One of them is coming today outstanding fantasy films of the 1980s on television, which tells a legendary saga in a new guise. John Boorman’s Excalibur (1981) is now considered a classic of the genre, but began its history as a (dark) Tolkien film adaptation.
In Excalibur, the story of King Arthur and Merlin is retold
Excalibur tells the well-known story of Merlin (Nicol Williamson), the eponymous sword, its temporary owner King Arthur (Nigel Terry) and the quest for the Holy Grail. The story is episodic, based on the medieval model. Nevertheless, John Boorman’s film (When Dying is the First One) develops one epic grace, which is hard to get away from.
Warner Bros.
Excalibur
On the one hand, Excalibur captivates with its sheer beauty fantastic scenery and the romantic picture compositions. On the other hand, Excalibur is full of veterans and newcomers who would become the faces of British and Irish cinema for decades to come.
Helen Mirren plays Arthur’s half-sister Morgana, Gabriel Byrne plays the tragic Uther Pendragon, and other roles include Liam Neeson, Patrick Stewart and Ciarán Hinds. With its embedding of fantastical elements in a world of grown-up heaviness, Excalibur also emerged as a style-defining example for later fantasy works such as Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. But the work connects even more with Tolkien.
Excalibur began as a Lord of the Rings film adaptation
John Boorman and his later co-author Rospo Pallenberg wanted to film Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy in the late 1970s. Both found a studio in United Artists and wrote a screenplay that partly adapts The Fellowship of the Ring but differs greatly in other passages (anyone who has always wanted to see Frodo and Galadriel having sex will shed a tear at the failed project).
As the filming approached, United Artists dropped out because of the budget. Boorman described the situation as follows, according to TolkienGateway:
The Lord of the Rings was an expensive project that relied on innovative special effects. When we submitted it to United Artists, the executive who supported it had left the company. Nobody else there had actually read the book. They were puzzled by a script that for most of them was their first contact with Middle-earth. I was deeply disappointed when they turned it down.
The studio chose a cheaper route and hired Ralph Bakshi for an animated film. Boorman and Pallenberg moved on to Excalibur:
Despite my disappointment at the time, it was an enriching and valuable experience. It definitely set the stage for the script that Rospo and I ended up writing and filming as Excalibur.
Here’s how to watch Excalibur
John Boorman’s fantasy film is on today, August 28, from 8:15 p.m. on Arte. If you missed the film, you can’t currently watch it with a subscription flat rate. At Amazon * and other providers it is available in the purchase and rental version.
If you want to stay in the world of the Round Table, you might enjoy the 2021 film The Green Knight, currently available in the Netflix catalog.
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