Mild Peril Video Club : Excalibur (1981)

Poster art by Bob Peak. Perfectly captures the atmosphere of the film, I think. More below.

Excalibur: John Boorman (1981) ★★★★★

Part of the Mild Peril Video Club, 2nd degree.

On the surface, this is such a cheesy film. Sweaty, lusty, and over the top with its music, costumes and the frequent use of off-screen electric lights glinting off the armour and swords… all done with such po-faced seriousness. 

But whether the style of it is something you embrace or have to acclimatise to, once immersed, the film has the power to really floor you… depending, I suspect, on the degree to which you connect to the King Arthur legend. For me it’s pretty much a religion, so armour-clad sex scenes, actors constantly shouting their lines in each other’s faces, and other odd director choices aside, I’m usually a bit of a mess by the end of this.

It’s inaccurate to talk of there being an ‘original’ version of the Arthurian legend, as it has naturally evolved over the centuries, but nevertheless this is my preferred version of the story, on page or on screen. It’s easy to forget but the sword in the stone and Excalibur, the sword delivered by the Lady of the Lake, are not the same weapon - yet of course it makes sense to our modern expectations of a story to have them combined, as is done here. While it could have been more clearly played out with a longer run time, the way in which the metaphysical aspect of the grail quest is brought to the fore is excellent, this whole act of the film is really bizarre and dreamlike. The finding of the grail and the curing of restoring of Arthur/the realm really comes across as a spiritual solution rather than a magical (i.e. scientific) one, and also avoids the Christian finger-wagging that it tends to feel like in the original legends. Other original ideas like the use of ‘the dragon’ as a kind of nature spirit that entwines our lives is really inspiring. Like, this is deep, deep folklore shit here.

On a more down-to-earth level, the depiction of the knights as (in the main) brutes rather than noble heroes is great, and I don’t know whether it was intentional or not, but the clumsiness of the action scenes with everyone falling about in the mud in their hulking great suits of armour, really gives everything a weight and realism. Nicol Williamson as Merlin is phenomenal, such a weird character, unlike any other portrayal of a wizard - makes even Ian McKellen and Christopher Lee seem clichéd.

Ignore the voiceover and this is a bloody good trailer!

And yes it is fun to laugh at too, you can’t deny how silly it is in moments, and it really does remind you of Monty Python’s Holy Grail sometimes. (Although, if you’ve actually read Le Morte d'Arthur you’ll know that the experience of watching Holy Grail is only as odd as the experience of reading those books.) But neither is Excalibur totally serious, there are plenty of intentional comedy moments. You’ll find yourself laughing at it, then with it, then unashamedly cheering, despite yourself.

I casually put this on in the morning to check a plot point I had been talking with a friend about the day before (in the King Arthur pub in Glastonbury, naturally) - I didn’t even know if I’d watch all of it, and two hours later I was just blown away again, despite having seen it I don’t know how many times. Nothing like a good cry before breakfast!

• This review on Letterboxd.

• If you like Excalibur you should definitely check out Black Angel:

And as a bonus…

I found this while looking up Excalibur on Letterboxd. This is a music video for the song Excalibur by William Sheller, directed by cosmic-comics master Philippe Druillet.

In French, the music is not too my taste, but worth a watch, as is any rare instance of the Heavy Metal / Metal Hurlant stable of artists producing work on film. Reminds a bit of Jeunet and Caro's work, particularly the early short Bunker of the Last Gunshots, although I say that never having actually watched it. I think it was projected on the wall when I was out somewhere once long ago. (Okay, clearly I need to add that to the watchlist too!)

Recently Druillet directed a video in the exact same style for the band Zombie Zombie - this is 'Nusquam et Ubique' from the 2022 album 'Vae Vobis'.