Excalibur [1981] [DVD]

So Arthur starts out on his hero's journey, in scenes quite similar to young Luke Skywalker's tutelage by Yoda in 'The Empire Strikes Back', with Arthur both beguiled and horrified by the creatures of the forest, featuring the ubiquitous owl present in such films of this period. After the boy king draws the sword from the stone, he is much in need of guidance. However, Merlin is an excellent teacher who seems to draw knowledge from Arthur rather than leading him to it. Yet it's not long before Arthur is seduced away from Merlin to other attractions, such as Guenevere. It's around about here that I usually stopped watching the film when I was younger. It was Boorman's battles that had first attracted me, so shiny and brutal as sword impales and thrusts armour.

It's true that Arthur's Round Table is rich and lush, but rather boring. A time of plenty, but very little drama, apart from Gawain's slander. Arthur does not hear Merlin warn him about Guenevere, and ignores the evidence of his own eyes, as Guenevere becomes a tease and a burden to all his men and in a bizarre and highly staged dance in Leondegrance's fortress. It's also taken time for me to like Nicholas Clay's performance as Lancelot. Cherie Lunghi as Guenevere has never really convinced me. The DVD edition makes her chirpy Irish accent even clearer, which is an irritation. Their romance is treated as on the level of a high school fling, the sort of thing that is done so much better in your average episode of Buffy each week. You squirm in your seat as Guenevere catches sight of Lancelot at the drawbridge of Camelot, with Morgana playing the role of bitchy friend. Clay's wig at the end is also quite embarrassing: did the make-up artist also work on Monty Python and the Holy Grail? Having said that, most of the other characters do grow old with a bit more grace. Of course, the main reason why their treacherous romance is so unconvincing is due to the fact that it is the only part of the film that feels rushed. I'm pretty sure Lot was supposed to be Gawain's father in Malory, but Ciaran Hinds looks no older than Liam Neeson here!

However, there are plenty of fine performances. Nicol Williamson has never played a better role than Merlin, and there are lots of other more familiar faces, like Patrick Stewart. It's the unknown actors who also catch the eye. Ciaran Hinds makes the most of a small role as Lot. Hinds is one of my favourite actors, and it's a pity he hasn't done much more film work like Neeson and Bryne. Arthur is also Nigel Terry's biggest role to date, and I think he makes an excellent transformation from squire, to boy king, to battle hardened warrior, peaceful monarch, and cuckolded husband. Helen Mirren plays her most seductive role as Morgana, and Charley Boorman makes a deliciously evil Mordred. As I've watched this film again, I'm more and more impressed by Paul Geoffrey's portrayal of Perceval. He seems to have been introduced as a counterpoint to Arthur, the young boy who dreams of being a knight, but whose cowardice makes him fear that he has lost the grail forever. Of course, it looks as though Bedevere was just one knight too many, but you do think that Perceval would have made an excellent king if he had obeyed his gut instinct.

All in all, a beautiful, luscious Pre-Raphaelite movie, with Wagner's music to produce the adrenaline high. There is a slight suspicion that this film could be quite right wing, timed to coincide with Thatcher's lamentable rise to power. Certainly, fascists have abused the Arthurian myth and Wagner before now, in their own bid for world domination. However, I believe that Boorman and Rospo Pallenberg were just attracted by such an excellent and archetypal story, and had been trying to make the film for years before the doomed British film renaissance so proudly proclaimed by Colin Welland. This film is indeed a "dream to some, a nightmare to others!" I'm on the side of the dreams, the charm of making and the breath of the dragon. Ireland, my ancestral homeland, has never been filmed so darkly and sublimely. Excalibur is a film I reach for again and again, and its haunting images will never leave me.