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Excalibur rocks! I got the DVD cheap. when I was a kid we had this pre VHS/beta movie player that was a big record/casette thing, that you'ld have to flip around half way through the movie. (can't remember what the format was called at this time) I used to pester my parents to rent Excalibur again and again after I had seen it once, some times they caved but I asked non stop for like a year. :lol: BTW bsu legato the current DVD isn't totaly bare bones, it includes a feature length comentary by Boorman, trailer and "production notes" I know not exactly earth shattering but for for five bucks :p ......not so bad.

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Zardoz!!!!

Best ending evah!

It's Sean Connery's Barbarella.

Arghhh!!!! That is, unfortunately, a fairly good comparison for Zardoz. Overblown sci-fi weirdness, entertaining tho it may be... :blink:

As for Excalibur... it will always and forever be the ONLY movie versin of the Arthurian mythos for me. God I love that movie. I remember seein' it back in the early 80s on my buddy's VHS (or beta?) and being so stoked... it was the perfect prelude to one of the neighborhood D&D summertime gaming sessions!!! Of course, after seein' that flick everybody who had a Paladin just HAD to have plate armor!!! :lol:

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BTW bsu legato the current DVD isn't totaly bare bones, it includes a feature length comentary by Boorman, trailer and "production notes" I know not exactly earth shattering but for for five bucks :p ......not so bad.

A Boorman commentary? Well I suppose that's better than nothing. Either way, this is a film I've passed up for too long.

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When I was a kid, we had this pre VHS/beta movie player that was a big record/casette thing, that you'd have to flip around half way through the movie. (can't remember what the format was called at this time)

Sounds like you had a CED player. Those things were overpriced and totally cumbersome. I'm glad laserdiscs replaced them.

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As for First Knight, how could Connery stoop so low? And why were the knights wearing blue spandex?

You're kidding, right? No wonder I skipped this movie after seeing five minutes of it on HBO.

Its one of those movies you wish you could un-watch.

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  • 9 years later...

I've always wanted a longer cut or at least the material that was deleted (a piece of one scene in particular is shown in the trailer, where Lancelot is taking out some bandit on horseback, said to be attacking Guenevere or something like that (presumably on the way to the wedding?) and I think there's reference to a few more in a couple other places.

I have the DVD and the Blu-ray is as probably as good as it gets but will buy anything with more content, including that docu.

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Excalibur was THE only good Fantasy movie till Lord of the Rings(*). Hard to fault the anachronism or plate mail when the thing is fantasy to begin with. The Arthur movie that started this thread was pretty bad.

(*) - Princess Bride was excellent, but it was a comedy. Sword and the Sorcerer gets an honorable mention for being sooooo bad it was good. "Hawk the Slayer" falls into the almost decent category too, if only for the rapid firing Elf and the machinegun crossbow.

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Excalibur was THE only good Fantasy movie till Lord of the Rings...

Almost agree with you, except that I find Dragonslayer to be a very good medieval, sword and sorcery, fantasy movie too; and to this day, Vermithrax Pejorative is the most impressive depiction of a classic western Dragon/Wyvern to ever grace a motion picture (the ones in Reign of Fire were almost as superb, but the film sucked)... can't wait to see what Smaug will look like.

Edit: And speaking of dragons, that is one of my minor gripes with Excalibur. Merlin keeps referring to it, but the "dragon" is just a metaphor, and/or a name for the spirit of the land itself, and the semi-sentient source of Merlin's power, and the sword's too.

Edited by mechaninac
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Almost agree with you, except that I find Dragonslayer to be a very good medieval, sword and sorcery, fantasy movie too; and to this day, Vermithrax Pejorative is the most impressive depiction of a classic western Dragon/Wyvern to ever grace a motion picture (the ones in Reign of Fire were almost as superb, but the film sucked)... can't wait to see what Smaug will look like.

Thank you for bringing up Dragonslayer, the effects work was spectacular at the time, and the rest of the movie is quite good, too.

If you can do without knights, I'd like to add "The Dark Crystal" to the list of "good fantasy movies before LOTR".

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  • 2 months later...

No love for Ladyhawke, around here?

I was going to mention that. The 80s actually had a decent amount of fantasy films. They had more of those than westerns. Dragon Slayer is on my tops though... right under Princess Bride... lol.

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I hadn't seen EXCALIBUR for over 20 years and just started rewatching it yesterday. Although there have been some good scenes so far, I think it's aged poorly to be honest and Nigel Terry not the best Arthur I could imagine.

Having said this Gabriel Byrne's role as Uther is certainly memorable, although sex in a suit of armour was sure to be quite frustrating! I'm looking forward to watching the rest of it though.

I think the original 'Le Morte d'Arthur' is ready for a new film. I'd love to see a serious take on it, full of tragedy, blood, celtic magic, and with some great 'unknown' actors in meaty roles. I know over the last decade or two we've had a couple of takes on the subject but they never felt like they drew from the original poem much. The one with Clive as Arthur felt like it was telling a completely different story, and older one with Sean Connery was very forgettable. I think it's time for a nice big juicy production!

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