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Excalibur
1981 - R - 2:23
Warner Home Video
Fantasy
Directed by John Boorman
Starring:
Nigel Terry
Helen Mirren
Nicholas Clay
Cherie Lunghi
Paul Geoffrey
and Nicol Williamson
The legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table receives its most impressive screen treatment in Excalibur, from visionary moviemaker John Boorman (Deliverance, The Emerald Forest). All the elements of Sir Thomas Malory's classic Le Morte Darthur are here: Arthur (Nigel Terry) removing Excalibur from the stone; the Round Table's noble birth and tragic decline; the heroic attempts to recover the Holy Grail; and the wizard Merlin (Nicol Williamson) and sorceress Morgana (Helen Mirren), medieval alchemists who wield the powers of nature - and must yield to a new age of logic and science. Patrick Stewart, Gabriel Byrne and Liam Neeson lend strong presences in early screen roles here. Excalibur serves up "one lush, enraptured scene after another", The New Yorker's Pauline Kael wrote. "It's as if Boorman were guiding us down a magic corridor and kept parting the curtains in front of us."
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