Excalibur is one of those films that always seemed like one I should love: it has an insane cast, fantasy, nudity, gore, etc. I watched it a couple times over the years, and thought it was just okay. But it was one of those movies that stuck in the back of my mind, waiting for the right time when it would break through, and I would realize how awesome it was. Maybe it’s the 4K mania I’m currently in the middle of, but Excalibur finally clicked.
Part of my original issue with the film is the source material. While I can acknowledge that Arthurian legend is the source of a lot of modern stuff I like (Stephen King’s Dark Tower series comes to mind), I’ve never been into it. I partly blame the 2004 Clive Owen film. That seemed like it was going to be so great, and it left me so underwhelmed that I haven’t cared about any adaptations since. Then The Green Knight came long.
The Green Knight was not a direct King Arthur adaptation, as it dealt with the specific Sir Gawain story and Arthur was a side character. I loved the unique and trippy style of it, and it made me realize I could enjoy Arthur stuff in small doses. In that regard, Excalibur still shouldn’t work for me as it’s an attempt to tell the entire Arthurian legend from birth to death. But it’s because of that scope that it works.
The main thing that puts me off King Arthur adaptations in the sword-in-the-stone stuff. It’s like a superhero origin story I’ve seen too many times. I need to see an hour plus buildup of Arthur pulling Excalibur from the stone like I need to see Thomas and Martha Wayne gunned down again. But Excalibur doesn’t have time to dwell on that. We go from Arthur’s conception to him pulling the sword from the stone in less than half an hour. And why shouldn’t we? Only a very young child doesn’t know about that part of the story, and this movie is definitely not for children (unless you’re John Boorman’s children, but more on that later).
John Boorman deciding to tackle the entire legend meant he had to segment the film in such a way that it feels fresh throughout. This would be a tiresome movie if it was just dudes in shiny, clanking armor hacking away at each other for two hours. But we get the Merlin stuff, Morgana and Mordred, the Holy Grail, Lancelot and Guinevere's betrayal and redemption, etc.
The speed of the story is best showcased when Arthur first meets Lancelot. By giving into his rage, Arthur breaks Excalibur on Lancelot’s armor. Normally, this would be a long chunk of the movie as Arthur comes to grips with what he has done and slowly redeems himself and earns Excalibur back. But in Boorman’s telling, he immediately acknowledges his mistake, and for this he gets a new sword within seconds of breaking the original. This fast-forward method can be off-putting and feel too simple in the character-development department, but I found it refreshing.
Because of this, Excalibur feels like many different films. There are the traditional fantasy elements, but also a bit of horror, relationship drama, religion, war, etc. If a segment doesn’t work for you, the next one might. And no matter the storyline, it’s hard to deny the aesthetic beauty of the film. From the sets to the famous armor to the excellent use of Wagner, Excalibur has always been visually and audibly stunning. I’m just glad that the rest of the film finally came together for me.
The Transfer and Special Features
I’m beginning to sound like a broken record in this segment, but this looks great. As I admitted earlier, I’m currently in a fog of 4K euphoria, so bear with me. But this feels like the type of movie meant for 4K. The softness of the picture has always been intentional, but it seemed too soft in the past DVD and Blu-ray releases. Here, it’s reined in, providing a nice balance of sharpness and softness to create an otherworldly look that is perfect for the film. The shiniest film about the Dark Ages has never looked better.
The special features are truly exhausting, and I mean that literally. After three days of sporadically watching all the new and archival features, I had had my fill. You can check the product page for a list of them all and take a look at the collectible material included. I just want to highlight some of my favorite elements.
My favorite has to be the archival and rarely seen doc by Neil Jordan. It’s not Hearts of Darkness or Burden of Dreams or anything, but it’s in the same ballpark. Docs like this are so fascinating because a thousand new interviews with actors and filmmakers can’t recreate what an on-set documentary can.
As for the new interviews, all of them are interesting, and it was great that they got Boorman himself for a new one, and his son, Charley (young Mordred, but not his voice), joins in halfway through.
I enjoyed the lengthy talk with second-unit director Peter MacDonald quite a bit, as well. Don’t worry about the opening warning about video and audio quality; there are some hiccups, but overall it looks and sounds fine. It really gets into MacDonald’s entire career, and he’s refreshingly candid. My only quibble is that he didn’t discuss one of his directorial efforts, Legionnaire. I imagine he has plenty of great Jean-Claude Van Damme stories.
Overall, it’s very clear that everyone involved loved this film and wanted to make the definitive physical media release for it, and I believe they have. I can’t imagine any fan of this film being left wanting more from this release.
Random Thoughts
I didn’t take lengthy notes during my viewing, but there are a couple things I wanted to add.
First, I was very surprised when I learned that Igrayne was played by Boorman’s daughter, Katrine. Directing your daughter as she dances and sends Gabriel Byrne into an erotic frenzy is one thing, but to thing include a sex scene with nudity is fucking wild. In one of the archival doc, the interviewer asks about it, and she says she was fine because it was just acting.
Katrine isn’t the only Boorman child involved. Another daughter was the hand holding the sword in the lake. And Charley Boorman was young Mordred, but another Boorman daughter provided the voice because Charley was unavailable for ADR. In the new interview with Charley, he reveals that he didn’t know his dad replaced his voice until he saw the film at its premiere at Cannes. What a life.
No comments:
Post a Comment