Movie Review: "Excalibur" (1981)The "King Arthur" legend told in highly visceral fashion, where witchcraft, wizardry and life-long curses between a golden-boy child and aging king becomes the center of emotional content to the inevitable confrontations of a deadly embrace, which has been put into scene by director John Boorman with such passion that this motion picture becomes a masterful as hypnotic viewing, especially due to the absolute cinematic highlight of utilizing composer Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana" to motion picture excellence. Copyright 2018 Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC

I was recently watching a Sherlock Holmes movie from the 70s on one of those TV channels devoted to old movies, and my wife walked in, watched about a minute of it and said "I'm pretty sure the guy playing Sherlock is the same actor who played Merlin in Excalibur". And of course, she was right. She loved Excalibur so much back in the 80s that she bought a framed copy of the movie poster which hangs proudly in our living room.So that observation led us to dig out our DVD of Excalibur and watch it for the first time in decades. And you know what? It still holds up. You can tell by some of the hairstyles, effects and other details that it was made in the 1980s, but overall this movie has aged remarkably well. And a lot of the actors who were unknowns (at least to us) back then have become household names in the years since (Helen Mirren, Gabriel Byrne, Liam Neeson, Patrick Stewart).Now, one could certainly make the argument that this film is way over the top in nearly every aspect. The actors chew so much scenery that you can almost hear the director off screen yelling "More! Bigger! Sell it!" Everyone wears shiny armor all the time, the good guys are incredibly good and the bad guys are incredibly evil. And then there's the soundtrack that uses a ton of Wagner and the O Fortuna section of Carmina Burana no less than three times. But it's all fitting for a serious film about the Arthurian legends. If the scene towards the end where Arthur, recently healed by the holy grail, rides out with his knights and brings the land back to life while O Fortuna blares in the background doesn't bring a tear to your eye, you might be dead.Balancing out all this seriousness to some degree is the character of Merlin (played wonderfully by Nicol Williamson), who has a few wicked one-liners and adds a much-needed dose of subtle humor to nearly every scene he's in.Many of the actors do a remarkable job of portraying their characters all the way from youth to old age. It's almost hard to believe that it's Nigel Terry playing both the young Arthur who acts as a squire for his brother at a joust early in the film and the elderly, gray-haired Arthur in the climactic battle.Another reviewer mentioned that this film came out just a few years after Monty Python's Holy Grail movie (which I also love) making Excalibur play almost like an anti-parody, with many nearly identical scenes done with deadly earnestness. Well...of course the movies are going to have similar scenes - they're both based on the same legends. The Pythons just took it in a comedic direction while Boorman played it mostly straight.All in all, this will probably always be my favorite King Arthur movie. Before the Lord of the Rings movies came along, this was the best epic fantasy film I'd ever seen. And it's still one of the best.

From the minute the written explanation comes on the screen, accented by a flaring orchestral accompaniment, my thought was...this sounds like a Wagnerian opera. Indeed the music score does contain a good bit of Wagner's score. While I love the story of Arthur and his knights, I found myself dissatisfied with this rendition. Based on Malory's Morte d'Arthur, the dialogue often sounds stilted, even for such a period piece. Most is delivered in a manner better suited to Shakespeare's blank verse. The actors sound as if they are on a stage declaiming to an audience. The sequence of events is mostly episodic,Where more action is needed, the scene simply fades to black.With his odd accent and weirdly accented syllables,Apparently he's the comic relief of this dark piece.There's epic splendor, beautiful scenery and the costumes, and the armor, look authentic. Giving a tint of green, the color of magic to various men and objects lends a touch of supernatural aura to the entire story.This movie has its moments and it was enjoyable, but...it needed something, perhaps more fleshing-out of the script instead of merely following a basic outline of a well-known story.This movie is owned by me and no remuneration was involved in the writing of this review.

Owning this movie for years and years, I've finally gotten around to gushing about it here. There's a Shakespearean quality to Early 80's gem "Excalibur" thanks to high quality stage actors recruited and selected by director John Boorman. The script is wonderfully introspective and philosophical. While these are noteworthy, perhaps best of all is the magnanimous score mixed with Oscar-winning Cinematography - unforgettably powerful, strange, and enchanting - all that you could want in a fantasy movie experience. The movie is full of lust and energy. Nicol Williamson, as Merlin, turns in one of the best performances in any fantasy movie with marvelous curiosity and wit. Nigel Terry as Arthur is also excellent, melancholy and earnest, as is Gabriel Byrnes, angry and battle-hardened earlier. A younger Helen Mirren is brooding and enchanting as well. Boorman deserves much credit and praise. He's captured medieval and magic better than movies decades after it. His cast is unparalleled in performance. 9/10 - highly recommended