#11 Excalibur (1981)
really nice movie to look at, i especially have to praise the constant harsh green light illuminating every other shot and the armor polished to such a mirror sheen you can sometimes see the film crew in its reflection. i really enjoyed the costuming work as well, especially morgans clothes. its very much anachronistic in its clothing and set design, but its kind of a running tradition of arthurian fiction that people just make shit up. beardsley wasnt drawing accurate 6-14th (pick your own canonical period that arthur existed in) armor either and yet everyone loved him.
unfortunately it was kind of cursed by the task of having to adapt the entire story of king arthur in a 2hr20 movie so it rushes some segments and makes others feel longer than they should be which will disappoint every arthuriana fan with a favorite boy who just didnt show up. the named knight list has been whittled down to only lancelot (of lake fame), gawain, kay and percival who doubles his role as bedivere because we dont have TIME to introduce all these MEN. mordred also gets born and is a baby in one scene and then magically gets aged up to go declare war so we dont get a round table mordred arc. absolutely embarrassing to see for any real mordredhead.
merlins performance is a shocking highlight of the movie and he adds some unexpected comedy to the first half before he gets trapped in a crystal forever. usually id be cheering for his downfall. the second half ends up being more of a slog because things get serious and the film just doesnt feel like it had the momentum to carry that and mordred lacked the charisma necessary to really make an impact. the comedic fumbling in the dirt as combat really works in the first half but is kind of hard to take with any sense of gravitas.
still a great movie to watch just for the visuals and being an arthuriana retelling that cares at least a little about the works its inspired by. i bet you could get hundreds of notes if you posted screenshots of it on tumblr
