History Film / Excalibur

* DefeatMeansFriendship

* WorldOfHam

* HeyIts hatGuy: PatrickStewart as Leondegrance; LiamNeeson as Gawain; Gabriel Byrne as Uther.

** Wait, how's that supposed to work? Trapdoor?

* [=~Hey, It's That Guy!~=]: PatrickStewart as Leondegrance; LiamNeeson as Gawain; Gabriel Byrne as Uther.

* PopculturalOsmosis: ''Excalibur'' is to ''O Fortuna'' what ''[=~2001: A Space Odyssey~=]'' is to ''Thus Spoke Zarustrutha''.

** Several moments in the film seem to parallel bits from the Python movie. When Perceval saw Camelot in the distance, I half-expected Lancelot to tell him that [[DepthDeception it was only a model.]]
*** Shh.

* ShoutOut: Several, notably (and surprisingly) to StarWars (just watch the first sequence between Arthur and Merlin in the woods, or the fight between Lancelot and his [[spoiler:EnemyWithout]]), and (less surprisingly) to TheLordOfTheRings (as Boorman's original project was indeed to adapt the later, before he switched to Arthurian myths:

* SoundtrackDissonance: The lyrics to ''O Fortuna'' are about how fate is capricious and thus cruel, but the song is used as SugarWiki/{{Crowning Music of Awesome}}.

* [=~Sure, Let's Go With That~=]: Merlin when talking to Arthur says this line:

* [=~What Do You Mean, It's Not Symbolic?~=] (the movie is ''chock-full'' of symbols referring to Celtic paganism and Christian mysticism)

* NoIndoorVoice: Pretty much everyone in the entire movie.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: almost every major character is dead by the end of the movie.]]

* {{Loads and Loads of Characters}}

* TheElfmanEffect: ''O Fortuna''

* {{Narm}}: The dancing of Cornwall's wife, Igrayne, is supposed to be sexy, but is in fact, just really awkward looking.
** Maybe not. The framing, the ominous music, the arrhythmic thudding of fists and dagger hilts on tables; I'm not sure the scene was intended to be sexy per se. Being Katerine Boorman was enough?
* NightmareFuel: Some sequences can be quite creepy, and Merlin has his moments (look at his eyes), [[spoiler:he eventually literally becomes a nightmare]].
** But he's a dream to some!

* {{Squick}}: Katerine Boorman is John Boorman's daughter. He directed the scene where she's naked and being raped. For this Troper at least, it's a bit creepy.
** Most of the imagery and themes surrounding Igraine are pretty creepy, and moreso knowing that -- witness the rhythmic, sexual thumping of tables with daggers during the dance scene, and [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything the following scene of grunting knights slamming a battering ram against the doors of the castle]], although this Troper's personal "ugh!" moment is when she's dancing and her dancing alone is said to turn Uther on so much he has to have her. Yes, folks, Boorman turned his daughter into basically the Dark Ages version of an exotic dancer, on film.

* YourMileageMayVary: some people just can't stand ''Excalibur'', either because it was made in TheEighties, or because they've seen ''MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'' too many times to take any Arthurian movie seriously.

* WorldOfHam.
----
<<|{{Film}}|>>

* SugarWiki/{{Crowning Moment of Awesome}}: Oh boy, where do we start, there's almost one ''every ten minutes''.
* SugarWiki/{{Crowning Music of Awesome}}: Let's see: one third of the background music consists of various excerpts from RichardWagner's operas, another third consists of ''O Fortuna'', and the last third is composed by Trevor Jones (who you might remember as the guy who composed the score of TheDarkCrystal).

* 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 thus roughly be divided into five partially overlapping parts: the first part follows Uther Pendragon, the second follows Arthur, the third follows Lancelot, the fourth follows Percival, and the last goes back to Arthur.

** Percival/Bedivere

* TheDulcineaEffect: Percival, unarmed squire, wanting to champion Guinevere against a fully-armed, battle-hardened Sir Gawain.

* HiddenDepths: Percival

* SuspiciouslyAproposMusic: The recurring music illustrating the impossible love between Lancelot and Guinevere is RichardWagner's Prelude to ''Tristan und Isolde'', and Percival finds the Grail while Wagner's ''Parsifal'' Overture is playing.

-->Maybe not. The framing, the ominous music, the arrhythmic thudding of fists and dagger hilts on tables; I'm not sure the scene was intended to be sexy per se. Being Katerine Boorman was enough?

* LargeHam

*The source material (mostly Malory's ''Morte d'Arthur'') is treated in a very syncretist kind of way, [[CompressedCharacter merging many 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 by staying truer to the original story, all while cleverly avoiding the CompressedAdaptation effect.

*The source material (mostly Malory's ''Morte d'Arthur'') is treated in a very syncretist kind of way, merging many 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 by staying truer to the original story, all while cleverly avoiding the CompressedAdaptation effect.