Review of Excalibur (1981) by Andrew T — 15 May 2009

Meh. I liked the 1998 TV Merlin better. It wasn't perfect but it told the story far less clumsily. I will admit that this one was nicely gritty, with several scenes of knights limping around in the mud after each other in heavy armor. On the other hand, sometimes those knights were so clumsy they couldn't even convincingly hit each other, so it came off as kinda fake looking. Let's get into some characters: This Merlin was overplayed with a lame speaking style; he reminded me of Gowron to be honest (a brilliant wizard should not remind you of a Klingon). He was also tricked too easily - it's fine that he WAS tricked, but when Morgan broadcasts her evilness so obviously (again, this probably speaks to the acting and writing telling the story with no subtlety), this supposedly great wizard should not be trapped as easily as he was. Later he ALMOST gets his revenge as a pretty cool shadowy dream phantom, but then his revenge is...to make her spout fog and get older? I understand that this eventually "caused" Mordred to strangle her to death, but that made so little sense that I don't think it counts. Speaking of Mordred, he was way too stiff, I would've preferred to see some focused malice as in the TV version. Plus his helmet was really feminine. Which brings us to Arthur. The young Arthur was extremely bumbling - he wanders around looking for his brother's sword and casually pulls Excalibur out, with little drama or excitement. He's totally blithe about it but at the same time he knows what the sword is - he actually says "hey look, here's Excalibur!" Yet somehow does not realize that psst, it's kind of a big deal that you just did that. Plus Nigel Terry looks like some village idiot without a beard. Later Arthur is a bit better (once he grows his beard), but he's irrationally immature when he fights Lancelot, just to beat us over the head with a point about Excalibur. The high point I would say, though, was one of his lines near the end: "I've lived through others for too long. Lancelot carried my honor, and Guinevere my guilt. Mordred bore my sins; my knights have fought my causes. Now, my brother, I shall be: King." Nice summation of the tragedy of it all. His brother Kay was cool, though minor - funny in a nice dumb jock kind of way (his reaction to his brother being declared King: "hey Arthur, I picked out a horse for you!") in the beginning, and sticking by him through the decades to become a loyal knight and advisor.

Overall, too rough and clumsy to get too much credit from me. There were many times writing this that I had to restrain myself from going off topic talking about how the TV one was so much better. I think I'll end with one final thought. If Holy Grail had been made after this - especially the Black Knight fight, the Bridge of Doom, the talk with God, and the peasants digging in the muck - I would've thought it was CLEARLY inspired by Excalibur.