Excalibur is a funny movie for me. No one I know seems to have seen it, yet the DVD is one of the most commonly found in sales the all over the UK. I finally got round to buying it, mainly because I needed a 5th DVD in a 5 for £30 special offer, and because a good swordfight never goes amiss, and the hype regarding the new 'King Arthur' movie peaked my interest in the original. Apparently director John Boorman originally wanted to do a movie based on Lord of the Rings (shame he hadnt, it probably would have been better than Peter Jackson's) but couldn't secure the rights. Probably due to his previous film, The Exorcist 2, being tripe.
So instead he made this movie, based on Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur.

The movie tells the legendary tale of the King of Camelot, Arthur(Nigel Terry - Troy), born after the great Wizard Merlin (Nicol Williamson - Spawn) put a spell on a Duke's wife so the King Uther (Gabriel Byrne - End of Days) could spend a night with her. Merlin confiscates the child from his parents, and while pursuing the wizard, Uther is attacked by enemies, but will not allow them to take his mystical sword Excalibur, forged not by man, and only to be wielded by a King, so drives it deep into a stone in the woods. Years pass, and Arthur has been raised as the brother and squire of brave knight Kay (Niall O'Brien - Braveheart). As Kay competes in a contest to try and draw the mystical sword from the stone, his sword is stolen, so Arthur is sent to find him a new one. His only option is to try and draw Excalibur, which he succeeds in doing. While some groups of knights hail him as the king, most prominently those of Leondegrance (Patrick Stewart - X-Men), some, most vocally Uryens(Keith Buckley - King and Country), refuse to accept him as their leader, and go to war with those who do. As Leondegrance's castle is being stormed by Uryens men, Arthur eventually unites the factions, and with Merlin's help, forges a peacefull and powerfull kingdom, falling for Leondegrance's daughter Guenevere (Cherie Lunghi - Frankenstein).

One day, while out travelling, Arthur's men are all bested in duels by kingdomless knight Lancelot (Nicholas Clay - Zulu Dawn), who is only equalled by Arthur himself, with a little help from Excalibur. Lancelot joins Arthur's side, and the two soon become best friends, and Lancelot his champion knight.
But it isnt long before things start to heat up between Guenevere and Lancelot, something that doesnt go unnoticed by Sorceress in training Morgana (Helen Mirren - Cal). She is Arthur's half brother, who has learned the magic arts with a little help from Merlin.

On a journey one day, Lancelot is pestered by a young fellow named Perceval (Paul Geoffrey - Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan), who desperately wants to be his squire. After taking him back to Camelot, he becomes nowt more than a kitchen boy. But when Morgana talks a Knight, Gawain (Liam Neeson - Darkman) to speak out against Guenevere and Lancelot's affair, a duel is set up, to either clear the name of, or convict the Queen. When it doesnt look like Lancelot will show, and with no volunteers from Arthur's knights, Perceval volunteers to champion the Queen, and is made a Knight. But it doesnt matter, because soon Lancelot shows up and wins the duel, only for he and Guenevere to make love in the woods and be discovered by Arthur.

After she imprisons Merlin in stone, Morgana, using the same spell that led to his conception, tricks Arthur into impregnating her, before she scuttles off into the night.
With no Queen, and his champion knight AWOL, it isnt long before Arthur's kingdom is in ruin. He believes the only way to save the kingdom is to find the holy grail, and sends out all his best knights to track it down. But as ten years pass, all of them are killed by a new enemy, Arthur's own inbred son, Mordred (Robert Addie - TV's Red Dwarf), who is raising an army with help from Morgana to take down his own father. With all of the knights gone, all of them apart from Perceval, who has a chance meeting with Lancelot, only to be thrown into a river by angry villagers. Perceval returns to Arthur, telling him how to save the land, not too long after Mordred makes his intentions clear. But after being roused by Perceval, Arthur prepares for one last battle to save his land. He learns of Guenevere's whereabouts and pays her a visit to make peace. She gives him back Excalibur, which she has kept all these years. With peace made with his wife, and his sword back, and a little help from Merlin, who now operates in the dream realm, Arthur now has to face down his own son to save his kingdom.


