I was in elementary school when this movie first hit HBO in the early eighties. I was already a huge fan of King Arthur, and the Epic story. Heck, I am a Star Wars kid after all, and I liked my young heroes wielding swords while being trained by a wizard and accompanied by a rogue, living in the shadow of his father who destroyed the kingdom. I eat that kind of story for breakfast. And, add a young Gabriel Byrne, Patrick Stewart, Liam Neeson hanging out in shiny silver plate-mail and it's truly what legends are made of.

        

The movie follows King Arthur from the events leading up to his birth through his death. It tells the stories of many of the Knights of the Round Table like Merlin, Lancelot and Guinevere, Percival, Bors, and Galahad are all included. The movie was filmed in the castles of Ireland, and many of the images created by Boorman in the movie could easily have been paintings, they were so beautiful. When I finally read Le Morte d'Arthur in college, I already was familiar with many of the stories. It is a very accurate recount of the stories that make up the Knights of the Round Table, and all the legends that accompany Arthur's story.


One of the most important little facts of this movie is its use of music. This was the first movie to use Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, or as some may call it O'Fortuna. That's right, this was its first use in a movie, and it began a long history of this song appearing in many movies and trailers to the point of becoming a cliché. Because I was so young when I saw it, the song stuck in my head for years and it wasn't until it started appearing in so many movie trailers that I flashed back to seeing this movie as a kid, and remembered how good it was.


Its total run time is about 2:45 so it takes it's time telling the story. It's not for a 3rd grader, like I was when I first saw it. I was such a fan of knight in shining armor stories that I waited until I had a babysitter over to watch it, not knowing or caring that that it is terribly violent, with a questionable sex scene. However, it is a thorough look at the importance of Arthur and his rule. Fictional or not, it is a wonderful story. The King Arthur legend is what the Lord of the Rings, and Star Wars were based on. Boorman's version is far far far superior to any First Knight, Knight's Tale, or King Arthur put together (Note: Monty Python's Holy Grail isn't in this list, however that's because it is also an accurate depiction of much of Mallory's story and is in a league of its own), if for nothing more than the glory, beauty and horror of what it was to be a knight of the Round Table. The production value is so much better than any recent depiction of this story that it's almost embarrassing to the newer versions that they even tried to complete a movie on this subject when Boorman's Excalibur is out there. Python's version is the only one that can compete because it's a comedy, whereas the rest just weren't up to speed with the grace and beauty or the sword, known as Excalibur.