Excalibur (1981) Retrospective / Review

excalibur forged when the world was young and bird and beast and flower were one with man and death was but a dream [Music] the sword you promised me the sword and you shall have it but the heel not the hat behold the sword of power excalibur the land from here to the sea shall be yours if you're enforced the kings will die so you need me again now that my truce is wrecked years to build a moment to ruin and all for lust for a grain [Music] one night with her use the magic your lust will hold you up you will float on the dragon's breath the child is mine you betrayed the duke you stole his wife you took his castle now no one trusts you nobody shall wield excalibur but me may one night here through victory in arms find the grace to draw the sword and be king [Music] did you free excalibur from the stone he's trying to voice the powerless boy upon us do you wanna bastard as a king are the undergrounds join us against the boy i saw what i saw the boy drew the sword roy's father please i was your son before i became your king you are king the more so because you're not my son berlin the magician brought you to me when you were newly born and badly raised you as my own why have you done this to me because you were born to be king what is made to be king you will be the land and the land will be you if you fail the land will perish we shall always come together in a circle to hear and tell of deeds good and great heights of the round table excalibur i call on your power [Applause] [Music] in april of 1981 excalibur hit the big screen in the usa and made its way to the uk in early july produced on a modest budget of 11 million it proved successful at the box office making 34 million dollars in the usa alone it's unknown how it fared worldwide but it was considered a success for its distributors orion and warner brothers and for its director john bormann john was in need of a hit as the last film he directed was a massive box office failure and derided by critics that was the sequel to the exorcist called the heretic the film deviated so far from the original film it was hated by the fans and confused critics with its sudden shift in style and direction even though excalibur did well at the box office the critics were mixed on the film however roger ebert called it both a wondrous vision and a mess other critics complaining saying the dialogue was near atrocious and lacked the dramatic intensity this type of story was expected to have others praised the entire film with variety calling it a near perfect blend of action romance fantasy and philosophy the 1980s brought on tons of fantasy epics such as the dark crystal conan the barbarian krull the neverending story lady hawk and legend to name just a few some found a moderate success but most were box office flops with conan being the biggest hit of the bunch excalibur arrived at the start of this fantasy craze and kick-started a trend studios saw that there were opportunities to capitalise on the myths that deal with magic and fantastical adventures but sadly audiences didn't flock in huge numbers not due to the genre being unpopular but because the films themselves often failed to deliver excalibur over the years found more and more fans thanks to vhs and tv and gained a new audience today many consider it the best film adaptation of the arthurian legend before john borman made excalibur he was in the process of directing an adaptation of tolkien's the lord of the rings he had discussed the early production of the tolkien film in his biography money into light he said he had written a script about merlin in 1970 after he made leo the last the head of production at united artists didn't seem interested in merlin but instead offered lord of the rings to him as the film rights had just been picked up by ua tolkien had sold the film rights reluctantly to set up a trust fund for his grandchildren tolkien wrote to john asking how he intended to make the film jon explained that it would be a live-action version and tolkien was very much relieved he had dreaded that it would be an animated film which it would ultimately become jon had met rosbo palinberg in new york where he was working as an architect rospo was trying to write his own scripts john recognised a fellow spirit john brought him over to ireland where they spent six months writing the script and condensing the three books into one film during these six months united artists had suffered setbacks and a string of commercial failures including his own film leo the last by the time john had submitted his script to united artists the executive heard offered boom in lords of the rings had left the company no one else they had actually read the books they were baffled by the script and the huge cost of making it put them off so they declined to commission it jon was deeply disappointed and took it to disney and other studios but no one was interested tolkien passed away in 1973 and ua gave lord of the rings to animator ralph bakshi who would release his adaptation in 1978. john borman said he could never bring himself to watch ralph's version [Music] despite jon's disappointment at the time he felt it was a rich and valuable experience it certainly prepared the groundwork for excalibur which was something he had obsessed over since he was a child