Exploring the King Arthur legend on-screen • Journal • A Magazine • , Life in canada

Over these past 44 years, Excalibur has emerged as the most essential King Arthur adaptation. Perhaps the most honest rendering of the Malory text, it opens in filth and blood. Young Gabriel Byrne (in his first film role!) plays Uther Pendragon with deep menace, his orchestrated rape of Igrayne (Katrine Boorman) as negotiated with the wizard Merlin (Nicol Williamson, incredible) the original sin that engineers peace in England. It is director John Boorman’s “But at what cost?” masterpiece. There has never been a Morgan le Fay as complex and alluring as Helen Mirren’s interpretation here.

Cameron captures the scope of Excalibur’s grandeur: “Beautiful, lush cycles of legend as elevated history, the actions of humans that ‘were’ larger than life, rising and falling through magic, revenge, lust, ambition… it looks absolutely gorgeous, with the intensely shiny metals of weaponry and armor gleaming in contrast to the muck and hewn stone and rough but vibrant nature that these noble men and women tread over. Iron and steel shine brighter than even gold. The combat is heavy and disgusting and muddy, dragging legendary heroes and wicked villains down into the dirt of human emotion and struggle. The story of one man told through the legend that surrounds him; sublime, surreal and mighty.”

Some of the films on this list feel like a reaction to an already popular Hollywood trend, but Excalibur and its success sparked a trend all its own (though Monty Python and the Holy Grail deserves credit as well). Consider the goofy, grimy sword-and-sorcerer epics that partly defined the exuberant ’80s: Conan the Barbarian, Krull, Flesh + Blood and Ladyhawke to name but a few. They all owe Excalibur a debt.