Comments on: Excalibur (1981)

By: damian

damian — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

I love this film. Simply the best Merlin of all time. So many great images too. A wonderful film, scary, hallucinogenic, dramatic, action packed and dripping with excess.

I’d put this up there with his best work, Point Blank, Deliverance, The General.

But is this really the guy who made The Exorcist 2 : The Heretic?

By: arjan

arjan — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

I must admit I haven’t seen it yet… just fragments… your review made me curious

Really curious about the upcoming King Arthur movie that aims on focusing on the true story (where Merlin is just a druid) and keeping down on special effects…

By: Paco

Paco — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Well, there you have it, Arjan, there is no ‘real’ story. The Arthur tale is a legend and the only real part of it could be some historical context that seems to coincide with the era Arthur ought to have lived.

What I can remember is that there is historical proof of a Briton king that was called “Ursus” (The Bear) or “Artus”. Of course we also have the figure Parsifal (here: Percival) the nobelest of knights. The Parsifal legend is more tied to Germanic lore, together with that other tale of “Beowulf”. Of these last two there are still heavy debates going on whether they are based on historical figures and real facts. I can tell you that this is very interesting reading material.

So you see, there is no real story, only an interpretation of a myth/legend. Just like Mel Gibsons last movie The Passion of Christ is an interpretation.

By: Paco

Paco — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

By the way: did you know that Boorman had the idea some 20 years ago to do The Lord of The Rings-trilogy? He had already been in pre-production for a year and then the whole thing was called of. It had mainly to do with the filming rights which were given for that abominable cartoony/rendered version. He could buy them back, but the price was to high. With all the research he did for LOTR he made Excalibur.

Very curious to know what his version would have been.

By: arjan

arjan — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

even disney had plans to do an animated version of LOTR… plans were in a very high stage…

By: reisneus

reisneus — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Great film. I agree with Damian. A great Merlin. Towards the end the movie becomes more and more surreal and magical. Brilliant stuff.