Word: excalibur
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HERE INBOSTON, the most intriguing thing about John Boorman's Excalibur--the new film version of the legend of King Arthur--is that it's playing at the same theater as Star Wars: because, if not for Star Wars, there probably wouldn't be any Excalibur. Art doesn't exist in a vacuum, shielded from social forces, and in this country, cinema--perhaps, the most commercial of all art forms--is controlled by money. Studios, not artists, for the most part, determine cinematic trends by what will sell. To capture audiences, they try to identify some vague "national mood," exploiting...
...between Luke Skywalker and Arthur, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Merlin, etc.) and it seemed only a matter of time until a major studio would turn to an original tale and package it as a suped-up blockbuster. Whatever the social or corporate logic behind its conception. Boorman has made Excalibur an exhilirating, hugely entertaining film...
...mist covered in black robes, his head adorned with a glistening silver skull cap. Uther (Gabriel Byrne), boldest of the knights--soon-to-be father of Arthur--hacks through the earnage and calls out to Merlin "I must be King! I must have that sword! I must have Excalibur!" Merlin cackles "In time, Uther, in time." It's a marvelous seene. It promises L'Mort d'Arthur as grand pulp melodrama, with the perfect mixture of Marvel Comies and subtle satire...
...Marian, but he passes persuasively from innocence to kingship to the realization that immortality can be won only through a fatal joust with his son and slayer. Cherie Lunghi too closely resembles a Covent Garden flower child to bring Guenevere to mature life, but her callow modernity wreathes Excalibur in later ideals of post-courtly love. Nicholas Clay makes an athletic Lancelot: he could be a dashing soldier of fortune or a knight in stainless steel...
...time has come again in the post-Christian 20th century; it is fitting, then, that Williamson expresses both the juicy effluence of hoary ham acting and the quizzical underplaying of the Method. His Merlin is also a perfect avatar of the sorcerer behind the camera. Love Excalibur or hate it, but give Boorman credit for the loopy grandeur of his imagery and imaginings, for the sweet smell of excess, for his heroic gamble that a movie can dare to trip over its pretensions- and still fly. -By Richard Corliss