Monday, June 13, 2016

Dinner and a Movie

It's not quite as hot this week as it was last week so I think we're going with marinated pork chops. Contrary to rumor we Giants have always eaten meat. Pork wasn't always on the menu. More often we had the other, other white meat but most people have forgotten those stories.
This week we are looking at a story about a unique woman, who has something powerful to give and she happens to be soaking wet. 
https://nicoleevelina.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/sword_from_water.gif?w=300&h=190

Of course, I mean the fantasy classic, Flash Dance.  Flashdanceposter.jpg
By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11015841

No, just kidding nobody is that cruel.
No, we are talking about Excalibur.
https://robbinsrealm.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/excalibur-pic-12.jpgThis movie was directed and produced by John Boorman. This movie was almost The Lord of The Rings. Kind of.

You see Boorman loved the books and wanted badly to make a movie of the books but he just couldn't make the funding work. He corresponded for a while with J.R.R. Tolkien but just could not get the stars to align. If history had been just a little different Jackson could have been working on a true remake. For certain we would never have seen the awful Hobbit movies. Just awful.

Anyway back to the movie at hand, Excalibur. The movie was released in 1981 and starred some great actors and actresses. Nicol Williamson and Helen Mirren played Merlin and Morgana the true rivals in this movie. Nigel Terry played King Arthur, Cheri Lunghi as Guinevere, and Nicholas Clay as Lancelot.

All of the actors did a great job with their roles and the movie was filmed in lush locations in Ireland. The movie was a hit with audiences but critics were mixed about it. Since seeing King Arthur and the knights kick ass with a whacking big swords in shining armor is cool I know the critics are just full of it.

Boorman's vision for the movie was clearly deeper than just a surface sword and sorcery movie and it was just as powerful in its musical score as it was in the visuals. The action was gritty and bloody and great fun to watch. Watching Patrick Stewart, Liam Neeson, and company all on the screen at the same time was fantastic. You can see the kind of Lord of the Rings movie Boorman might have cast.

For you roleplayers out there if you don't get the plots within plots, intrigue in the court, wizards, sorceresses, knights, castles, the Holy Grail, and the king as the land I'm not sure how to help you. A remedial session of Pendragon would be in order. The new Dark Albion might be in the mix too as I think that the stories we tell about Arthur were certainly influenced by those times.

Dinner well not as good as the other, other white meat but still tasty. The movie? The Giant gives this one two happy thumbs up.

As always all pictures are owned by their owners and I make no claims upon them for any reason at all.

2 comments:

  1. I think it interesting how much Wagner is repurposed here, and Carl Orff of course. If done as an operatic musical it would have been something like Wagner's vision of Total Art.

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  2. It is very much what Wagner was looking for I think. The original movie was set to be over three hours long.

    Boorman was a phenomenal director with good instincts for storytelling. His cinematography was perfect for whatever story he told. I really think he would have done a better Lord of the Rings. He certainly understood the source material better than Jackson.

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