Filmmaker Zack Snyder is known for his comic book-inspired films that often combine highly stylized visuals with graphic sex and violence. It should come as no surprise, then, that Snyder’s personal favorite film is an epic fantasy with its own distinctively expressionistic visuals and more than its fair share of sex and violence: John Boorman’s Excalibur (1981). Snyder has described this condensed retelling of the legend of King Arthur as “incredibly poignant” and “the perfect meeting between movies and mythology,” and has emulated its style throughout his own filmography.
Excalibur is known for its bloody battle sequences, gorgeous cinematography, and a soundtrack that includes compositions by Richard Wagner and Carl Orff. The film is also known for boosting the careers of several British and Irish actors who would later become household names, including Ciarán Hinds, Patrick Stewart, Gabriel Byrne, and even Liam Neeson, who had a small but memorable role as the reckless but brave Sir Gawain, one of the Knights of the Round Table serving King Arthur of Camelot (Nigel Terry).
Before ‘Game of Thrones,’ There Was ‘Excalibur’
Release Date
April 10, 1981
Runtime
141 Minutes
Director
John Boorman
As the title suggests, Excalibur’s narrative centers largely on the magical sword that a young Arthur pulls from the stone, revealing his destiny to become king. But this film is no fairy tale where everyone gets to live happily ever after. Instead, the film recounts the legend in a far grittier manner, depicting Camelot and its surrounding lands as rife with illicit sex (including incest), bloody battles, rotting corpses, and shaky alliances that often end in betrayal.
Most of the film was shot on location in Ireland’s countryside, washing every outdoor shot in a grayish-green hue that’s simultaneously beautiful and melancholy. Cinephilia & Beyond describes how Boorman’s use of green gel-filtered lights “gave [the Irish countryside] a luminous, dream-like quality, especially any time the magical blade Excalibur is drawn…” The pristine greenness of the cinematography starkly contrasts with the bright redness of the copious blood that is spilled during the film’s battle scenes, visually demonstrating how the characters’ prideful and greedy tendencies corrupt the natural world. Excalibur’s gorgeous scenery and lighting earned the film an Oscar nomination for Best Cinematography (the film’s only nomination).
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While Excalibur does contain an original score by Trevor Jones, it reserves its most important scenes for pieces by two of Germany’s most acclaimed composers. In the scenes where Arthur removes the sword from the stone and first assembles his Knights of the Round Table, the soundtrack rather ironically marks both occasions with “Siegfried’s Funeral March” from Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen (possibly foreshadowing the death and destruction that will later besiege his reign). And near the end of the film, when a newly healed Arthur summons all his soldiers to battle against his power-hungry son, Mordred (Robert Addie), the rousing “O Fortuna” from Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana can be heard, practically forcing the audience to share Arthur’s rejuvenated confidence.
Why Does Snyder Love ‘Excalibur’ So Much?
Snyder respects Excalibur for taking a more mature approach to the fantasy genre, which is widely dimsissed as only for children. In a 2010 edition of DGA Quarterly, Snyder compared Boorman’s approach to violence to his own in Watchmen (2009): “In Watchmen, I always felt the truth of being a superhero is that people frickin’ get killed. And that’s what Excalibur is. It’s violent because that’s what it was like.” Given that Snyder is infamous for having more death and violence in his movies than is generally expected for comic book movies, it certainly makes sense that he would respect the film for taking a darker and more adult-oriented approach to its genre, as well.
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In a 2023 interview with Letterboxd, Zack Snyder listed Star Wars, Blue Velvet, All That Jazz, and Excalibur as his four favorite films.
Furthermore, Snyder admires Excalibur’s dreamy, “painterly” aesthetic: “There are a lot of cool parallels in this film, and the lighting helps establish the two realities [of life and death]. It’s awesome how surreal all this stuff is.” He elaborates on this point by suggesting that the film makes the real-life forests of Ireland look straight out of a fairy tale:
This is like the stylized other England you want the Middle Ages to be. It’s as if it takes place in no particular time in history. Like it’s another planet in some ways.
He even compares Excalibur’s fantastical aesthetic to that of his own film, 300 (2006), while making an insightful point about the link between historical period films and the fantasy genre: “This is a myth that Boorman’s making real to us. We took a real event and made it into a myth. How did people make pictures in their mind before movies? That was the style part of 300.”
Perhaps the most overt indication of Snyder’s reverence for Excalibur can be found in an explicit homage in not one, but two of Snyder’s own films: 300 and Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016). In all three films, the hero is impaled by a spear or staff wielded by his enemy, but manages to pull himself further down the weapon’s shaft to get close enough to slay his enemy before finally succumbing to his wounds. The image of a warrior getting impaled but still managing to defeat his enemies is so simultaneously over-the-top and cathartic that it makes perfect sense for Snyder to recreate it in his own work…twice.
‘Excalibur’ Gave Liam Neeson a Particular Set of Acting Skills
Even if Excalibur is not to every viewer’s liking (which it almost certainly isn’t), there is one big reason why many film fans should be grateful that it exists: it jump-started Liam Neeson’s film career. In an interview with ComingSoon.net, Neeson acknowledged that he had virtually no experience acting in front of a camera prior to Excalibur. But, fortunately, “John [Boorman] was a wonderful mentor… He’d bring us behind the camera and say, ‘Look. Here’s what I’m seeing…’ It was a wonderful experience.”
If Zack Snyder’s recommendation isn’t enough to convince some folks to give Excalibur a watch, then maybe the fact that it indirectly contributed to the making of several popular films — including Schindler’s List (1993), Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999), and Batman Begins (2004) among many others — could be.
Although it is not available on any streaming platforms, Excalibur can be rented or purchased from several sites, including YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, and Fandango at Home.
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