Excalibur is a 1981 epic dark medieval fantasy film directed, co-written and produced by John Boorman, that retells the legend of King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table, based loosely on the 15th-century Arthurian romance Le Morte d'Arthur by Thomas Malory. It stars Nigel Terry as Arthur, Helen Mirren as Morgana, Nicholas Clay as Lancelot, Cherie Lunghi as Guenevere, Paul Geoffrey as Perceval and Nicol Williamson as Merlin. The film is named after the legendary sword of King Arthur that features prominently in Arthurian literature. The film's soundtrack features the music of Richard WagnerExtracts from Tristan and Isolde, Parsifal, Der Ring des Nibelungen: Twilight of the Gods and Carl Orff,Extract from Carmina Burana along with an original score by Trevor Jones.
Boorman's Excalibur began development as an unproduced adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. The film was shot entirely on location in Ireland and at Ardmore Studios, employing Irish actors and crew. It has been acknowledged for its importance to the Irish filmmaking industry and for helping launch the film and acting careers of a number of Irish and British actors, including Liam Neeson, Patrick Stewart, Gabriel Byrne and Ciarán Hinds.
Reviewers praised Excalibur visual style, though some felt it came at the expense of a coherent plot or character depth. It won the award for Best Artistic Contribution at the 1981 Cannes Film Festival, and received an Oscar nomination for Best Cinematography and a BAFTA nomination for Best Costume Design. It grossed $35 million in the United States and Canada on a budget of $11 million.
Plot
In the Dark Ages, the sorcerer Merlin retrieves the magical sword Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake for Uther Pendragon, who is declared king. In exchange for their future child, Merlin uses his Charm of Making to help Uther seduce Igrayne, the Duke of Cornwall's wife. When the Duke dies in battle and Igrayne gives birth to Arthur, Merlin takes the boy. Ambushed by the Duke's men, a mortally-wounded Uther thrusts Excalibur into a stone. Merlin declares that he who pulls the sword from the stone shall be king.
Merlin entrusts Ector to raise Arthur, who becomes squire to Ector's son Kay. An annual jousting tournament gives the winner the right to try pulling the sword from the stone, though none have been able to do so. When Arthur loses Kay's sword and is desperate to find a replacement, he effortlessly pulls the sword from the stone, proving he is Uther's rightful heir. Leodegrance pledges his allegiance to Arthur, but they are opposed by knights who dispute Arthur's kingship as a bastard. Defending Leodegrance's castle and his daughter Guenevere, Arthur defeats Uryens and compels him to swear allegiance. Smitten with Guenevere, Arthur ignores Merlin's warning that she'll fall in love with someone else.
Years later, the undefeated knight Lancelot has blocked a bridge and defeats each of Arthur's knights as they try to cross. Arthur himself is nearly defeated before unethically calling on the power of Excalibur to unfairly defeat Lancelot, breaking the indestructible blade in half across the armored heart of the impeccable warrior and plunging Lancelot to the ground as if dead. The Lady of the Lake restores the sword to a remorseful Arthur, and Lancelot swears allegiance to him. Unifying the land, Arthur and his knights create the Round Table and the castle Camelot. Secretly infatuated with each other, Lancelot escorts Guenevere to her wedding to Arthur, declaring that his loyalty to the king outweighs his love for her. Arthur's half-sister Morgana, the daughter of the Duke of Cornwall, reveals to Merlin that she is a sorceress, and Lancelot brings Perceval, who hopes to become a knight, to Camelot.
Influenced by Morgana, Gawain drunkenly accuses Guenevere of betraying the king, and demands a duel over her innocence. Resolved to impartially uphold the law, Arthur cannot defend Guenevere's honor himself. When no champion will fight for the queen, Perceval steps forward and is knighted by Arthur, before Lancelot arrives and defeats Gawain, sparing his life. Lancelot is followed into the forest by a deeply moved Guenevere, and they make love. Informed by Merlin, Arthur tracks them and thrusts Excalibur into the ground between the sleeping lovers. Merlin's magical link to the land impales him on the sword, as Morgana magically traps him and then steals his Charm of Making.
Taking Guenevere's form, Morgana seduces Arthur and gives birth to a son, Mordred, infecting the land with famine and sickness. Struck by a magical bolt of lightning, a weakened Arthur sends his knights to search for the Holy Grail, hoping to restore the land and himself. Many knights die on their quest or are bewitched into Morgana's service, but Perceval resists her attacks. Mordred reaches adulthood, and his mother gifts him a golden suit of armour that she has enchanted so that no weapon made by man can pierce it. Mordred demands Arthur's crown, but Arthur can only offer him his love as his father, which is the only thing Mordred doesn't want from him, vowing to take Camelot by force.
Unable to save Uryens from Mordred, Perceval is attacked by Lancelot, who has renounced his knighthood. Thrown into a river and nearly drowned, Perceval is transported to the Grail and proves himself worthy, bringing the Grail to Arthur. He drinks from the Grail and is revitalized along with the land, calling upon Kay to rally their remaining forces against Mordred. Arthur finds Guenevere at a convent, and they reconcile before she gives him back Excalibur, which she had held in secret. At Stonehenge, Arthur's love liberates Merlin and they share a final conversation. Merlin tricks Morgana into speaking the Charm of Making, exhausting her powers and enveloping the battlefield in mist. Mordred discovers his now-haggard aged mother, murdering her in disgust.
