Excalibur (BD)

This film is irresistible because it evokes some of our most deeply ingrained romantic myths. Malory brought together Norse (Viking) lore with emergent French Chivalry and a veneer of supposed Christian virtue to create a potent, and often deadly narrative. Good narrative is infectious. David Hume explored how we think and why we believe the things we do. He concluded that we construct "systems of belief" in our minds which filter everything we perceive and think. Narrative exploits this human trait by combining emotion with events or "facts". The emotion, the sentimentality engrave stories and myths into us such that we can recall and recount them. If they weren't facts it doesn't matter once they take root in us. Beneath these mechanisms lie values that are seldom examined. This is how people can be led into great evil, or perhaps into good (I'm much less sure of the latter proposition.) The same stuff that Malory used became sustaining myths for not only chivalry but also serfdom, civil war, religious oppression et cetera. Arthurian legend is an underpinning of the culture of the antebellum South, the rise of German ultranationalism and even the KKK. Boorman even chose music rooted in Viking myth. Wagner, of course and another composer who rose to some prominence in 1930's within the third reich. Don't get me wrong. I still love this stuff. The emotion that carries narratives aloft is a central part of human nature and woe betide anyone who thinks they can move us, convince us or create movements without exploiting the susceptibility to narrative that dominates "learning" activities in human nature. Those seeking to create "The New Man" will always fail because they can't make myths that are seductive enough. Reason and empiricism will never overcome emotion and narrative as a source of beliefs. (I still hope that, on a case-by-case basis reason and empiricism can still bring us to a sufficient immunity to prevent our worst follies.) I'm only a little sorry for the digression into the tall weeds. It is just that this great story is so potent, even now that we should deconstruct and examine it a bit more than most great myths. That said, this film is magnificent. Lots of emerging stars, beautiful scenes that rise above a bit of cheesiness with ease. The orchestrations fit the narrative and the costumes go far to create the characters. A true classic both in it's origins and in this particular avatar.

I'm not sure where to start with my review as so many on here have already said what's needed to be said about this masterpiece. I saw this as a kid and loved it. But I wondered if I still felt the same as an adult because typically your perspective changes a great deal regarding movies as you get older. But not this movie. As an adult, it still holds up and that speaks volumes about the film's quality and the director, Boorman's delivery of the material. I've seen quite a few Arthurian films and none come close to Excalibur. This one feels very authentic and like many have stated, the attention to detail is outstanding. The makeup used to age the actors was outstanding, especially considering the movie debuted in 1981. I loved how Boorman captured the visual metaphor of Adam and Eve with Lancelot and Guinevere lying in the forest naked and unashamed while transposing Morgan le Fay's trickery of Merlin. Absolutely marvelous! The film's visual softness captures exactly how we see this period of time in our minds as evident by various paintings of Arthurian characters.......romanticized and full of fantasy. I also think what sealed the deal for me is it's a British movie with real United Kingdom actors/actresses and not some film using American actors/actresses with fake British accents like First Knight with Richard Gere. There's only one other medieval period film that holds up exactly as Excalibur and that's Franco Zeffirelli's adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. For a minute, I actually thought it was indeed Olivia Hussey portraying the role of Guinevere. I had to check the credits where I saw it was Cherie Lunghi. All of this new stuff about King Arthur and Romeo and Juliet just doesn't do it for me. I think the lack of special effects like CGI etc, forced Director's of yesterday to tap more into their creative energy, thus giving us better delivered material as well as amazing scores to really set the perfect mood. And I must say, all the actors and actresses did a splendid job in Excalibur. So rare do I find a movie where I love all the actors and actresses. All were visually pleasing and wonderful to listen to. Edited to add.....As I've been watching Excalibur, I've come to realize at least two movies, off the top of my head, (I'm sure there are many more) drew inspiration from Excalibur. The first being William C Faure's Shaka Zulu. There's lots of dialog using "so be it" in various parts of the mini series. The witchdoctor, Sitayi, having the exact same role as Merlin by ushering in a King through use of sorcery. Nandi ruling a kingdom by way of her illegitimate son, Shaka, just as Morgan le Fay did with Mordred. Both illegitimate sons hating their fathers and ultimately killing their mothers in the end and so forth. Then there's Mel Gibson's Apocalypto. The ending is nearly an exact copy of Excalibur, showcasing the Christian Crusaders by a sea vessel to civilize uncivilized people, so to speak.

One of my all time favorites. Amazing film. Many stars before they were made famous, like Patrick Stewart, Liam Neeson and the incomparable Helen Mirren. Gorgeously filmed and directed by John Boorman. Amazing locations in UK , Scotland and Ireland.

Always been a fan of Arthurian literature, although the costumes are not 5th century, this is still a wonderful movie. I try to watch it every year. But it makes me homesick!

How is there not a 4K special edition Blu-ray of this film yet? There has not been a better treatment of the Arthurian legend put to screen to date. Great movie otherwise, and although it is a bit too compacted to do the legends justice, it’s a banger of a film in which so many things — its great collection of English actors of the time and top performances from Nicol Williamson, Helen Mirren and so on, flawless integration of the Wagnerian soundtrack, the culmination of the Perceval storyline, although not true to the source material — come together wonderfully. Minus one star for its sub standard Blu-Ray treatment.

Great movie!!!!!

What is most important to remember is that the original movie was in MONO and most surviving masters are of questionable quality. Previous releases have highlighted this with many people wishing we had a better experience. Well here it is. Arrow have long been known for managing miracles with older movies, and they really have surpassed themselves this time. The movie has been remastered into a pretty good standard of 4k, considering this was a 1981 movie, that the majority of was shot in a softer focus. Some scenes really pop, especially any forest scenes, which are nice an crisp. There are some scenes which are smoother, so they have maintained the directors vision really well. The 5.1 DTS remaster is an eye opener. Speech is crystal clear, but you're not going to use this as a demo disc. They have done an amazing job of opening up the soundstage, making the action sound nice and open. I would have liked the music to be more hard hitting, seeing there are so many great tracks, but that could have come across as gimmicky, so possibly did the right thing by keeping it at the originally visioned level. Overall the movie is a great experience. The limited edition is the one to go for if you can though, the amount of extras is truly special, with enough on the three discs to satisfy any hard core fan. The booklet it self is worth the extra money. Arrow, really know how to do a limited edition. Other studios shoud take note. I can't recommend this enough, finally we all have a version of Excalibur that we would be happy to watch again and again

Blijft een klassieker met goede soundtrack, ook het commentaar van Boorman is op zich wel interessant. Beeld ziet er goed uit , audio alleen 5.1 surround -puntje voor het ontbreken originele mix. en natuurlijke ondanks beloofde Nl ondertitel -punt voor afwezigheid daarvan op deze Italiaanse Blu-ray. Engels SDH doet het ook wel

Un vecchio film sulla leggenda di Re Artù e la sua spada Excalibur, ma tuttora interessante, con particolare attenzione alle battute del Mago Merlino! Un film ottimamente restituito in video ed audio in formato DVD.

This film seared itself into my brain when I sneakily watched it late night on Channel 4 as a kid. THAT scene...and that one...oh, and that one. Fantastic soundtrack to boot!

Ce film est un véritable chef-d’œuvre, autant l’esthétisme que la musique. A posséder absolument.