Excalibur

Rating:
Summary: great film
Review: This is one of the great films of the last 20 years, and my favourite. For some reason it is not as well known as it should be. For me it should be in the top ten films of all time.
For Americans I would like to say that all the accents in the film are English, maybe apart from Liam Neeson.
We do not all speak like Hugh Grant. The range of accents in England are far more deverse than anything you would find in America. Maybe this is not the most important issue but I thought I would set the record straight.

Rating:
Summary: Wow!
Review: I never get tired of this movie. It's the best celluloid Arthurian adaptation.

Rating:
Summary: Great movie, wish the DVD had some extras
Review: As a budget DVD, I suppose I shouldn't complain. This was one of the first movies I upgraded when I bought my DVD player. However, the only thing that makes this DVD better than the VHS is that you can see it in widescreen format.

COnsidering many think this is the penultimate King Arthur movie, I would hope that someday the studio would put together a special edition DVD with a few more extras.

Rating:
Summary: An interpretation not a mirror of the legend.
Review: As an ardent and well-read fan of the legends about King Arthur, I looked forward to watching this movie because it came with glowing credential of being the best retelling of the Arthurian legends. I was very disappointed. Certainly the main lines of the Arthurian legends of Malory are there - the sword in the stone, Arthur's rise and fall, the wizard Merlin and the sorceress Morgana, Lancelot's affection for Queen Guinevere, the arrival of Percival, and the quest for the holy grail. That's the good part.

Now for the bad part. The producer has woven these aspects together in a way that departs from the original legend (for instance, he suggests a different origin for the round table). Arthur is presented as arrogant and at times foolish, and his pride and rage are more dominant than his virtues. Merlin and Morgana are presented as fellow necromancers, and Merlin in particular is presented as a very dark figure with dark magic. Unlike the original legends, where the lines between good and evil are very distinct, the lines are blurred: The movie serves up a darker Arthur and Merlin and a brighter Morgana than Malory. In the original legend, the notion of the grail is completely religious, but the Christian symbolism of the grail which dominates in Malory is clinically excised from the movie, and replaced with the dominance of Merlin's sinister dark magic and his dragon. The charming chivalry and virtues of Malory's knights are largely absent.

In the end, the brightness of Arthur's kingdom and his virtuous knights has been exchanged for a more realistic picture and dark magic. The costumes look like space-suits, and the size of Arthur's army and his battles lacks the scope and grandeur of the original tales. Although the language is decent, the gratuitous violence and sex which gave the movie its R rating are not described as graphically in the original legends as they are portrayed in the movie. Of course, if you enjoy all of this, it's great. But if you're looking for something that captures the essence and glory of the original legends, you'll be sadly disappointed. Despite its high billing, true fans of the Arthurian legends will probably want to give this one a miss.

Rating:
Summary: Great Movie
Review: This movie has always fascinated me. It deals with wizards, magic, betrayal, loyalty, deceit, incest, love & lostsa deaths.
The scenery and costumes and the knights of the round table and their quest for the holy grail takes you into the middle ages like no other movie, that I have seen, takes you.
It is truly a wonderfully made movie and the story is so intriguing. It holds your attention till the very end.
Excellent movie.

Rating:
Summary: A classic movie with a great sound track
Review: I like everything about Excalibur...the sound track, the story, the battles. Everything seems just as it should be, plus a little bit better. It's a must see for anyone interested in sword and sorcery type movies. It is one of the best ever made. Even the armor is very cool. I have yet to see a movie that used as much chrome plated plate mail!
There are tons of good books that would interrest a person who likes Excalibur. Lord of the rings, Abacar the Wizard, and The Mists of Avalon to name a few.

Rating:
Summary: Beautifully Dark, Rich, and Sensuous
Review: This is a retelling of the Arthurian legend, with a heavy emphasis on the black magic, the tragedy, the plots and counter-plots, the power issues, the treachery, and the sensuality.

This is a bold, dark, and unflinching rendition of the Arthurian legend, with stark portrayals of rape, pillage, murder, and betrayal. Given the actual historical period of the story, these dark aspects of the film probably make it more "realistic" or, at least, period-true, than most Camelot-type stories. This is darkly beautiful but not for the squeamish. There is a tremendous amount of action in the film, and much of it is shown very close up; this gives the fight scenes a sense of realism (you feel like you're right in the middle of it) but can also make the scenes confusing, as you do not get to see the bigger picture. However, that actually fits the reality of battles and violence: the people involved often see only a little piece of what is going on, and what they see just looks like mildly organized chaos.

"Excalibur" lets viewers see the early work of actors like Gabriel Byrne, Liam Neeson, and Patrick Stewart (with lots of hair). With all their costumes, armor, and grubbiness, however, it is a challenge to recognize people mainly by their voices.

In case I had not made it clear by implication already, this film's R rating is not a joke; this is a movie with intense violence and very sexual scenes, with a strong sense of reality to it.

Rating:
Summary: Sacred Myth
Review: My favorite film of all time. I have lost count of the number of times that I have seen it since it was first released in the theaters. Everytime I watch it, it seems that I realise a new level of meaning; every time I watch it it restoreth my soul- like the grail itself. The use of an Arthur with an Irish accent was brilliant- after all, the original Arthur was a Celtic Briton, not a Saxon oaf or a Norman thief... This film contains the central myths of Western man- sacred myths.

Rating:
Summary: realism and magic seamlessly blended
Review: Excalibur weaves a dark and mystical vision of magic through a grimly realistic story of medieval war. The result is totally engrossing. Watching this movie, you will lose yourself in the story of Arthur as never before. The video quality on the DVD is exceptional, and does justice to the lush cinematography.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Work
Review: In the movie "Finding Forrester" Sean Connery talks about what the absolute best moment of writing a book is: "When you finish the first draft and you read it before these - and I believe the term is - "as holes" get their hands on it and tear something down that they couldn't do in a lifetime."

I believe the same goes for most works of art - swarogkrakus hello?

Don't listen to "want-to-bees" see this movie and enjoy the ride!