BC-based film writer Meg Shields returns to the podcast for a conversation about her favourite movie, John Boorman’s Excalibur (1981), the definitive screen version of the legend of King Arthur.

Reportedly Zack Snyder’s favourite film too, Excalibur kickstarted a wave of sword and sorcery movies in the early eighties. Filmed entirely on location in Ireland and featuring several future stars in the vast supporting cast (including Helen Mirren, Gabriel Byrne and Liam Neeson), Excalibur is a berserk personal vision along the lines of Boorman’s previous fantasy films Zardoz and Exorcist II: The Heretic, depicting the Arthurian legend in a weird mixture of historical realism (muddy battlefields, heavy armour and ugly combat) and phantasmagoric delight (modern levels of sleaze and violence). It makes you wonder why people still keep trying to make King Arthur movies!

Plus: RIP Richard Donner, and all hail Stephen Dorff for trashing Marvel movies!

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"All That Glitters: Style as Substance in John Boorman's Excalibur" by Meg Shields, for Film School Rejects, April 10, 2021

Trailer for Excalibur (Boorman, 1981)