and now we have the opportunity to make this come a reality john and ross in the later part of the 1970s focused their screenplay on mallory's the death of arthur and taking elements of sir james phrases to golden bow and jesse weston's song ritual to romance he wanted to respect the legend keeping the essential elements in place of what we are familiar with but provided his own take on the arthurian story john had set the film in the dark ages even though the knights were full plate armor a technology of the 15th century and britain is never mentioned by name only as the land he wanted the film to be out of time in keeping with its mythical setting when it came time to casting john borman seeked out many people who performed on stage for many excalibur would be the first big feature film they worked on and started their careers on film and also many of the actors in the movie have sadly passed away the late nicole williamson plays as merlin john borman wanted an eccentric mullin and his appearance is a lot different to how merlin had been portrayed in the past orion pictures had made a few films with nicole which had been failures and they didn't want him attached but borman managed to persuade the studio and nicole became the highlight of the movie for fans of spawn he made an appearance in the lackluster movie from 1997 and yet again is probably the highlight of that film nigel terry was cast as king arthur nigel came from theater and was reluctant to take on the part the challenge of playing a young middle-aged and old arthur was daunting but bournemouth felt he had the range to do it nigel's career on film surprisingly didn't take off i don't believe he had another big lead role he popped up in troy in 2004 playing the trojan high priest nigel sadly passed away in 2015. gabriel byrne plays king uther pendragon this was gabriel's first appearance on film he went on to have a very successful career often playing the villain sherry lungi plays queen gwenevere sherry's career would mainly take off on tv she even took part in strictly come dancing in 2008. dame helen mirren plays as the witch morgana who is the sister of arthur morgana seeks revenge for the death of her father and wants to rule the land helen had dabbled in film before excalibur but like many of the other actors she came from theater she did not want to work with nicole williamson as they had fallen out while performing the scottish play i assume you mean macbeth but because morgana and merlin were enemies john borman felt their bitterness towards each other would help with their performances i believe during the course of filming nicole and helen had made up their differences sir patrick stewart plays as king leo de grantz leo de grant is the first to pledge allegiance to arthur as he witnessed him draw the sword from the stone patrick after excalibur continued with minor roles in films such as dune and life force he later found success in star trek the next generation and the x-men film series patrick would return to the arthur myth to play as merlin in the kid who would be king late nicholas clay plays a sir lancelot nicholas had just starred in zulu dawn and went on to have a career on tv and continued working on stage he would return to the arthurian mythology appearing in the tv series in merlin starring sam neal liam neeson placed sir gawain john borman cast neeson after he saw him perform on stage in of mice and men and offered him the role liam wouldn't find success straight away after excalibur he had bit parts in movies such as krull it wasn't till the 90s that he found success as a lead actor with films such as darkman and the highly regarded schindler's list during the making of excalibur he started a relationship with helen mirren and they lived together during the early 80s paul jeffrey plays as sir percival paul was originally up for the role of king arthur but lost a part to nigel percival was written to be like arthur at a young age he had their innocence and stupidity but would grow to become the one to have the strength and determination to find the holy grail paul would go on to starring greystoke the legend of tarzan but the majority of his career he worked in tv clive swift plays as arthur's stepfather sir ekta clyde was a star of stage and screen to many he played richard the long-suffering husband of higher synth from keeping up appearances clive unfortunately passed away earlier this year john borman's daughter katrina plays as igrain the wife of the duke of cornwall played by corinne redgrave she said it didn't feel awkward being filmed by her father for the rape scene as uther changes form as he pretends to be the duke she said it was actually more uncomfortable for gabriel keith buckley plays as sir urines who is the first to doubt arthur's king and causes a battle between the supporters and finally for morgana's son mordred we have jon borman's own son charlie who was 12 at the time playing mordred at a younger age charlie is strangely dubbed over by sister telsha apparently to make him sound more menacing when mordred becomes an adult he is played by robert addy robert was a very confident rider which proved valuable through his role robert would go on to stars sir guy of gooseburn in the tv series robin of sherwood robert left acting for a while in 1989 and returned in 95 he did