Review: Excalibur 4K (Patreon)

Written for Cinema on the Spectrum.

Synopsis

John Boorman’s outrageous and operatic masterpiece Excalibur revels in getting to tell the King Arthur story. It refuses to be anything less than the definitive cinematic version of the Matter of Britain. Adapting Thomas Malory’s gargantuan Le Morte d’Arthur is insufficiently ambitious for John Boorman. He draws from numerous Arthurian sources, using every relevant myth he can get his hands on to paint a picture of the death of pagan Britain. Excalibur is Boorman’s quest for the grail: a nebulous destination which matters less than the journey itself.

Excalibur recounts the story of King Arthur (Nigel Terry), starting before his birth with the decline and fall of his avaricious and sadistic brother Uther Pendragon (Gabriel Byrne) to the end of Arthur’s reign at the Battle of Camlann and his departure for Avalon. Uther and then Arthur are guided by the irascible wizard Merlin (Nicol Williamson), who finds a foil in Arthur’s gorgonian half-sister Morgana (Helen Mirren). The unity of the land, King Arthur, and his sword Excalibur are disrupted by the excessively perfect Lancelot (Nicholas Clay) and his affair with Arthur’s wife Guenevere (Cherie Lunghi).

Some viewers have criticized Excalibur’s ostensibly breakneck pacing and fluid narrative structure. But Excalibur isn’t trying to fit into a three-act structure. Time is out of joint in Boorman’s Camelot. The characters live in a dying world where events don’t necessarily happen on a single plane; its world is inhabited by fallen gods and living symbols.

The cast exquisitely brings these millennium-old legends to life. Nicol Williamson is the definitive cinematic Merlin — possibly the definitive wizard on film until Ian McKellen picks up Gandalf's staff — delivering some all-timers of dialogue (“a dream to some… A NIGHTMARE TO OTHERS!”) in one of the greatest performances in British cinema. Nigel Terry improbably not only plays Arthur convincingly as a teenager, a young man, and a fading dotard, but makes all three versions of the man feel like the same person.

It’s not that Excalibur is perfect — its Celtic strangeness and Wagnerian excess border on the ridiculous at times. But to fear being hammy or ridiculous is to fear being alive. Excalibur is a contender for the most gorgeous original production ever crafted in the British Isles. It’s the definitive retelling of the Arthur myth, and we're blessed to have it.

Picture & Sound

After suffering through years of dingy transfers on streaming and Blu-Ray, Excalibur finally has the small screen treatment it deserves. Arrow Video's release of the movie presents Excalibur in its intended aspect ratio of 1.66:1, making the film feel grander and more epic than it has since its original release. When I saw Martin Scorsese's personal 35mm print of Excalibur a couple years ago, I was struck by the film's sumptuous greens and shimmering golds after years of assuming it was a mostly grey film. Arrow's release of the movie matches the rich colors of the 35mm print and gives us a gorgeous 4K HDR rendering of the movie to boot. A real treat of a Blu-Ray. The sound mixing similarly preserves the film's power.

Extras

Worthy of anything out of the Criterion Collection, with a lovely set of original behind-the-scenes documentaries, the director's commentary from the Blu-Ray, and the inferior PG-rated TV cut of the film. The book of essays included with the set is also excellent.