Film 5/52: Excalibur (1981)


An early-80s film that I have not seen since the dawn of home video, and had very little memory of, Excalibur is John Boorman's exploration of the King Arthur legend. While it's a bit of a slow burn, by the time it was over I was quite satisfied with it. It perhaps took me a little too long to warm to Nigel Terry's Arthur, but I was immediately captivated by Nicol Williamson's Merlin and Helen Mirren's Morgana, who have some great interactions late in the film. And it was fun to see Patrick Stewart and Liam Neeson in early film roles. I was also quite fond of Cherie Lunghi as Guenevere. Her filmography appears to be comprised of predominantly TV work, but she has turned up in several films that I've seen before and may need to revisit (including The Mission and Kenneth Branagh's Mary Shelley's Frankenstein).

Vonna was taken aback by how often she felt that Month Python and the Holy Grail (1975) must have been inspired by the film, despite my constant reminders that their take on the Arthur legend preceded this one by five years. Still, it makes one appreciate the effort the Python's went to in their storytelling.

It's interesting to think that this film not only came out the same year as George Romero's Knightriders (and was responsible for that film changing its name from Knights, which was a working title for Excalibur at one point), but on the same day. They make for a very unique pairing, though I will always be partial to Romero's epic. 

It was nice to experience Excalibur on a big screen in surround sound, which really kicks in as the film goes on (there were moments where atmospheric noises in the surrounds had me looking over my shoulder). One scene in particular really engages the subwoofer, shaking the theater and effectively supporting the visuals onscreen. I'm glad I chose to watch it as part of this series.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Three Musketeers/The Four Musketeers/Return of the Musketeers (1973/1974/1989)

Image
In a coincidental tribute to Raquel Welch following her passing a few weeks back, over the course of a few nights we watched  The Three Musketeers ,  The  Four Musketeers , and Return of the Musketeers  in The Slaughtered Lamb.  The first two films were shot as a single feature, and subsequently split and released a year apart (much to the chagrin of cast and crew members who were paid for a single film!), with the third film reuniting the cast and director fifteen years later. Produced by the Salkind's (who would go on to produce the original Superman films a few years later), and directed by Richard Lester (who was responsible for the classic Beatles films A Hard Day's Night and Help! ), I will admit that I went in with pretty high expectations. In retrospect, coming from the Salkinds I think I was looking for the tale of the Three Musketeers by way of Richard Donner (director of the original Superman and far too many great films to list here), rather than Richard Lester (
Read more

Film 49/52: Warlords of Atlantis (1978)

Image
Growing up, Doug McClure was a staple of weekday afternoon television thanks to three Amicus Studios fantasy films he starred in based on the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs ( The Land That Time Forgot , The People That Time Forgot , and my favorite,  At the Earth's Core , in which he starred opposite Peter Cushing and Caroline Munro). I was surprised years later to discover that he did a fourth fantasy film (not for Amicus, and from an original screenplay), Warlords of Atlantis . I've had a copy in the library for years, but after showing Vonna the trailer (which showcases several of the films interesting creatures), we selected this one for our 'W' film. McClure is the creator of a diving bell helping a scientist and his son interested in finding the lost city of Atlantis. On their first dive, they're attacked by a sea creature, and after a narrow escape they find a golden statue — an artifact of Atlantis. The ship is attacked by a giant octopus, and several of the
Read more

Film 7/52: The Green Slime (1968)

Image
We've been singing The Green Slime theme song around The Slaughtered Lamb since first considering this as our 'G' entry in the 52 Pick-Up (if you've got an Amazon Echo, ask Alexa to play "The Green Slime"). That may have been one of the reasons why Vonna ultimately decided she could sit this one out, so I was left to face the green slime all on my own. I had a vague awareness that the film was a Japanese co-production, but I wasn't aware that it featured no Japanese actors in the cast! It does have the hallmarks of my favorite Japanese sci-fi films of the era, including cool (if not convincingly filmed) miniature ships and sets, and rubber men-in-suit monsters. Years later, director Kinji Fukasaku would go on to direct the Battles Without Honor and Humanity series (which I have yet to see), and his final film was the very influential adaptation of the novel  Battle Royale . The Green Slime setup is this — an asteroid (Flora) is on a collision course wi
Read more