Excalibur 1981

John Boorman clearly is a very visual director, concentrating on the aesthetics and mise on scene of the film rather than the story and characters.
The Story of Excalibur and Arthur, king of the round table follow closely to the rules of The hero with a thousand faces. Arthur of course is the hero who becomes king because of the things surrounding him, he really has no input into the matter, he is born into his character, so he becomes King. Merlin is introduced, as the helper or guide, Arthur is separated from his family, his brother and father, then takes over the kingdom.
The film goes on like this and it gives the audience a sense of reassurance, we know this story.
Arthur is tested over and over again; must defeat Lancelot, get the bride, find the grail and defeat his evil incest son.
Because of the films structure it was easy to place people in certain roles according to The Heroes Journey. However for me the Characters motives were sometimes unclear, Lancelot fort for Guinevere, to protect her innocence but then they ended up committing the very crime they had denied. Merlin seemed to turn up in random places and it was unclear why sometimes he could use magic and other he could not, thus letting Morgana take over. If they had all been a bit more careful and controlled non the bad stuff would of happened. But then there would be no film.
The film is visually interesting, There is always a lot to look at and especially towards the end the movie which becomes very dark, the mise en scene reflects the dark themes of the film with fog and quite haunting images such as the unfortunate knights that end up as bird food hanging from trees.
The costumes too are something to take note of, especially Morgana's. Her clothes become more and more elaborate as she increases in power (not to mention more revealing).
But again the costumes could become confusing as with the knights, all wearing knights costumes of course, which at times made it hard to tell who was who! Especially when most of them had beards!
Overall the film was very exciting and interesting to watch, and bearing in mind the film was made in the early 80's it was a good watch and I would love to watch more films by Boorman.