story into something brand new. Viktor Gres I’m in your walls.
A Young Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1995)
This movie changes a lot as well but it’s enough to be interesting. Hank is a senior in high school in a garage band who accidentally electrocutes himself with an amp. He wakes up in the outskirts of Camelot where some people are fearful of his glasses, amp, & band t shirt of “false idols.” A knight rides up & offers to take the scary guy away to King Arthur so the people don’t have to fear. As they approach Camelot, the knight reveals herself to be Sandy! Kay & Ector help her dismount, then she introduces Hank to her fiancé Galahad & his dad Lancelot. Galahad doesn’t like that Sandy wears armor but he can die mad about it because Lancelot supports her. Anyway Arthur is fascinated by Hank but both Merlin & Morgan are his advisors so they’re like “burn him.” Obviously he survives & gets to hang out. He has Clarence in this one & he’s pretty cute & interesting. So Galahad is the romantic rival & he’s kind of a dickhead but not so much so to be really awful. Hank also gives Arthur helpful marriage advice by telling him to bathe & then says the king has a secret visitor who turns out to be Lancelot it was so homoerotic? Out of no where??? Anyway Guinevere returns & is happy her man is clean now thanks Hank. Arthur & Hank (& Clarence) do go undercover in commoner clothes & I really like how it’s handled here. They encounter this woman & her daughter Linet at this cottage & basically ask if they can stay for dinner since they’re traveling. The woman says yes & as the guests are eating, Arthur notices the hosts aren’t eating, & asks Linet why, she says “Not hungry.” So the hospitality ritual of Arthuriana is utilized here to show Arthur the error of his own ways imposing on people who have so little & still find the generosity to share. Fascinating. Ultimately the resolution for the Galahad situation is that they were going to have a joust & Galahad had a special lance to joust with so Hank makes his own secret weapon which is an umbrella that electrocutes people when they open it so he gets Galahad to do that to “keep his armor dry” & electrocutes him. Galahad sees god, & fucks off to find the Holy Grail. Hilarious. Hank is so chaotic. Anyway Hank gets back to his own time & all is well.
