| Release Date: 10 April 1981 (USA) IMDb Rating: 7.4 Genre: Adventure, Drama, Fantasy Director: John Boorman Cast: Nigel Terry, Helen Mirren, Nicholas Clay, Cherie Lunghi, Paul Geoffrey, Nicol Williamson, Robert Addie, Gabriel Byrne, Liam Neeson, Katrine Boorman, Patrick Stewart, Ciarán Hinds |
Who has heard the legends of King Arthur? The Sword in the Stone. The Lady in the Lake. The Knights of the Roundtable. Lancelot & Guinevere. Merlin. The Holy Grail. Humanity has been creating art based on these tales for generations. Novels. Paints. Musicals. Films. This one figure has defined so much in western society.
I remember reading T.H. White’s The Once and Future King and feeling transported into a fantasy world beyond my imagination. Chivalry and honor provided the framework for these fantastical tales. The novel had action, romance, horror, and drama. What else could you ask for? But who could bring these crazy tales to the big screen? We have gotten Monty Python and the Holy Grail to deliver all the needed laughs. Shrek the Third turned Arthur into a whiny teen. Disney captured Arthur’s youth in The Sword in the Stone. Transformers and Hellboy rewrote the legends to fit their models.
But one film was so ambitious in its presentation of the events of these legends…Excalibur.
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Forty years later, does this strange and raw fantasy stand the test of time?
One thing is for sure, John Boorman’s Excalibur is unforgettable in every way. This film knows how absurd some of the legends are and presents them in a complete fever dream. You see a fully armored man rape his enemy’s wife for revenge. You see Arthur’s half-sister give birth to their own child. Yeah…things get weird. Boorman certainly pulls no punches and does not shy away from the crazy and strange elements that make up these tales.
Boorman also creates one of the most unique visual worlds ever put to film. The armor is breathtakingly bright and reflective. The lands are full of shadow and fog. Are we in a dream? We certainly have that feeling that we are. The production design is ambitious and large in the most bombastic of ways. Go big or go home, right? If you want to bring a fantastical world to life, you have to go all in. Alex Thomson of Legend fame does the cinematography and you can tell that there is a unique eye to the visuals. Boorman not only brings a unique visual flair to this film, he also brings an energy that is unruly and riotous. The acting can be as big as a skyscraper and the action is presented in an aggressive and impactful way. There is ZERO subtly in this film. The frustrating aspect of the film is that the energy does always translate to an effective pace. Does the plot drag? At 140 minutes, there is definitely some aimless wandering that could have been trimmed.
What aspect of this film really elevates it to the fantasy epic status that it has earned?
The music. Before getting into the score, there is one piece of music that truly defines this film. Arthur, after years of decay and misery, is given the Grail and must stand again as the king of his people. Arthur valiant rides again, reborn with a new spirit. What music can possibly capture the spirit and beauty of this epic scene? O Fortuna…Carmina Burana…by Carl Orff. What an epic piece of music! The chants, the Latin lyrics, the deep droning build, and its incredible soaring climax maximize this impactful scene like no other.
When I watched this film for the first time in high school, one scene stuck with me all of these years later. Arthur took up his mantle one last time as he rode into battle. Why did it stick in my mind so well? O Fortuna.
But don’t give Orff all the music credit as composer Trevor Jones created a pitch-perfect score. There are beautiful and dancing sounds of medieval fairs. There are building horns and boisterous strings that give an epic feel. There are softer and moving strings that capture love and loss. Triumphant horns capture the spirit exploits of the knights of Camelot. Deep bellowing horns and organs embody the evil hiding underneath. This score embodies the magical and epic nature of these tales like few scores have.
What can aid in creating a lasting and memorable fantasy classic?
Boorman is lucky to have a stacked cast of future stars and talented performers. Liam Neeson…Patrick Stewart…Ciaran Hinds…what? They all have small but impressive performances. Early in the film, we see the rise of Uther Pendragon, Arthur’s father, and he is portrayed by the cruelly underrated Gabriel Byrne. Long before Miller’s Crossing and The Usual Suspects, Byrne embodies rage and fire in his committed performance as Uther.
One of the anchoring performances of the film is the enigmatic and unique gravitas of Nicol Williamson…Merlin.
The strange and foreign accent, the rollercoaster of personality, the immense presence. There is no arguing the iconic nature of this performance. Williamson gives his defining performance as one of the most legendary characters in literature…and he makes his own legendary. Helen Mirren is a force like Morgana. Dark…sexy…seductive. Mirren owns every moment in this film.
Nicholas Clay and Cherie Lunghi deliver as Lancelot and Guinevere. Then there is Nigel Terry. What did he not become a bigger star? He oozes honor and presence. He inspires. He shows vulnerability. He IS Arthur.
Is Excalibur the defining film in the fantasy genre?
It drags at times, loses focus, and may be TOO ambitious in some of its storytelling. So…not quite.
But is Excalibur one of the singular entities in fantasy that has no comparison or rival in how ambitious it is? Absolutely not. This is a special film. There is a reason it is still remembered decades later.
If you have to pick a single adaptation on the silver screen that truly captures the spirit of Arthurian legends, do not go any further than John Boorman’s Excalibur.
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