Excalibur

John Boorman – 1981 – England

Regarded as murky in both appearance and story, Excalibur has slowly revived its reputation over the decades as more and more people speak up about their strong love for the film. It’s not easy to articulate its strengths because its weaknesses have been laid out so loudly. It is murky, but in a way that reflects the primordial depths of nature from which the Arthurian legends evolved. As Boorman put it, he wanted to portray humanity as if it had just barely crawled out of the wilderness and was still trying to create civilization. Boorman’s diffused images create glare and glow through the fog, a misty sparkling that the characters move in and out of. The film is unashamed of heavy symbolism as a storytelling element, and enjoyment of the film often hinges on being able to go along with this. Whomever you may think to sympathize with as a “main character,” whether its Merlin, Lancelot, Guinevere, Morgana, or Arthur himself, often disappears for great lengths of time until you wonder if they will return at all. Although the film does depict multiple time periods, it’s not a proper story with three acts that build on each other; it’s a handful of sublots that dissolve into each other, not always announcing their relevance or relation. Despite all this, an unmistakable feeling of momentousness and fate comes off the film in a powerful way. Boorman definitely works from a visceral motivation rather than an intellectual one, which makes cinema the perfect medium for him. When the final image of Arthur sailing away to Avalon fades out, there is no confusion about its thematic relation to the opening shots of wind and fire out of which Uther Pendragon and Merlin wandered. You feel all the major themes of the Arthur stories even though they are not explained with exposition; i.e. the inevitability of Arthur’s driving altruism shattered by the base instincts of mankind, the burden carried by Lancelot – (bestowed with almost supernatural abilities) – that prevents him from enjoying the most natural pleasures of life and love, and festering resentment felt by neglected children and jilted lovers. Personally, I feel that Excalibur got a bad rap due to timing more than any legitimate failings. 1981 was the year of titles like Raiders of the Lost Art and Scanners and Blow Out, films that felt very modern and laid out what “the 80s” would look like in the movies. Excalibur is more of a 70s creation, brewing in the muted color and deliberate ambiguity of Altman’s McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Polanski’s Macbeth and Friedkin’s Sorcerer.