'Excalibur' - Classic or Dud

It's pretty much swords & sandals meets Star Wars.

Man, what the hell was up with Boorman's run of "Zardoz," "Exorcist II" and this? I know I interviewed him some time around "The General." I wish I asked him then.

I dunno but I wish he had made a lot more movies on that level of batshit.

Sword and the Sorcerer director Albert Pyun made a new fantasy joint recently which is on NF Instant. It looks execrable. Will watch.

Re: Dragonslayer besides the gloom the other thing that's crazy is the uncompromising score they got from Alex North. High modernism has seldom been allowed in fantasy film music.

I've never seen Exorcist II--is it worth a watch?

I've only ever seen Hercules on Telemundo

I had to read this three times. I wish "Hercules on Telemundo" was a real movie.

I've never seen Exorcist II--is it worth a watch?

not really

Exorcist II is a big fucking mess but it has vision to spare. And one of the best horror scores of all time from Morricone.

It's way better than Zardoz which is awesome for about an hour and then should simply be turned off.

The idea that any movie could be 'way better than Zardoz' is false.

Well, it's not better than the first half of Zardoz...

The Exorcist II trailer is amazing.

Ok ive only ever seen Exaclibur on tv in the 80s or on an old VHS copy. Wow, it looks incredible. Amazing cinematography. Terrific performance by Merlin, too. The sex/death scene is incredible. All the visual effects in this are composed really well. What a gorgeous movie. I really hate that movies no longer use color like this.

You will float on the dragon's breath!

Merlin's voice is at points like a good glass of red wine.

King Arthur freaking out in Merlin's psychedelic jungle, Merlin telling him to chill out and accidentally shooting lightning, so awesome.

Hell yeah Patrick Stewart getting medieval with a huge axe.

Merlin whispers into the horses ear.

Cool trippy pop art Jesus in the church where Arthur marries.

Rad golden dragon statue they have at the castle.

Boorman must like round tables. There's one of them in Zardoz as well.

lol, envious. wish i could see it again for the first time.

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

The last grail night has a real Jodorowsky vibe. The grail search has some homages to The Holy Mountain.

last grail knight i mean

yeah, the guy who plays percival even looks a little like jojo

The acting in this movie is so ridiculous. This scene:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipSZn5qcJds

Liam, Liam ...

Nah, this movie is everything it should be. OTT behavior in an OTT world is its raison d'etre.

Well, that's for sure. Talk about a self-fulfilling prophecy.

hella headbands in this picture

The sheer amount of sparkliness in this movie is overwhelming. Also note that Liam wears almost the same outfit (with added sparkliness) in the Clash of the Titans remake.

gets points for being made 7 years after Python

jeez, what an ass on Lancelot

some hip NYC dad brought his 9-year-old to this. haha, fuct for life.

did not recognize Arthur as Derek Jarman's Caravaggio either

I thought the older gaunt & bearded Arthur looked very similar to his Caravaggio. The Lancelot actor died quite young iirc, well in his late 40's.

The King is dead. Long live The King.

http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/may/03/nigel-terry

Also a great Caravaggio. RIP.

this is the best movie ever made

aka Boorman's Wagner mixtape - not watched it in years, but saw it a few hundred times in the 80's. It's ace.

Those hairstyles are historically inaccurate, crimpers weren't invented till the 1970s

a guy gets so horny he successfully gallops atop a mist and it's like the 50th wildest thing that happens in this movie

way funnier than monty python

without doubt the coolest Merlin in any King Arthur movie as well

without doubt the coolest Merlin in any King Arthur movie as well

It's the chrome skullcap that does it.

the Merlin actor (Nicol Williamson) was originally meant to do the seemingly cursed role that Ian McKellen eventually took in Apt Pupil. From what I can gather from imdb, first James Mason was approached for it but he shortly after died of a heart attack. Then Richard Burton was considered and died of a cerebral haemorrhage before he was approached. then Nicol Williamson (who was a boozer and smoking 80 a day at one point) is listed for the role on the abandoned Apt Pupil production!

I presume it was abandoned cos he died that year.

Might’ve mentioned this years ago upthread but Boorman’s commentary on the og dvd is great. Also, Mirren and Williamson didn’t like each other and that tension was there throughout the filming.

need to hear that commentary

boorman would be a good candidate for the "people who have figured out how to live" thread

also I assume Ned already knows about this but:

Then there are the ones that got away. The hits (such as Rocky and Alien) he turned down because the scripts left him cold. Or the passion projects he was forced to abandon. Boorman estimates that he spent more time on the films that didn’t get made than on those that did.

In the early 70s, for instance, he corresponded with JRR Tolkien about a screen adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, a full 30 years before Peter Jackson brought it safely home. Boorman wanted to shoot the whole saga as a single three-hour picture. “I saw it as this big dystopian story,” he says. “And in this house, upstairs, we papered the walls with each scene. We’d look at it, stare at it and try to get some sense out of it. And I had all sorts of solutions. I was going to cast nine- or 10-year-old boys as the hobbits. Put them in makeup; beards and things. And then dub them with adult voices.”

Jesus, I say. It would have been a disaster.

“Yeah well,” he chuckles. “It might have been.”

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/feb/13/john-boorman-you-think-the-holy-grail-is-lost-no-i-have-it-on-my-piano

so many hoofbeats