Excalibur
The land is divided and without a king to unite it; through the smoke and fire of battle, men in shining armour ride forward, the clash of steel and the cries of the fallen, the spilled blood turning the earth to mud, and to the side stands Merlin, watching and waiting, as Uther Pendragon calls for the sword of power forged when the world was young, the mighty Excalibur.
At war with the Duke of Cornwall, against expectation Uther listens to Merlin’s counsel and a truce between the two is reached, but it is short-lived, jealousy rising at the celebratory feast when he spies the lovely Igrayne, wife of the Duke and mother to their child Morgana, Uther calls on Merlin to ensure that he might have one night with her.
The sorcerer and strategist relenting, he warns that in every bargain there is a cost, his own demand that whatever is the result of that night will be his, nine months later claiming the baby boy while his half-sister Morgana watches, the child Arthur raised in humble anonymity but in fact the true-born king who can claim the sword Excalibur, thrust into stone by Uther as he died.
The legends of King Arthur as complicated and contradictory as the many versions of the Bible, told and written and translated and corrupted and evolving down the centuries, embellished and merging with other myths, it was the fifteenth century text Le Morte d’Arthur by Thomas Malory that director John Boorman and his co-writer Rospo Pallenberg looked to as the primary source and inspiration for their historical fantasy epic Excalibur.
Released in 1981 and filmed around many of the same areas in County Wicklow in Ireland where Boorman shot Zardoz, with Cahir Castle in nearby County Tipperary as another principal location, Exorcist III’s Nicol WIlliamson and 2010’s Helen Mirren vie for control over the realm as the ageless Merlin and Morgana, he sagely guiding but never commanding, exasperated with the race of men, Arthur every bit as impulsive as his father, while Morgana manipulates.
Unable to forgive the bloodline of Uther or what Merlin did to her noble family, she sews dissent among the knights of the Round Table, using Gawain (Liam Neeson) to drive a wedge between Arthur (Nigel Terry) and his best friend and most loyal ally, the undefeated warrior Lancelot (Evil Under the Sun’s preposterously handsome Nicholas Clay) over his unrequited love for Arthur’s wife Guenevere (Cherie Lunghi).
The breaking of their faith bringing famine and pestilence to the land, Excalibur suffers as do the peasants from the absence of Merlin and the handover of the narrative from the aging and weak Arthur to Perceval (Paul Geoffrey), though the film is never less than astonishing to look at in every scene, shot in luminous mist which turns every scene magical, illuminated by torchlight and the chrome armour shining, while the sword itself glows a mystical green.
Richard Wagner’s Götterdämmerung the leitmotif for the battle scenes along with Carl Orff’s O Fortuna and Trevor Jones original score, Excalibur carries the weight of the ages, iconic themes tied with visuals the composers could only have dreamed of, enhancing Boorman’s vision which can justly be regarded as perhaps the best British fantasy film ever produced which still inspires filmmakers, though it is not without flaws.
Much of the dialogue re-recorded in post-production, the mismatch is particularly obvious in the early battle scenes, and in high definition the reflectivity of the armour often reveals production personnel and equipment, though these are but imperfections in a jewel, confirming that it was made by human hands rather than gifted whole from beneath the calm waters of an icy lake, a reminder that aspiration and folly are not mutually exclusive.
Restored in 4K from the original 35mm negative and presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.66:1 for the first time on home video in both the 141-minute theatrical and the 120-minute television cuts, Arrow’s new edition of Excalibur has sufficient bonus material to supply an army, with new and archive commentaries, Neil Jordan’s unreleased documentary, retrospectives, interviews, trailers and galleries spread over three discs.
Excalibur will be available on 4K UHD and Blu-ray from Monday 23rd February
