Any "Excalibur" fans out there?

I love the way that "The Dragon" and "The Force" are really the same thing, a kind of elemental power of nature.

 

[image=http://dandalf.com/dandalf/excalmerl1.gif]

 

"Careful! It can damage your beauty.....alas......"

"But the power! The joy!"
"Moments! Fleeting moments...."

"Mordred bore my sins, and Guinevere my guilt. Lancelot carried my honour, my knights have fought my causes. Now, my brother, I shall be....King!"

"Where hides evil, then, in my kingdom?"
"Always...where you never expect it. Always."

"There are other worlds. This one is done with me."

"What then? To kill and be king? Is that all??"
"Perhaps not even that."
"You strike me with words (harder than steel?)"
"You betrayed the Duke. You stole his castle. You took his wife. Now no one trusts you. You're not the one, Uther."

"A dream to some....A NIGHTMARE TO OTHERS!!

 

Arhtur: Which is the greatest quality of knighthood? Courage? Compassion? Loyalty? Humility? What do you say, Merlin?

Merlin: What? The greatest? They blend together like the metals we mix to make a good sword.

Arthur: I didn't ask for poetry. Just a straight answer. Which is it?

Merlin: All right. Truth. It must be truth, above all. When a man lies he murders some part of the world.

~~

Arthur: Tell me, Merlin: have we defeated evil?

Merlin: Good and evil; there is never one without the other.

Arthur: Where hides evil, then, in my kingdom?

Merlin: Always...where you least expect it. Always...


Edit: Btw I wasn't aware that the actor who played Lancelot, Nicholas Clay, died in 2000 from cancer.

[image=http://dandalf.com/dandalf/NicholasClay.jpg]
Nicholas Anthony Phillip Clay, actor, born September 18, 1946; died May 25, 2000

"My domain is here, inside this metal skin. And I would pledge to you all that I still own: muscle, bone, blood and the heart that pumps it."


*bows head

 

"My salvation is to die a knight of the Round Table."

 

*also bows head at news of Nicholas Clay's death*

" I will love you always. I will love you as my queen, and as the wife of my best friend. And while you live, I will love no other. "


HC

 

Merlin: This is the moment that you must face at last, to be king alone.

Arthur: And you, old friend? Will I see you again?

Merlin: No. There are other worlds. This one is done with me. That's it.


Ok let's not turn this into a depressing thread.

Anyone notice that the Round Table looks like a giant DVD?
[image=http://dandalf.com/dandalf/Picture5.gif]

 

The best telling of the Arthurian legend on film.
"Love is deaf as well as blind."- That line cracks me up every time.

 

A giant DVD with a Celtic circle in the middle.

 

Check out this script of Excalibur.

I'm damn glad they changed nearly all the Merlin dialogue, since he comes across as pretty ridiculous in the script (giggling all the time? WTF??)

 

Wow! Good find, Commander! Yeah I'm glad Merlin's " boys will be boys " line didn't make it into the film.

Something that has bugged me about this movie though is that Kay just kind of disappears in the end. You really don't see him get killed. He's fighting at the end, then the next thing you know, its down to Arthur and Perceval. I always thought he deserved a heroic, onscreen death. he was such an important character, especially to Arthur, in this story. He's not the bumbling idiot like he is in "The Sword And The Stone. " And he's with Arthur from the beginning. What gives?

long live KAY!!!!

HC

 

Another thought:

Anyone that has extensively read the Arthur legends will notice that Excalibur's "Perceval" is actually a combination of the Gareth, Perceval, and Galahad characters. Maybe even with a little Bedivere thrown in. Very clever. Good writing.

HC

 

Check out the Dandalf site for Excalibur information.

The bit about the Charm of Making was interesting. Kudos to Boorman for making a charm that actually meant something in the original language and fits with the film themes (which is spoken in Old Irish, not Latin, which I always thought it was until now).

In Old Irish
Anál nathrach, orth' bháis's bethad, do chél dénmha

In Modern Irish:
Anáil nathrach, ortha bháis is beatha, do chéal déanaimh

In English:
Serpent's breath, charm of death and life, thy omen of making.



And I hereby declare this the best thread of 2002 so far.

 

All this talk of it made me want to watch it again last night- so I did! Ah the splendor of DVD... That movie only gets better.

 

Speaking of learning something, I had no idea John Boorman's kids were all over the movie! I knew young Mordred was Boorman's son, but I didn't know about Ygraine and the Lady of the Lake.

 

If you have the DVD, listen to the commentary, he talks all about that in there.

 

I knew about his kids playing young Mordred and Igraine, but not the Lady of the Lake too.

 

[image=http://dandalf.com/dandalf/Picture3j.gif] [image=http://dandalf.com/dandalf/Picture3k.gif] [image=http://dandalf.com/dandalf/Picture5j.gif] [image=http://dandalf.com/dandalf/Picture6k.gif]

"Renewed shall be blade that was broken
The crownless again shall be king"

 

Aragorn son of Arathorn with Anduril vs. Arthur son of Uther with Excalibur...hmm....

Anyways, Excalibur has to be one of the greatest movies ever made. Acted very well, beautifully shot. Too bad they didn't have all that many extras on set, all the battles seem to have been fought with about 20 men on each side. I guess that's why they were all(save the fight at Leondragance's castle) at night or under cover of fog...

 

Excalibur was made during the days when a man was a man and a computer was a calculator(or an Atari 2600). I've never had a problem with the number of extras. That's kind of reaching if you ask me.

 

The first time I saw Excalibur I thought it was O.K, but then I saw it again a few months later and it was like seeing a completly different film, because I thought it was brilliant second time round.
Don't know if this has been mentioned, but apparantly John Boorman was going to make Lord of the Rings many years ago, but it didn't happen either because the rights were not available or the studio deemed it to be too expensive. And I'm not sure if he decided to make Excalibur instead. Does anyone know about this?
Also, 'Camelot' is also a very good film, I recommend it. Visually stunning, especially for a film done in the sixties.