have a part in the 1998 tv series merlin along with nicholas clay robert unfortunately passed away at the young age of 43 in 2003 [Music] filming started in march of 1980 with the shooting taking place in ireland making use of ardmore studios for on location shoots they used county wicklow care castle county temporary and county kerry other locations included wicklow head as a backdrop to the battle over tintagil the kerry coast was used as the place from which arthur sails to avalon and a place called childers wood near roundwood john borman decided to shoot in spherical and not cinemascope which is a format he mainly used but in order to keep costs down to complete many of the additional optical effects he needed to shoot in the academy flat ratio john had originally wanted jeffrey unsworth to photograph the movie jeffrey sadly passed away in 1978 just after finishing superman so he went with another cameraman who had a nervous breakdown during the early stages of shooting due to his exposure meter failing losing two nights of shoots which borman revealed in the dvd commentary so he hired alex thompson who had at the time was mainly handling second unit work he jumped onto the project and helped define the look of the world of excalibur alex and john decided to use green filters throughout the film to give extra luminance and in green on green making it appear magical and mythical alex pushed the browns greens and peacock blues limiting the range of colours alex's work didn't go unnoticed and he was nominated for an academy award for his efforts john borman would later admit it was one of the hardest films he ever made the film was mostly shot in small bits as it constantly rained they could only capture what they wanted after waiting around for hours for the rain to stop the crew said borman had no interest in choreographing the action scenes arjuna finding it tedious to shoot he much prefer the improvised action where the actors would often make it up on the spot which ended up being far scarier for the actors not knowing who was going to hit them terry english who specialised in producing fake armor was hired originally to produce 14 armors but ended up making over 100 taking three months to make them and most of the actors complained it was difficult to wear and found it very uncomfortable after a short period of time wilkington sword was hired to produce excalibur which became an iconic weapon of cinema it currently resides in john borman's house along with the holy grail the original cutfix caliber clocked in at around three hours many scenes had to be trimmed to meet a two-hour and 20-minute run time borman said in the commentary that people may still find the film is too long and would have benefited if it was shorter when it came time to previewing the film the soundtrack was mixed in dolby stereo which was now the ideal way to present your film with the best sound but to the shock horror of john borman it sounded awful with the dialogue and music not coming out of the correct channels so they had to hastily produce a mono mix for its general release thankfully as all the elements were there for a surround sound track they remixed it for the laserdisc and dvd in the late 90s into dolby digital 5.1 the film opens with utho demanding the sword of power to gain him control over the land merlin retrieves excalibur from the lady of the lake for him and uther secures an alliance with a duke of cornwall but their friendship ends quickly as uther lusts after cornwall's wife igrain they fight over her but uther has the upper hand makes a deal with merlin to disguise him as the duke but at a cost merlin can take whatever he wants in result of his lust cornwell's daughter morgana senses her father's mortal injury during his assault on utha's camp and he dies in battle while the disguise falls in grain and uther impregnates her nine months later merlin takes uther's son arthur uther pursues merlin but is mortally wounded by knights who have turned against him uther thrust excalibur into a stone just before dying crying out nobody shall world excalibur but me and merlin proclaims he who draws the sword from the stone he shall be king years later sir hector and his sons k and arthur attend a jousting tournament where the winners can attempt to draw the sword from the stone but they all fail k sword is later stolen and arthur pulls excalibur from the stone while trying to replace kays word spreads and people doubt arthur as their king but merlin arrives on time and announces to the crowd that arthur is uther's son and the rightful ruler arthur goes to aid leo de grantz a supporter of arthur as king whose castle is under siege by sir urines during the battle arthur defeats eurons and then demands euron's knights him handing him excalibur in the process eurons is moved by arthur's display of faith and knights him and declaring his loyalty which leads the others to follow suit arthur meets leo degrants his daughter gwenevere soon afterwards and is smitten but merlin foresees trouble jumping years later the undefeated knight salazar lot blocks a bridge and will not move until he is defeated in battle arthur struggles to defeat lancelot and summons excalibur's power and defeats lancelot in the process but breaks excalibur arthur is ashamed of abusing the sword's magic to serve his own