On the DVD boorman said he used the green light whenever there was magic around, like the sword in the stone, the Lady of the lake, Arthur calling on the spirit of Excalibur in his fight against Lancelot.
Have always loved this movie though haven’t seen it in many years. Isn’t there a very small appearance by a then unknown Liam Neeson? He is I think Sir Percival–basically just a minor Round Table figure.
Neeson plays Gawain, who openly accuses Guinevere of adultery (and who was one of Arthur’s chief knights until the tales got all Frenchified). Paul Geoffrey is Perceval, who has a major role in this version as the Grail Knight as well as casting the sword into the lake (traditionally Sir Bedevere’s role).
Not sure if it has to do with why he and Mirren didn’t get along, but Nicol Williamson was by his own admission an “alcoholic’s alcoholic” in those years and a total bastard when he wasn’t in a good mood. It’s a reason why his movie career isn’t as famous in big budget productions as Olivier or Guinness or at least McKellen or Branagh- his alcoholism made him next to impossible to work with. Glenn Close described playing Princess Mary to Nicol’s Henry VIII in Rex (a musical about Henry VIII that was one of Richard Rodgers’ few unqualified flops) as a uniquely miserable experience.
While there’s nothing O’Toole and Harris couldn’t teach ya bout the raising of the wrist their drinking rarely affected their professionalism, while Nicol was more of the “lovely little actor but a bugger when he’s pissed” variety. Here’s a 1994 article about his storming out of a West End production.
As for the movie- once you put aside any notion of Geoffrey Ashe-like historical realism and accept it’s about as historically accurate as Flash Gordon it’s enjoyable. Of course the main thing I appreciated about it as a horny teenager was Lancelot being nekkid.
It also made for good kinky; the seduction of Arthur by Morgana and then the implied incest with her son-nephew Mordred (Boorman’s own odd looking son Charley- most famous for The Emerald Forest) was something you didn’t see in Camelot. One of my favorite scenes was the “stabbing” of Merlin by Lancelot and her hexing of him while he was weakened.
Ah thanks.
Several of those theatrical-disaster stories in your first link are apocryphal, Sampiro, but no less fun and enduring.
Fans of Williamson might also want to check out The Seven Percent Solution, in which he plays Sherlock Holmes equally well, IMHO (although paired with a badly-miscast Robert Duvall as Watson).
All this, yes yes. Same here. I saw this in the theater several times when it first came out. I became obsessed with the legend too (mostly from a historical pov, since I didn’t and don’t believe in magic).
It’s been years since I’ve seen it. Does anyone remember that curse that Morgana tricks out of Merlin? An-nal-nath-rak…something something.
My favorite line, because of the way Merlin says it:
“it is the doom of men that they forget”
I didn’t know about Williamson’s rep either. I loved him in this and as the Nome King in Return To Oz.
Annaal natrach, uswas vethud, doch el dienwe?
Holy hell that was impressive. The whole movie was impressive.
goes to find the DVD
That scene. Spell begins at 2:40.
One of my favorite moments is of Arthur being born on a litter, old and indolent, after Guinevere’s departure. Just really worked well. (The main thing I liked about TROY was seeing Nigel Terry and Peter O’Toole together again.)
I love this movie, too. I love any movie about Merlin and King Arthur (though I’ve never read any books). I admit to owning, and loving, ‘The Mists of Avalon’ and the cheesy yet striking Sam Neil ‘Merlin’.
Thanks Torpor Beast and Sampiro.
Aw man, it cuts off just before the lovers wake up and see the sword. The look on their faces, wow. I didn’t remember the music being so…much.
I’ve watched that scene so many times, and just now several times again, and I still can’t say that Charm of Making. It makes me admire Williamson and Mirren even more.
“I shall find a man, and give birth to a god!”
What a scary bitch! (though her son, for being a god, was really weird and creepy-looking)
The Charm of Making was apparently supposed to be Irish (maybe Old Irish) - Here’s an analysis of the words, including the meaning.
I never quite liked the way the music was used - it felt so out of place since these aren’t terribly obscure works. Although in the end it works (the Liebestod at least fits thematically, but it’s still the wrong legend). And it’s a great film in nearly all other aspects.
