Excalibur

Director - John Boorman (Deliverance)
Starring - Nigel Terry (Doctor Who), Helen Mirren (RED), and Nicol Williamson (Spawn)
Release Date - 1981
Genre - Adventure/Fantasy
Tagline - "Forged by a God.  Foretold by a wizard.  Found by a king"
Format - DVD (Personal Collection)

Rating (out of 5):

     I had seen this movie sitting at Wal-Mart in the 5 dollar bin but never had any desire to pick it up.  The dvd artwork made it look like a cheap King Arthur film that would be a waste of time and money.  I resisted the urge to buy it because when I was little I loved everything King Arthur.  I had books, cartoons, and even a few comics about the character.  So it was safe to say that I was worried about this ruining one of my favorite tales.  One day I was checking out the movies at Big Lots and ran across this for $3 and figured it was time to finally buy it and if it sucked I could still add it to my collection.

     This begins with Merlin taking Excalibur from the lady in the lake.  He then gives it to Uther Pendragon to end the war between his people and Gorlois the Duke of Cornwall.  However, this is short due to Uther's infatuation with Gorlois' wife.  Uther has Merlin work his magic and make him resemble Gorlois.  While the real Gorlois is off to battle, Uther sneaks in and makes love to his wife.  Gorlois dies in battle that night and 9 months later gives birth to a baby boy.  Uther comes in right after the baby is born to see if it is his or Gorlois.  The baby is indeed Uther's and Merlin takes him away.  A small girl, Morgana Le Fay, witnesses Merlin taking her half brother away.  Uther's people turn their back on him for everything that has played out and attack him to acquire Excalibur.  Before he dies he pushes Excalibur into a stone.  Merlin then gives the baby to a man to raise.  The boy is named Arthur and raised to be a squire for his adoptive brother who is a knight.  The film then picks up when Arthur is in his adolescence and is accompanying his adoptive brother and father as they prepare to joust other knights for the right to pull the sword from the stone.  While chasing a young thief that has stolen his brothers sword, Arthur gives chase and they run by Excalibur.  Arthur stops and very easily pulls it from the stone.  Worried that the priest and knights will punish him, he forces Excalibur back in it's place.  The priest saw him remove it and asks him to do it again.  However, some knights and citizens overhear him and cut him off.  One knight tries to pull it from the stone and fails.  The priest makes Arthur do it again and he succeeds.  The knights, shocked, split among themselves with some favoring Arthur as new king and others vowing to wage war on Arthur and his followers.  King Leondegrance (Patrick Stewart) vows his allegiance to Arthur and the rebel knights attack his castle.  Arthur and his knights rush to the rescue where he is knighted by the leader of the rebel knights.  Arthur is also introduced to Leondegrance's daughter Guenevere who he falls in love for instantly.  Merlin sees the relationship as  trouble in the future.  The two marry and all of Camelot and Britain prospers under King Arthur's rule.  That is until Arthur defeats a young knight named Lancelot.  Arthur is defeated by the knight and harnesses the power of Excalibur to defeat the undefeated champion.  He also breaks Excalibur doing so.  Ashamed of what he had done he throws the pieces in the water.  Excalibur is then repaired and thrown from the water by the lady of the lake.  He vows never to use it for personal gain again.  Lancelot is now one of the knights of the roundtable.  He then, just like King Arthur, falls for Guenevere and the two have an affair.  Sir Gawain (Liam Neeson) is able to spot the signs of this and tries to inform King Arthur.  Arthur does not believe him and has Lancelot and Gawain joust.  Lancelot wins and Gawain takes back everything he said.  King Arthur then figures out for himself and one night when the two sneak off to make love he follows.  Arthur waits till they fall asleep and places Excalibur between them in the ground.  That night his half sister disguises herself as Guenevere and seduces Arthur.  Nine months later she bares their son, Mordred.  After Mordred is born Arthur is struck by lightning and is cursed.  His health starts deteriorating and Camelot begins to fall apart.  King Arthur then sends his knights out to find the holy grail to bring life back into his kingdom.  Along the way many of them fall prey to his son, Mordred.  Mordred has been training all his life to fight King Arthur to take control of Camelot.  Perceval, having solved the riddle that Arthur and the land are one, gets the grail and returns it to Arthur.  Arthur, and Camelot, are now back to health and he sets out to do what has to be done.  He finds Guenevere in a convent where she has been keeping Excalibur.  He kisses her and takes back his sword and sets out to face Mordred.  Before doing so, Arthur calls on Merlin.  Merlin tricks Morgana into citing a spell that releases her magic and ages rapidly.  This releases the breath of the dragon, or fog, onto the land.  Arthur uses this to his advantage to hide how small his numbers are.  However, Mordred has him out numbered and the battle is one sided until Lancelot arrives.  Lancelot turns the tides and the king's men get the upper hand.  Lancelot and a number of King Arthur's knights fall along with most of Mordred's army.  Arthur and Mordred finally face where Arthur comes out the victor but sustains a fatal wound.  As Arthur lays dying he orders a knight to return Excalibur to the lady of the lake.  When the knight returns Arthur is now on a boat with three ladies standing over him as he is wrapped in a death shroud.

     This movie surpassed every expectation I had for it.  I was totally in shock when I first watched this.  I will be completely honest with you.  After my first initial viewing I turned right around and watched it again.  I was expecting a low budget adaption of the Arthurian tale that would be filled with crappy acting and a story line that had nothing to do with the original tale.  I was completely wrong.  I do not know the budget but this film is absolutely beautiful.  The scenery and atmosphere in this movie play along with the story.  When Camelot and King Arthur are prospering their armor and swords glisten with white and green light.  However, once King Arthur and Camelot is cursed that glisten is removed and everything is coated in dust and dirt.  The acting is amazing.  It was great seeing some of today's greatest actors in a film like this from the 80's.  I was caught off guard by Patrick Stewart and Liam Neeson appearing in this film.  It was also weird seeing Neeson get his ass kicked which is something not common of his films in the passed 20 years.  The story does follow what books I read as a child very well.  Out of all the films I have seen about King Arthur this one is definitely the best one.  There was a few things I did not like.  Some of the characters appeared in the film and was never heard from again.  It would have been nice to have some closure on the characters that appeared and created that tie with the viewer and why they did not appear in the remainder of the film.  Another problem I had with the film is during some scenes the camera work seems very amateur and shake a lot.  This is more so during the fight scenes.  The camera bounces so much I came close to getting a headache.  This is a movie that everyone should watch.  It is truly an amazing film.