vanity and throws the broken sword into the lake the lady of the lake offers a restored excalibur to the king and the knights unify the land arthur creates the round table builds camelot and marries gwenevere lancelot confesses that he has fallen in love with her too but remains as a faithful friend to arthur and refuses to stay at camelot to stop his lust for guinevere arthur's half-sister morgana who proclaims she is a witch and is still bitter about her father's demise becomes an apprentice to merlin in hopes of learning the charm of making so she can seek revenge for her father's death and take over the land and rule supreme trevor jones composed a score to excalibur this was the first big feature film he worked on he had composed for a few short films but nothing on a big scale john borman didn't have the budget available to seek out a known composer at the time and stumbled across trevor's work who had recently done a project for irish tv and radio he asked trevor if he would be interested in composing excalibur and trevor who was eager to put his skills to the test took the job john needed trevor to provide original material and dramatic cues that would fit within that period for certain scenes sadly a lot of his work was overshadowed by existing music by richard wagner and karl off the film had only about 25 minutes of existing material used and the rest consisted of about 55 minutes of trevor's work when trevor came to review the rough cut it had all the classical pieces of music lined up he felt it very daunting when he was faced with that type of work to score around but he didn't feel that it was a lost cause in terms of adding his own contributions musically to the film trevor felt there was an enormous challenge to come up with a score which seemed ancient on the one hand and would also be slightly unconventional and not easily categorized in terms of time span travis work got him noticed by other filmmakers such as jim henson who commissioned him to provide the score to the dark crystal the following year which became one of trevor's most iconic scores since then he became a big name in the industry but sadly today doesn't work as much anymore maybe due to falling out of love with the industry but his material over the years has been highly regarded there was a soundtrack release on lp when the movie was released featuring seven tracks of music on the back of the lp it says compilation including music from the film excalibur but is not the original soundtrack recording i've not actually heard this release so i'm guessing it's just a re-recording to cut costs perhaps if that is the case then i would avoid picking this up on lp if you see it floating around online or in charity shops thankfully in 1998 it got a proper release on cd featuring more of trevor's work including 18 tracks of music and then re-released in 2001 with three additional tracks of alternative queues this is the most common version to find to celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2006 a more expanded version was released in austria featuring 26 tracks with more alternative tracks and some extra queues surprisingly not difficult to find on ebay at a good price the tracks on the album such as merlin's spell and the lady of the lake have this sound that throws you straight into that world it's haunting and magical at the same time trevor did a great job of making his music fit with the classical pieces of wagner for example they seamlessly blend and the new material doesn't feel out of place there are pieces of music in the film such as a grain stance that trevor brought over to the dark crystal they both have a similar sound whichever's first big job on a feature he had a difficult task ahead of him but he knocked it out of the park and it's worth picking it up if you're a fan of his work and a soundtrack collector for a movie that deals with king arthur and the search for the holy grail you would think it would be very much a part of my childhood and it would be nostalgic for me to return to but excalibur was sadly never part of my youth the tales and myths of arthur and the knights of the round table is a story that of course i'm familiar with you can't escape the stories and endless amounts of documentaries on tv over the years especially if you live in the uk but it was a movie i never owned until years later when the film came out and hit vhs it was rated at 15. so i couldn't own it as a child and i'm guessing if it was on tv it would have been on late at night if it was played during the afternoon on a rainy sunday for example it would be heavily edited but i just don't ever recall seeing it on tv during the summer holidays or festive seasons the one film that i gravitated towards as a kid was disney's sword in a stone which only deals with the second act of excalibur where arthur is only a young boy who eventually draws the sword from the stone and he is close friends with merlin it's disney's own take on it it's not one of disney's finest and it's pretty silly but i always enjoyed it as a kid and i would happily watch it again now excalibur is clearly not aimed children with its graphic imagery and scenes of sex and violence it's clearly a film for adults but the heavy direction of fantasy magic and nights doing battle it makes it very tempting for a younger audience to seek