In the 45 years since Excalibur, Hollywood has failed many attempts at the Arthurian legend. From First Knight to King Arthur to Legend of the Sword, none have achieved the epic scale of John Boorman’s gritty, realistic approach. And he encapsulated everything from the Sword in the Stone to the Holy Grail in under two and a half hours.
Arrow’s 4K UHD edition of Excalibur is not just a restoration but an exploration of what made the film so definitive. But, we’ll get to that after the film itself.
Boorman shot Excalibur in 1.66:1, leaving small bars on the sides of the screen for the authentic aspect ratio. The opening shot of knights in the forest, silhouetted by torchlight, bodes well for the 4K transfer. Many other shadowy nights ensue, but what is most striking is the emerald reflections in armor, water and the sword of Excalibur itself.
The bonus features draw as strong a parallel between past and present as Boorman’s mythological film does. Neil Jordan got his start as a creative associate on Excalibur and made a 48-minute behind-the-scenes feature. This includes on set footage and interviews with the filmmakers and principals, but more importantly it lays the groundwork for Boorman’s obsession with King Arthur.
Boorman himself, now in his 90s, and other collaborators explain how Arthur and Merlin archetypes wound up in Point Blank, Deliverance and even Zardoz. On disc three, a 52-minute retrospective includes Liam Neeson, Helen Mirren, Patrick Stewart, Gabriel Byrne and many of the surviving cast. Two new commentaries by Boorman biographer Brian Hoyle and Exorcist II documentarian David Kittredge add yet even more nuance and perspectives to the undertaking, not just the filmmaking itself but its place in Boorman’s career, especially following Exorcist II.
But the bonus features go in interesting tangents, too. A 75 minute interview with second unit director Peter MacDonald was culled from a four and a half hour Zoom interview. He discusses his work with Kubrick, Antonioni, Richard attenborough and more, and of course he became a director himself.
Screenwriter Rospo Pallenberg discusses his aborted adaptation of Lord of the Rings with Boorman, as well as his uncredited work on other Boorman films.
The two hour TV version of Excalibur is interesting because there’s so much sex, you wonder how they’ll get around it. The whole Igrayne (Katrine Boorman) nude scene is gone, but Lancelot (Nicholas Clay) and Guinevere (Cherie Lunghi)’s daliance in the forest has enough shots where they’re obscured by trees and leaves that they could cut around them.