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RE: casting...

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In Reply to: RE: Boorman's Excalibur, very polarized reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, what do you think? posted by PhilJ on September 22, 2013 at 08:58:23

The cast contained some actors yet to gain fame/notoriety at that time, but did in later years.
Liam Neeson
Helen Mirren
Patrick Stewart
Gabriel Byrne (to name a few)
And it contained some actors destined to remain obscure.
I thought the directing/acting with regard to Lancelot was over the top and just plain bad. Bad taste. Bad acting.
And the betrayal scenes re: Lancelot / Guinnevere were also overdone.
Nigel Terry as King Arthur seemed mis-cast. A light weight actor in this role. ....'did not carry it.
Nicole williamson as Merlin was bad. At times trying to inject a sense of comedy, and failing. At other times he just looked and acted wierd. When you think of the mythological character Merlin, this actor in this role does not come to mind. Ian Mackellan (from Fellowship of the Ring,as Gandolf the Grey)would have been an exceptional Merlin.
On the other hand I thought the film had good atmospherics conducive to imagining what these Dark Age times may have been like to live through. And the musical score was good. I thought that the opening scene with Siegfried's Funeral March as the background score was involving.
An uneven movie. Not completely bad. Perhaps mostly bad. And memorable for me as a disappointment.
-Steve

Edits: 09/22/13 09/22/13

Follow Ups:

RE: just to re-acquaint myself....... - user510 11:19:24 09/29/13 (0)
I watched the dvd of Excaliber last night. Or at least 3/4ths of it. And, having refreshed my memory of the film, I must now amend some of my criticisms of it.
re: set design. Merlin's "crystal cave" was nicely imagined in this movie. A very elaborate, extravagant and beautiful set was provided for the scenes in the movie. Particularly in the scene where Morgan Le Fay traps Merlin in the cave.
The Lancelot/Guinnevere scenes were not as badly done as I had previously remembered. It seemed as if these star-crossed lovers were drawn to one another like magnets. No matter how well they knew the consequences of this betrayal to the King, they simply could not prevent themselves from a lustful calamity.
Then Morgan gets her lair, a castle in parts of the country where brave men go to be hung by the neck, slowly, while the crows pick out their eyeballs. But this is where Morgan Le Fay, Arthur's half sister, raises Arthur's illegitimate son, her son, Mordred. Mordred grows up thinking it is his mission in life to replace his father as the 'great king'.
There are more scenes after this worth recounting, but I probably should not spoil all the main bits of this movie.
Anyway, acting by the entire cast is stiffly borne and shouted out. The demeanor of most of the knights in this movie is savage and animal-like. True barbarians, the entire lot. I'd have thought that in consideration of the times, the Roman occupation that had just ended a generation or two previously -would have / might have- taught at least some of these Brits a bit of culture. Plus, even the Celtic tribes that preceded the Roman occupation would have had more dignity and civilized bearing than do these brutes. Oh well. It's just one vision of the myth.
Then again, it does follow closely the fantasy retelling by Malory*. A book I read in my adolescence with great interest. And on reflection it has much in common with some of the comic books I also read. Pure fantasy.

-Steve

*.... Le Morte D' Arthur, Sir Thomas Malory

Edits: 09/29/13
I also wished for different Arthur - Jon L 16:24:43 09/23/13 (0)
Nigel Terry just didn't do it for me, as there was no subtlety in the acting. He seemed to be shouting and acting like he was on a playhouse stage; then again, he was mainly a theatre actor. Ian Mackellen as Merlin would have been great I imagine, and with these two roles with different cast, the movie could have been a true classic..

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