Arthur and his men battle Mordred's forces, using the mist in their favour. Lancelot comes to Arthur's aid, reconciling with his friend and dying a true knight. At the battle's end, only Arthur, Perceval, and Mordred remain. In single combat, Mordred mortally wounds Arthur, running him through with a spear. But Arthur pulls himself down the spear's shaft and stabs Mordred with Excalibur (a weapon not made by man), killing him. Arthur commands Perceval to throw Excalibur into the water, knowing the sword will rise again for a worthy king. The Lady of the Lake catches the sword and disappears, and Perceval watches as Arthur is carried away on a ship toward Avalon.
Cast Credits from the AFI Catalog of Feature Films.
Production Development
John Boorman had planned a film adaptation of the Merlin legend as early as 1969, but when submitting the three-hour script written with Rospo Pallenberg to United Artists, they rejected it deeming it too costly and offered him J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings instead. Boorman was allowed to shop the script elsewhere, but no studio would commit to it. Returning to his original idea of the Merlin legend, Boorman was eventually able to secure deals that would help him do Excalibur. Much of the imagery and set designs were created with his The Lord of the Rings project in mind.
Writing Rospo Pallenberg and John Boorman wrote the screenplay, which is primarily an adaptation of Malory's Morte d'Arthur (1469–70) recasting the Arthurian legends as an allegory of the cycle of birth, life, decay, and restoration, by stripping the text of decorative or insignificant details. The resulting film is reminiscent of mythographic works such as Sir James Frazer's The Golden Bough and Jessie Weston's From Ritual to Romance. Arthur is presented as the "Wounded King" whose realm becomes a wasteland to be reborn thanks to the Grail, and may be compared to the Fisher (or Sinner) King, whose land also became a wasteland, and was also healed by Perceval. "The film has to do with mythical truth, not historical truth," Boorman remarked to a journalist during filming. The Christian symbolism revolves around the Grail, perhaps most strongly in the baptismal imagery of Perceval finally achieving the Grail quest. "That's what my story is about: the coming of Christian man and the disappearance of the old religions which are represented by Merlin. The forces of superstition and magic are swallowed up into the unconscious."
In addition to Malory, the writers incorporated elements from other Arthurian stories, sometimes altering them. For example, the sword between the sleeping lovers' bodies comes from the tales of Tristan and Iseult; the knight who returns Excalibur to the water is changed from Bedivere to Perceval; and Morgause and Morgan Le Fay are merged into one character. The sword Excalibur and the Sword in the Stone are presented as the same thing; in some versions of the legends, they are separate. In Le Morte d'Arthur, Sir Galahad is the Knight who is worthy of the Holy Grail. Boorman follows the earlier version of the tale as told by Chrétien de Troyes, making Perceval the grail winner. Some new elements were added, such as Uther wielding Excalibur before Arthur (repeated in Merlin), Merlin's 'Charm of Making' (written in Old Irish), and the concept of the world as "the dragon" (probably inspired by the dragon omen seen in Geoffrey of Monmouth's account of Merlin's life).Geoffrey of Monmouth: History of the Kings of Britain, VII, 3.
The Charm of Making According to linguist Michael Everson, the "Charm of Making" that Merlin speaks to invoke the dragon is an invention, there being no attested source for the charm. Everson reconstructs the text as Old Irish. The phonetic transcription of the charm as spoken in the film is . Although the pronunciation in the film has little relation to how the text would actually be pronounced in Irish, the most likely interpretation of the spoken words, as Old Irish text is:
Anál nathrach, orth’ bháis's bethad, do chél dénmha
In modern English, this can be translated as:
Serpent's breath, the charm of death and life, thy omen of making.
Casting As early as 1974, Boorman had considered casting Max von Sydow, Sean Connery, or Lee Marvin as Merlin. However, the film's comparatively low budget precluded such marquee casting. Boorman considered casting Klaus Kinski as Merlin, before choosing Nicol Williamson.
Boorman cast Williamson and Helen Mirren opposite each other as Merlin and Morgana, knowing that the two were on less than friendly terms due to personal issues that arose during a production of Macbeth seven years earlier. Boorman verified this on the Excalibur DVD commentary, saying he felt that the tension on the set would come through in the actors' performances.
Even though he was 35 years old, Nigel Terry plays King Arthur from his teenage years to his ending as an aged monarch. Excalibur was Terry's first leading role in a feature film, he was mainly a stage and television actor. For the role, Terry adopted a West Country accent, in order to reflect the mythological Arthur's association with Cornwall.
The rest of the cast were also relative unknowns, and for several it was their film debut or otherwise very early in their careers. As the film was shot in Ireland, many Irish actors appeared in the film, including Gabriel Byrne (in only his second film role), Liam Neeson (his third), and Ciarán Hinds (his very first). Neeson was cast after Boorman saw him in an Abbey Theatre production of Of Mice and Men.
Several members of the Boorman family appear in the cast: his daughter Katrine played Igraine, Arthur's mother, and his son Charley portrayed Mordred as a boy. Because of the number of Boormans involved with the film, it is sometimes called "The Boorman Family Project".
During filming, Liam Neeson and Helen Mirren became romantically involved, and lived together for several years thereafter.
Filming