Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

Excalibur (1981)

Excalibur is the translation of Thomas Malory's 15th century Le Morte d'Arthur from the written page to the big screen with a pretty good cast that unfortunately doesn't act very well and some decent but hazy special effects. Where it ultimately fails is the movie tries to be too true to its source material and director John Boorman does not know how to bridge the sticky parts to make a coherent whole.

Anyway, the movie attempts to go through the story in order, showing Arthur's dad Uther (Gabriel Byrne) seducing Igrayne, the wife of another King with the help of Merlin the Magician (Nicol Williamson) who magically makes him look like the other guy, her husband.  Meanwhile, the husband is off getting killed on the battlefield attacking Uther's castle so the baby that results (Arthur) is a basta -- bad seed right from the beginning and Merlin will be along the whole way to inject more trickery into the development.

Arthur (Nigel Perry) is now a grown young man and a squire to Sir Kay.  He pulls the sword that his father, Uther, unknown to him, had thrust into the stone years ago upon his death, meaning to fetch it back for Sir Kay whose sword he lost.  That sword is named Excalibur, from whence the movie draws its title.  All of the other knights at various times had failed to draw the sword out of the stone but Arthur pulled it out easily.  They all bow down to Arthur and he is da-man and becomes king from that exploit.  

There is much to this movie and even though it lasts two hours and twenty minutes it cannot cram all the developments in but it does hit the high points like the sex scenes between Uther and Igrayne and Arthur and his half-sister?! Morgana (Helen Mirren) which spawns Mordred (Robert Addie) the evil guy of the last act. The guys do their soft porn shuffle with full armor on while the gals are in their birthday suits. Hmm-mm.  The sex scenes should have been left out because they don't add anything and the girls look silly mating with a tin suited guy.

The movie is proof that you can't film a legend, at least trying to be true to the story as it's told in books, as a book takes advantage of your imagination and you are able to muse where a literal translation of book to film leaves plot holes that are fatal because a movie is a "show me" type medium which relies on continuity where a book allows free reign of your imagination. 

Some movie directors can use the literary-type imagination by briefly suggesting something happens and then cutting to the next thing, relying on the viewers' imagination to fill in the blank with some success, but the idea that a person can imagine whole passages of prose, like what a character looks like or how powerful he is, etc., is totally defeated by the visual medium, especially with the actors that give the bare minimum as to dialog, preferring to be a part of the scenery. The viewer turns into a sponge and fixates on the visuals, sucking them in to the extent that every lapse of plot registers as a negative, or at least the viewer knows "something ain't right." Again the multiplicity of characters and scenes requires some explanation that the purely visual treatment of Boorman, nice as it is, just doesn't provide and the viewer is more than once left saying, "huh?"  All the men look the same in full armor except for Mordred who gets a gold set that makes him look like a big ol cherub - Cupid, actually. Really bizzarre.

The movie is available on Warner Bros DVD in color in 1.85:1 theatrical format with a running time of 140 minutes. That's two hours and twenty minutes - way too long for the entertainment value of this confusing mess of a film.  Director John Boorman contributes a full length commentary as an extra feature.

Only for fantasy fans who don't know much about Arthur. Anybody who knows the legend will be disappointed.

Recommended: No

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: None of the Above