The acting in Excalibur truly is a mixed bag.
Nigel Terry starts out quite frankly terrible as Arthur. For the majority of the movie in fact, he is about as inspiring a King as a banana would make. Towards the end of the movie however, when he does turn on his acting abilities, the result is far more positive and he makes for a far more likeable hero.
The show is stolen by Williamson as the slightly mad, but amusing and wise Merlin. He oozes charisma in his role, and was a perfect choice for the role.
For those like me, who grew up with her as the face of crime TV thing Prime Suspect, seeing Helen Mirren as an attractive, damn sexy sorceress is a real eye opener. She also performs fairly well in her role, however its her chemistry with Williamson that makes the movie. The two apparently werent all that keen on each other in real life, so the sparks fly when the two spar.
The rest of the cast tend to fall between average and just below. While screen stalwarts Stewart,Neeson and Byrne do well in their roles, they are only really minor characters so have little chance to shine.

Musically, the movie is also pretty mixed. While the original music is perfect, and helps create a real atmosphere beatifully, the sampled music from Richard Wagner is used a bit strangely. While playing it with Arthur and co riding into battle is suitable, the way it is shot makes it look like the music is actually coming from them.

One thing that I doubt anyone can complain about is the special effects. Both the scenes of severed limbs, which are realistic, and the general costumes and castle sets are all superb, and are a definite plus in way of really giving this movie the right feel. The castles look cold, imposing and tough. The Knights armour is suitable shiny, and Mordred has his own distinctive suit. There can be no doubting the look of the movie is spot on.

The movie's fault, I feel, is that it tries to cram a bit too much into its time limit. Perceval is the last man standing, and plays a very important role in the movie, yet he has absolutely no introduction. What was he doing in the woods? what is his background?. Likewise it would have been nice to have maybe been informed on what Lancelot and Guenevere were doing all the time. Time is the word, as a lot of the movie seems to take place away from Arthur, and Excalibur itself is given very little screen time, and in fact doesnt really have all that much impact on anything towards the end of the movie. In the last battle, I was expecting to see Mordred's armour, that was enchanted so no weapon crafted by mortal man could harm him, withstand waves of attacks, only to be taken down by the magic sword. But instead the two stab each other. In a rather slow and boring manner.
That is another thing that bothered me a bit. The battles were, for the most part, rubbish. The final battle is conducted mainly in heavy fog, so seeing much is a challenge in itself, and the battle at Leondegrance's castle isnt exactly awe-inspiring either.

The movie just seems a bit all over the place for my liking. While at over two hours it is long enough already, characters really needed fleshed out if they wanted us to care for them. Maybe Boorman should have aimed to make a series, or at least two movies out of the story. The movie references the battle that the knights face when the round table is formed, but we dont see any of it. They could have finished the first movie on that battle and the round table being formed, and made a sequel about the quest for the grail. While Im not a fan of the Kill Bill or Lord of the Rings manner of paying to see a bit of a film, this one could have been waranted to be spread over a few movies, seeing as it has a potential few adventures worth elaborating.

While I may sound a bit negative about it, on the whole, Excalibur is actually fairly enjoyable, it is just incredibly far from being a great, and causes so much grief because it could have been so much better.

I would recommend the movie to fans of fantasy pictures and medieval themed movies, purely because of the extravagant sets and costumes, and the great atmosphere of medieval-ness put out by the movie.
To anyone else, Im not so sure. The acting is a bit iffy on some counts, and the character development incredibly sparse in some cases, but it is probably worth a look if it is on TV.

Its a shame really, this movie could have been absolutely incredible, but there is just too much I don't like about it to give it all that much of a positive score.


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD