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Excalibur DVD
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Rating: - Perfect and Definitive!
I just saw this film again last night. I first saw it years ago as a teenager and it had a great impact on me then but I can say that with repeated viewings I have extracted more.

Essentially this film is really well crafted. I have to confess that I have not read Sir Thomas Mallory's "La Morte d'Arthur" upon which this film is supposedly largely based but it seems to me that Boorman has threaded together a number of themes of medieval and dark age literature with seamless ease.
King Arthur is, in fact, Siegfried, King Marke and Amfortas (from the Parzifal legend) wrapped into one. This is beautifully expounded by the adoption of effective musical motifs taken from Richard Wagner's mature operas: Gotterdammerung (Siegfried's funeral march), Tristan und Isolde (prelude), Parsifal (prelude). Boorman, in particular, uses the music from Siegfried's funeral march to symbolize the triumph that is Arthur's life as courageous, then noble, then forgiving King - in the manner of the three characters for which he is an effective amalgam. He uses the death motif at the beginning of Siegfried's funeral march during dramatic moments and Wotan's doom prophecy motif for certain isolated moments with Merlin - yes, Merlin here is Wotan according to the use of Wagner's motif but it is particularly fitting.

Of course, the nature of the nordic myths is such that there is a great deal of overlap among the various heroes and Gods and the likes so that one character from one myth is often based on a character from another. It is also the case that many of the myths do get interwoven into some great saga thereafter - think Tolkein's Ring and think Wagner's Ring based essentially on the same sources. What is great about Excalibur is that the integration of the myths is pretty fluid throughout and the central thread is the progression through Arthur's life from naive squire to wise and weary King.

Many other themes are covered here - the wound that will not heal (Lancelot as Tristan - note Wagner linked Tristan to Amfortas so this is fitting here), Perceval (read Parsifal) is the innocent fool who procures the grail to redeem Arthur (Amfortas).
Guinevere is both Isolde and Elsa who is championed by Lohengrin (again read Lancelot here). It's all in there and it's very smooth.

Okay, apart from the excellent integration of manifold myth accompanied to the lush musical Wagnerian tapestries, you have great cinematography throughout - this is how to do myth!
The acting is also top notch - you have young English/Irish stars such as Byrne, Stewart, Neeson, Redgrave, Williamson, Mirren - for the most part before they were particularly famous. There are a couple of really dodgy performers in there as well but the relatively minor roles do not detract from the overall effect.

This film is played as myth, the dialogue is relatively simple but often witty (in the hands of Williamson, for example), but this is exactly what myth is about. The synthesis of music, cinematography and rich drama that incorporates, as I have said, so many nordic myths render this just about the ultimate cinematic portrayal of such myth that you will ever get. It is ideal for people interested in nordic myth e.g. Nibelungenlied, Eddas, Saga of the Walsung, but it is also ideal for teenagers just interested in all the glamour of the chivalrous age - as I was at the time. Probably not for kids though since there is a lot of limb hacking in evidence. This is a symbolic myth telling that has real-world, adult symbolism and is not a children's tale of the type you will get from Tolkien, so in this respect it depends what you want but basically any normal human being should buy this - full of great emotional moments!