A Kingdom Built on Desire and Decay

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MOVIE REVIEWS
Excalibur [Limited Edition]
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Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Year Released: 1981, Arrow Video 4K 2026
Runtime: 2h 21m
Director(s): John Boorman
Writer(s): John Boorman, Rospo Pallenberg, Thomas Malory
Cast: Nigel Terry, Helen Mirren, Nicol Williamson, Liam Neeson, Gabriel Byrne
Where to Watch: available now, order your copy here: www.arrowvideo.com, www.mvdshop.com, or www.amazon.com

RAVING REVIEW: What does power look like when it’s born from hunger rather than wisdom, and what happens when the myth built to sustain it can no longer hold? EXCALIBUR presents a film that isn’t just an adventure but also a warning, and it never fully lets go of that tension. This isn’t a comforting tale of destiny fulfilled. It is a feverish, often abrasive retelling of the Arthurian legend that treats myth as something volatile, unstable, and deeply human.

John Boorman’s approach to the story is aggressively uninterested in subtlety. EXCALIBUR compresses generations of legend into a single, relentless forward march, barreling from Uther Pendragon’s lust-driven conquest to Arthur’s rise, fall, and spiritual exhaustion. It’s disorganized, overloaded, and frequently restless, but it is also singular in its commitment to the idea that myth should feel overwhelming. This isn’t fantasy as escape. It is fantasy as excess, contradiction, and ethical rot.

The film’s structure almost dares the viewer to keep up. Entire arcs are introduced, explored, and abandoned in minutes. Characters enter the story fully formed, only to be discarded once their symbolic function has served its purpose. Arthur’s court rises with astonishing speed, achieves a brief golden age, and collapses under the weight of betrayal before it has time to feel persistent. That breakneck pacing can feel disorienting, particularly in the latter half, where the Grail quest arrives with little groundwork. Thematically, it makes sense, but dramatically, it strains the film’s already overloaded spine. An almost 2 ½-hour-long film that packs about 12 hours of content.

What keeps EXCALIBUR from collapsing under its own ambition is how meticulously it ties the kingdom's fate to the king's failures. Arthur isn’t portrayed as a misunderstood hero undone by circumstance. He’s often shown as weak, proud, and slow to recognize the damage his inaction causes. The idea that the land and the ruler are inseparable, that sickness in one manifests in the other, becomes the film’s most potent throughline. When Arthur falters, the world quite literally rots around him.

Nigel Terry’s performance leans into that arc without softening it. His depiction of Arthur begins as a boy overwhelmed by power, briefly matures into something resembling a leader, and then withers under the weight of betrayal and disillusionment. Terry’s physicality changes in subtle but effective ways, particularly in the final act, where Arthur seems diminished even before the script tells us.

If Arthur embodies collapse, Merlin represents memory, inevitability, and the slow fading of truths. Nicol Williamson delivers one of the most idiosyncratic performances in fantasy cinema, playing Merlin as something impatient and faintly amused by humanity’s inability to learn. His spoken delivery alone gives the character an unsettling authority, and the film wisely allows him to drift in and out of the narrative rather than anchoring him as a constant presence. Merlin understands the cost of power long before Arthur does, and his eventual withdrawal feels less like defeat than resignation.

Helen Mirren’s Morgana is where EXCALIBUR becomes most uncomfortable, and also most revealing. Her descent into manipulation and vengeance is framed as both personal grievance and ideological rebellion. She’s a product of the same corruption that poisons Camelot, but the film never fully examines the gendered dynamics that shape her fate. The result is a character who is compelling in isolation but underdeveloped in context, reduced at times to an embodiment of male fear rather than a fully articulated counterforce.

EXCALIBUR remains visually stunning even decades later. The gleaming armor, dense fog, and heightened color palette create a world that feels closer to a hallucination than any historical reconstruction. The Irish landscapes are transformed into something mythic and almost unearthly, and the film’s refusal to focus on realism allows it to operate on symbolic logic rather than physical plausibility.

EXCALIBUR remains one of the most daring large-scale fantasy films ever made. It refuses to simplify myth into digestible heroics, instead presenting it as something contradictory, cruel, and intoxicating. Its beauty is inseparable from its ugliness, and its ambition often exceeds its discipline. But that imbalance is part of what gives the film its lasting power.

This new Arrow Video 4K restoration only sharpens that legacy. The increased clarity reveals just how intentional Boorman’s visual choices were, from the diffused glow of daylight to the oppressive weight of shadowed interiors. The film’s tactile qualities, mud, steel, blood, and stone, feel more present than ever, reinforcing the sense that this is a legend built on physical consequence rather than abstract morality.

EXCALIBUR doesn’t offer comfort, closure, or easy reverence for its subject. It treats the Arthurian legend as a cautionary cycle, one that repeats because humanity insists on repeating it. That refusal to romanticize its own mythology is what ultimately elevates the film beyond genre trappings. It may stumble under the weight of its own ambition, but it never lacks conviction, and that makes it endure.

Bonus Materials:
3-DISC 4K ULTRA HD LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS
Brand new 4K restoration from the original 35mm negative by Arrow Films, presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.66:1 for the first time on home video
Contains both the 141-minute Theatrical Cut and the 120-minute TV Version of the film
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Reversible sleeve featuring two original artwork options
Collectors’ perfect-bound booklet containing writing by Charlie Brigden, K.A. Laity, Kimberly Lindbergs, Josh Nelson, Philip Kemp, John Reppion, Icy Sedgwick, and Jez Winship
Double-sided fold-out poster featuring two original artwork options
Six postcard-sized reproduction art cards

DISC 1 – FEATURE (4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY)
4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation of the 141-minute Theatrical Cut in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
Restored original lossless mono and DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio options
Brand new audio commentary by Brian Hoyle, author of The Cinema of John Boorman
Brand new audio commentary by filmmaker David Kittredge, director of Boorman and the Devil
Archive audio commentary by director John Boorman

DISC 2 – EXTRAS (BLU-RAY)
The Making of Excalibur: Myth into Movie, a never-before-released 48-minute documentary directed by Neil Jordan during the production of Excalibur
To Be a Knight and Follow a King, a newly filmed interview with director John Boorman and actor Charley Boorman
When Death Was but a Dream, a newly filmed interview with creative associate Neil Jordan
The Charm of Making, a newly filmed interview with production designer Anthony Pratt
Confessions of a Professional “Pain-in-the-ass”, a newly filmed interview with 2nd unit director Peter MacDonald
Anam Cara, a new featurette on the working friendship of John Boorman and co-writer Rospo Pallenberg, featuring a newly filmed interview with Pallenberg
Divided Nature, a brand new featurette by film historians Howard S. Berger and Kevin Marr
Trailers
Image galleries

DISC 3 – BONUS (LIMITED EDITION EXCLUSIVE BLU-RAY)
High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation of the 120-minute TV Version of the film, previously unavailable on home video
Original lossless mono audio
Excalibur: Behind the Movie, a 50-minute retrospective documentary in which cast and crew look back on the making of the film

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[photo courtesy of ARROW VIDEO, MVD ENTERTAINMENT]

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