Excalibur

i was not ready to love this movie as much as i did. i watched this with my dad, who thinks this is one of the greatest ones ever made, so i was ready to enjoy it, but holy shit. to preface, i am a massive fan of arthurian legend, and while this movie didnt cover ALL of it (like a lot of reviews say), it covered SO much in such a short runtime, in a way that hardly ever felt clunky. i was originally going to rate this a 4.5 stars, because while its absolutely delightful for reasons ill cover soon, some of the voiceovers are quite clunky and very obvious in the fact that theyre read from a script, a few of the costumes appeared quite cheap, the lack of aging in guinevere is very disturbing and a few moments didnt quite land like they should. then the last third of the film hit me like a damn truck. oh my god. oh my GOD. the script is so honest and heartfelt, it truly felt all-encompassing. this is fueled by such an obvious love of knighthood, the treatment of chivalric values?? im genuinely tearing up. the fighting is so cool but so realistically awkward considering the choice of full plate which i find FANTASTIC, its a very clear choice that they dont sacrifice the humanity of fighting for the sake of aesthetics that bleeds into everything else. speaking of bleeding, if you know me you already know i loved the brutality. every single setting was gorgeous, the beautiful flowing fabric on the women was breathtaking, the atmosphere was perfect. dreamlike psychedelics feels so natural to the dark ages. the score is amazing, it always felt fitting, the colour grading never missed, this entire thing was like a moving painting. the characters were so so so well presented, im a massive fan of lancelot in general so i was already grinning, and morgana was absolutely perfect (especially the scene where perceval meets her, actual chills), but i think this all best shines through with merlin. the decision to dress him androgynously in a coat and a robe that appears dresslike from the cut was genius. he was so volatile, it felt so natural to view him as otherworldly. funny when he needed to be, and incredibly intimidating when he wasnt. the decision to replace galahad with excalibur itself was visionary. dhmu (also the knights were soo sexy in this movie i tried not to bring it up but i know my own nature. straight up eye candy. my god. lancelot at points near rivaled st sebastian himself. the fully armored sex scene at the start of the movie was so vividly my shit... i was born to watch this movie)