out and many of my friends did some loved it and others just felt it was very boring so after many years of excalibur not being on my radar i eventually watched it and i had mixed feelings on it to be honest firstly it's a stunning looking film there's no denying that photographed by one of my favorite cameramen alex thompson the film bounces to fantasy elements with a bleak and rich world seeing movies based around mythology and ancient history especially with hollywood productions before excalibur things appeared too glossy and polished this had huge elements of feeling like a real world there was of course another movie that dealt with the same story and that was monty python's to holy grail from 1975. excalibur takes a similar approach to its production design very earthy colours and scenes could unintentionally easily fit into the price and movie there was a moment where you see a knight going across the land and you see all these people suffering as he searches for the grail and you just expect michael palin to pop up come and see the violence inherent in the system help help i'm being repressed bloody peasant oh what a giveaway did you hear that jewelry that i that's what i'm on about do you see him repressing me now i do feel the film is structurally a bit wonky it is pretty long but it's not so long it outstays its welcome its problem for me is how it transitions from one act to another where it has these passages of time that goes unnoticed it jumps forward say nine months or many years later and if you turned away for a brief moment you would be puzzled by the timeline in the film it has these subtle fade in and fade outs and cross dissolves to cut through time which is a traditional method the middle act for the most part seems somewhat lost it feels like they have run out of story and it begins to slow down and you end up thinking where's this story going it's not until morgana makes her attempt for the throne so to speak it gets really good even though the disappearance of the grail seems sudden and it's not clearly demonstrated in the film how it was lost bizarrely there is little to no mention of it before it's gone the third act with the hunt for the grail is the highlight for me it has a great sense of drama and peril so to speak seeing percival being one of the last knights stumbling through the woods on his horse and sees his friends of the round table dead after being hung and creepy mordred turns up laughing it's quite disturbing imagery it sort of becomes a horror film you get this great sense they are running out of time and they need to have the faith to find the grail and restore order across the land there is a clear three-act structure despite it being a bit messy uther gains the sword and takes control and ultimately loses power arthur becomes king and unites the land and all is well then morgana puts her plans into action and the grail is lost and merlin is imprisoned you have three big stories mashed together and due to scenes being trimmed and the overall pace of it it often feels a bit unclear of where it's going with the story in some aspects it does have this dream like feel to it so everything feels a bit unfocused until things really move forward into the third act and it feels more like a traditional story then the whole lancelot subplot left me a bit confused we all know he loves gwynevere too but the whole friendship between him and arthur is not really pushed on screen it's said in dialogue how much they respect each other but i don't really share much screen time i want to see these two fighting side by side in battle we do eventually get to see that for the final fight but only when lancelot has become obsessed with religion and looks like a homeless man lancelot spends the majority of his time in the woods pining over gwynevere who does eventually sleep with him and causes the downfall of arthur one moment has lancelot impaled on a sword and you see him pull it out and it looks real i kept thinking to myself how did they do that there's no optical trickery there i don't think it's a truly amazing effect i found watching most of excalibur a strange experience it wasn't a unpleasant one i wasn't bored by it or really excited by it either but i did feel compelled to keep watching it my girlfriend just dozed off halfway through it she was completely bored by the film some of my close friends who hadn't seen it in years just recall finding it bizarre to watch and they never really returned to it but they all agreed it's a stunning looking film excalibur has plenty of action in it but it's not really exciting to watch sadly it all seems a bit slow and disorganized and lacks any rhythm some people may actually like that because it has some realism with all the swords and armor smashing together you have many moments with no score but just sound effects but the mixing is really strange like there isn't enough sound on screen to match the fight scenes there are obvious audio edits with the score fading out very abruptly it's not really off-putting but when you compare it to other movies at the time the sound mix feels somewhat dated and lacking it may just be how it was mixed into dolby 5.1 in the late 90s the whole film was dubbed over in post as it's clearly obvious with the sound mix you can tell there is barely any original dialogue recorded