History Film / Excalibur

* AnachronismStew: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], as Boorman intentionally took an ahistorical and mythical approach with his portrayal of the time period.

* OpeningScroll: Leading into the title logo.

** The sword in the stone/Excalibur (in ''Literature/LeMorteDArthur'', the two were different swords).

* BloodBrothers: Uther and Cornwall become this when Cornwall yields to Uther after Uther receives Excalibur, signifying the right to be king. Uther then royally screws it up when he falls in lust for Ygraine, Cornwall's wife.

* BatmanGambit: [[spoiler:Merlin tricks Morgana into using the Charm of Making to drive him away which depletes her magical power and strips her of her youthful beauty and produces an eerie fog over the land out of the breath of the dragon. When Mordred comes to investigate, he kills Morgana and the fog assists the small number of Arthur's army against Mordred's larger force.]]

** "The Dragon", which is built up as some kind horrible monster, but ultimately isn't. Arthur's fear of it parallels his uncertainty about being King; once he overcomes his fear and "sleeps in the arms of the Dragon", he fully overcomes his doubts and embraces his destiny.

--> "In the name of God, Saint Michael and Saint George, I give you the right to bear arms and the power to mete justice!"

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Arthur laments after he invokes the power Excalibur out of rage and pride to beat Lancelot, breaking what couldn't be broken.

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Merlin abandons Uther to his traitors (he apparently feels bad about this when he sees Uther slam Excalibur into the stone with his dying breath). "Merliiiiin! Where are you? Call your dragon... Weave a mist... to hide us..."

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Despite Arthur validating himself as King by pulling Excalibur from the stone, there are plenty of people who don’t want him there because he isn’t a knight (he’s a mere squire) and a bastard to boot. This causes a rebellion that Arthur has to defeat within hours of pulling Excalibur from the stone.

* WreckedWeapon:Excalibur is broken when Arthur uses it for an unjust purpose — namely, killing Lancelot to satisfy his ego. When he realises the depth of his error, the knight is revived and his sword returned to him in one piece by the Lady of the Lake. This sequence was added so that Arthur could receive Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake as well as pull it from the stone earlier in the film.

* {{Leitmotif}}: Snippets from [[Theatre/TheRingOftheNibelung Siegfried's Funeral March]] is often used in conjunction with acts taken with Excalibur, such as Uther ramming it into the Stone, Arthur drawing it from the Stone, Uryens knighting Arthur with Excalibur, and finally Arthur ending Mordred's reign of terror by stabbing him with Excalibur.

* LoveRuinsTheRealm: Uther's desperation for one night with a married woman provokes a war. Camelot's unprecedented peace and prosperity get destroyed by Lancelot and Guinevere's love for each other.

* ConvectionSchmonvection: Gee, the sex Igrayne has with Uther must be pretty damn good for it to be worth the third-degree burns she'd have from banging him in his [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext full armor]] right next to a ''roaring fireplace''.

* TheAgeless: Merlin looks the same before Arthur's birth as he does when Arthur's a grown man with grey in his beard.

The AllStarCast includes Nigel Terry as Arthur, Creator/HelenMirren as Morgana, Nicholas Clay as Lancelot, Cherie Lunghi as Guenevere, Paul Geoffrey as Perceval, Creator/NicolWilliamson as Merlin, Corin Redgrave as Gorlois, Creator/PatrickStewart as Leodegrance, Keith Buckley as Uryens, Creator/LiamNeeson as Gawain, and Creator/GabrielByrne as Pendragon.

* The source material (Sir Thomas Malory's ''Literature/LeMorteDArthur'' is credited, but many other sources are drawn upon) is treated in a [[PragmaticAdaptation very syncretist]] kind of way, merging many [[CompositeCharacter characters]], events and elements. This arguably allows the movie to display many more Arthurian motifs than would have been possible to show in a two-hour movie that stayed truer to the text of a particular author or retelling, all while cleverly avoiding the CompressedAdaptation effect.

* CompositeCharacter: Let's see... Arthur takes the role of the FisherKing in Percival's story. Lancelot takes the bit about breaking Excalibur (forcing Arthur to get a new one) from Pellinore. And Morgan takes the roles of Morgause (though that's practically the norm in modern adaptations) and Nimue.

''Excalibur'' is a 1981 HeroicFantasy film directed by Creator/JohnBoorman. An {{epic|Movie}}, CultClassic retelling of the Myth/ArthurianLegend, it is notable at least for two aspects:

A 1981 HeroicFantasy film directed by Creator/JohnBoorman, an epic, CultClassic retelling of Myth/ArthurianLegend. Notable at least for two aspects:

* The movie covers a rather long span of time (60 years, at the very least) and thus, as Boorman put it, focuses on the story rather than on the characters. It can therefore be roughly divided into five partially overlapping parts: the first part follows Uther Pendragon, the second follows Arthur, the third follows Lancelot, the fourth follows Perceval, and the last goes back to Arthur.

* {{Knighting}}: Uryens (comedy name) knights Arthur with Excalibur, because he can't surrender to a mere squire. Arthur later knights Percival, hurriedly, in the same fashion.

* MsFanservice:
** Some of Creator/HelenMirren's outfits -- of course, she might qualify as Ms. Fanservice wearing a burlap sack...
** Guinevere ain't too shabby either, and displays herself quite nicely when she takes it all off for her love scene in the forest with Lancelot.

* NoManOfWomanBorn: "No weapon forged by man" can hurt Mordred. He's killed by Excalibur. Mother Nature would like to add that a large icicle, rock, tree branch or angry boar passes the test, so this prophecy is less difficult to get around than one would think (however, all of these aren't exactly an advantage when fighting a good swordsman). Additionally, there's also poison, slings, non-metal arrows, garrote wires, fire, fisticuffs, starvation...