The telling moment of Williamson’s Merlin is when he first meets with Morgana and quizzes her on a few things. One of the things is is mandrake root, which is described as causing great love if eaten but poison if too much is eaten. The way he then snatches the root from Morgana while telling her she is correct makes me laugh every time. It is as if to say “aaaand I’ll be needing that”.
Some favorite other lines (from memory - not exact):
UTHER: I need the sword if I am to become king!
MERLIN: Yes, of course. But to heal, not to hack!
MERLIN: Behold the sword of power! Excalibur… forged when the world was young and when man and nature were as one, and death was but a dream!
UTHER: One land, one king, Cornwall! Those are my terms.
MERLIN: You betrayed the duke; you stole his wife. Now no one trusts you.
MORGANA: Are you to be both mother and father to the baby, Merlin?
ECTOR: Did you draw the sword from the stone, Arthur?
ARTHUR: I did, Father. I beg your forgiveness.
MERLIN: It’s easy to love folly in a child.
MERLIN: The dragon is everywhere around you. Its breath is like the wind. Its claws are like the earth. Its tongue is like… is like… [lightning strikes nearby] Ooo, like lightning! Yes, that’s it!
ARTHUR: I’m not ready to be king.
MERLIN: You drew forth the sword from the stone, didn’t you?
ARTHUR: That was easy!
MERLIN: Is it? I couldn’t do it.
ARTHUR: But what should I do now?
MERLIN: What do you think has happened since then?
ARTHUR: The other knights opposed Leondegrance. They will attack his castle. We should help him.
MERLIN: See? That was easy, too.
ARTHUR: If you would be a knight… and follow a king… follow me!
MERLIN (when he notices Arthur eyeing Guinevere): You have a kingdom to win! You don’t have time for all of this… hair-pulling and jumping about!
MERLIN: Remember this night… this circle, under the stars… so that in years to come you can say, ‘I was there, that night, with Arthur, the king!’ … But it is the doom of men that they forget.
MERLIN: There’s always something cleverer than yourself!
ARTHUR: It’s been so long, my old friend. I have missed you.
MERLIN: You brought me back. Your love brought me back.
ARTHUR: Are you but a dream?
MERLIN: A dream, to some… a nightmare to others!
This was the movie that spawned my life long love of knights, armour, and chivalry. I think I was 8 or 9 years old when I first saw it, and when Arthur said “Any man who would be a knight and follow a king, follow me!” I seriously lept up from the couch and raised my hand. 
God, I’m such a geek
Very cool. I always thought the Charm of Making was just made up words, especially since the actors keep changing their pronounciation. But the stuff in that link does seem to make sense.
Bookmark’d!
Some plot issues bother me…
Why exactly does Morgana hate Arthur?
For a country that seems to contain 3 dozen people, it sure seemed easy for Morgana and Mordred to raise an army.
Back to the Grail: I think it was a mistake to try to weave the Grail story into the Lancelot/Guinevere/Arthur/Mordred story. Those elements hang together; the Grail doesn’t fit, and the attempt to make it so (“the king and the land are one”. WTF did that come from?) look pretty weak.
I’ve never read the book, but I’ve been under the impression that Excalibur is an attempt of adapting Mallory’s Le Morte d’Arthur to a movie.
His father did pretty much cause the death of her father, so I suppose that might cause some resentment.
Hehee. I’ve always thought that not everyone in Morgana’s army was exactly human. She was pretty liberal in her use of the Charm of Making after all.
The “the king and the land are one” bit is from the Le Morte d’Arthur, I’d guess.
The idea itself is supposedly as old as the concept of kingship. Monarchs have often tried to claim legitimacy by saying that they have been appointed by the god/gods, have a special connection with the land etc. etc. etc.
I’m ok with the king and the land being one; it just doesn’t have anything to do with the Grail. In most Grail legends, the purest knight (Percival, or in some versions Galahad) gets a vision of Jesus. Boorman replaced that with a vision of Arthur, and the moral of the quest becomes: the king & the land are one.
I wouldn’t put too much stock in an explanation invented after-the-fact by someone unrelated to the production of the film. Note that the author even acknowledges his uncertainty: “There are other possibilities for the retro-translation, and indeed the use of a Latin loanword, given the context, is problematic.”