from on set that adds to its somewhat clunkiness with its sound the highlight of the film is nicole williamson who plays the role of merlin like no other he is eccentric and over the top with his delivery but can come across as menacing and slightly odd he does feel like he's from another world and doesn't quite feel like a human being which was john borman's intention his outfit is so different how merlin in my eyes had been betrayed before making his version very unique nigel terry is arthur is often inconsistent with his delivery the challenge of having a guy in his 30th player teenager is always going to be a challenge and can be laughable in execution you watch it and say well he is clearly not a teenager and the voice he puts on doesn't work at all his accent is all over the place thankfully we don't spend too long with him in his younger years once he becomes an adult nigel does a solid job of playing a king and having the right voice and tone the best of nigel's performance for me is when he breaks excalibur and the guilt of abusing his power you believe in his sadness and a mistake he has made once arthur is an old man and has to fight his last battle nigel certainly makes the role his own by the end it's just unfortunate the movie has a bad start with its introduction i think casting a younger actor to play as arthur for the sword in the stone sequence would have been wise everyone else in the film is superb helen mirren shines on screen especially with her moments with nicolas merlin as she tricks him with his own spell she is a great villain and the whole film demonstrates how good she is as an actor the sort of campinist of it all she plays it so straight paul jeffrey kind of steals a third act as mentioned earlier he auditioned to play as arthur the moment where he manages to obtain the grail his speech and performance makes you think he would have been a great king not to take anything away from nigel but paul seemed to show a wider range with his performance from being this lost soul who had no direction then becomes the knight of the round table and saves arthur by the end over the years we've had a few king arthur movies since excalibur with sword of the valiant first night 2004's king arthur and the recent box office bomb guy richie's king arthur legend of the sword they all interpret the arthurian legend in their own way which excalibur does as well excalibur has retained a fan base over the years and is often spoken about in more positive terms compared to say first night which i don't think anyone really raved about and the recent guy richie version was forgotten about pretty quickly thankfully excalibur has a clear passion for the subject matter on and behind the camera everyone is giving it their all john bourne treats the arthurian legend with respect and gives us his version of the myth staying true to it but adds his own flavor filmmakers always interpret these classic stories in their own way and film goers pick and choose what works for them i think most critics and fans of the old myth felt this movie captured that story most successfully despite its flaws some people may think it's flawless and completely perfect which is fine by me i do think it's not for everyone however but if you love the story of king arthur and the fantasy movies of the 1980s excalibur is certainly worth adding to your collection even if the story doesn't quite grip you the visuals and music will keep you engaged to the very end you fool you thought you would trap me you are trapped yourself by the same sorcery you used to deceive my mother you're nothing you're not a god you're not a man i shall find a man and give birth to a god i could kill you now brother but i want you to live to see our son be king god save us and save us from her unholy child [Music] we must find what was lost the grail only the grail can restore leaf and flower search the land the labyrinth of the forests to the edge of with him only the greyhound can redeem us [Music] i have come to claim what is mine father show yourself i cannot give you the land only my love that's the only thing of yours i don't want the quest nights have failed they're all dead percival never gave up the quest i saw the grail urines it was in my grasp i failed you are the last of us try again i'm not worthy what is the secret of the grail [Music] who does it serve you my lord who am i you are my lord and king your author have you found the secret that i have lost yes you and the land are one one day a king will come and the sword will rise again i hope you enjoyed the video be sure to subscribe to see more retrospectives and commentaries also click on the bell to be notified of the latest reviews if you want access to exclusive videos and to watch my content a few days before it's on youtube you can head on over to my patreon thank you very much

Channel: Oliver Harper

Views: 361,448

Keywords: excalibur, 1981, john boorman, king arthur, liam neeson, nigel terry, documentary, arthurian legend, patrick stewart, gabriel byrne, sword in the stone, excalibur review, helen mirren, nicol williamson, holy grail, making of, oliver harper, retrospective review, oliver harper retrospective, oliver harper commentary, ollie harper

Id: y91y6Pn6uUU

Length: 31min 33sec (1893 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 30 2019