EXCALIBUR

Like his masterful cinematic head-trip Zardoz, John Boorman’s EXCALIBUR plays by its own set of rules. The epic medieval tale reimagines Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur as a glistening collection of ornate iconography, deconstructing familiar characters and references to create a fantastical hyper-realized version of medieval folklore. The rise of King Arthur (Nigel Terry), the meddling of Merlin the Magician (Nicol Wiliamson), and the dark influence of Morgana the Witch (Helen Mirren) are not just plot points, but powerful swoons of emotional transition churning a half-remembered version of history. The one constant in Boorman’s nightmarish renaissance fair is the sword Excalibur, a dual reflector of man’s endless potential and crippling ego. The weapon’s double-edged prowess becomes EXCALIBUR’s thematic sledgehammer, a trigger for ideological and social shifts seeped in stylized melodrama. EXCALIBUR is a staggering achievement of exaggerated artifice, dismantling the Arthur legend one invigorating aesthetic swipe at a time.