Excalibur movie review & film summary (1981)

And all of this is buried in such a wealth of detail, such an impenetrable atmosphere, such tumultuous alarms and excursions, that the audience is quite likely to lose its place. John Boorman, the director of “Excalibur,” is brilliant at staging the life and times of Arthur, the film is a triumph of production design, costumes, and special effects. But he hasn't hammered out a clear story line. His male characters, bearded and hiding within medieval helmets, sometimes look and sound like one another. If Robert Bresson's “Lancelot Of The Lake” (1973) deliberately made all the knights into interchangeable, clanking clones, Boorman seems to have arrived at the same place inadvertently. This is a film we almost have to squint to see and to understand. 

As a panorama of sword and sorcery, however, it is very beautiful to watch. And as a showcase for Nicol Williamson's Merlin, it is sometimes a lot of fun; Williamson plays the magician as a medieval Noel Coward, always armed with the wry witticism. His relationship with Morgana (the lovely Helen Mirren) is actually the most interesting thing in the film. Morgana borrows Merlin's magic to deceive Arthur and to stay young. Inhabiting a dragon's cave that is apparently somewhere beneath Camelot, she wears brass brassieres and other obligatory props, but she's intriguing. 

It's curious how our tastes in myth change; heroes seem to be devalued and our fascination is with villains. Arthur almost recedes into the scenery toward the end of “Excalibur,” upstaged by the sins of Lancelot, the schemes of Morgana, the arch amusement of Merlin and, finally, by the astonishing appearance of Mordred, who wears a golden helmet that makes him into a muscular Cupid. “Excalibur” is a revisionist view of what Arthur's people and times looked like. But the film has a tendency to drift into soft focus and impenetrable fogs. Many scenes are shot through filters that soften and dissipate their effect. The movie's very last shot, of a ship plunging out to sea, should have been hard-edged and forlorn, but it's all misty and evanescent.