Authoritative, sober, grounded in mythology, John Boorman's Excalibur (1981) is the tale of the Sorcerer, Merlin, the Coming of a King, and the Sword of Power.
Recent attempts at King Arthur and also Robin Hood in film totally botched it and tanked hard because, as even merely the trailers clearly reveal, the filmmakers give zero attention to authenticity and literary grounding.
Excalibur flat-out looks and sounds exactly right. Lots of hacking and screaming, nobody pulling any modern mixed martial arts moves flying around on cables, none of that phony computer animation look, just real filmmaking with a filmmaker's eye crafting the frames.
Boasting great music by Richard Wagner and Carl Orff--the latter being responsible for the famous "O Fortuna" piece from Carmina Burana--Excalibur is the tale of power, lust, and deception woven into the very fabric of Western culture.
It begins with Uther Pendragon (Gabriel Byrne) coveting Igrayne (played by the director's daughter, Katrine Boorman), the wife of the Duke of Cornwall. With a wizard's help, Uther gets his wish, but the product of this union must go to the wizard.
The product is Arthur (Nigel Terry), and the wizard is of course Merlin (excellently played by Nicol Williamson). Long before Dumbledore or even Gandalf, there was Merlin. The Disney cartoon The Sword and the Stone, based on T.H. White's The Once and Future King, presents a silly curmudgeon as out of keeping with the character as the youthful "early years" presentation in a recent TV show. Williamson's portrayal of the Druid-like figure has the right balance of eccentricity and mystery.
Williamson, by the way, plays Little John to Sean Connery's Robin Hood in the fantastic 1976 movie Robin and Marian, also starring Audrey Hepburn.
Excalibur features terrific supporting performances by Liam Neeson and Patrick Stewart as Knights of Camelot, and features also Helen Mirren as Arthur's evil half-sister, Morgana.
The Dark Ages, of course, refers to a few centuries in Europe following the collapse of the Roman Empire. On the one hand the tale of King Arthur is the story of a sun god who enlightens, descends, and will return. So Arthur's Round Table not only heralds the coming of pizza, it signifies equality, justice, and order.
Boorman, who also directed Hell in the Pacific, Deliverance, and The Emerald Forest (starring his son Charley), was likely influenced by John Steinbeck's last and unfinished book, The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights, for which Steinbeck studied Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur. Conceivably, Boorman, jealous of Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), tried his best to make a funnier version, and simply failed. We'll never know.
Quest for the fair Guenevere, the unbeatable Lancelot, the well-armed Lady of the Lake, nasty little Mordred, and the whole Excalibur gang online through Netflix and other sources.
EXCALIBUR
Starring Nigel Terry,
Helen Mirren,
Nicol Williamson,
Nicholas Clay,
Cherie Lunghi,
Paul Geoffrey,
Robert Addie,
Liam Neeson,
Patrick Stewart
Directed by John Boorman
Written by Rospo Pallenberg, John Boorman
Based on Le Morte d'Arthur by Thomas Mallory
Runtime 140 minutes
Rated PG
Stewart Kirby writes for
THE INDEPENDENT
and
TWO RIVERS TRIBUNE
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