Part of Midnight Movies
The tale of King Arthur told the way only the director of ZARDOZ could tell it…
Raised by Merlin, young Arthur draws the mystical sword of Excalibur from the stone and becomes King. He grows to manhood and with his wife Guenevere and first knight Lancelot unites the country and founded the Knights of the Round Table. But the love between Lancelot and Guenevere, and the treachery of his sister Morgana and son Mordred cause King Arthur’s pride to jeopardize the kingdom. An epic battle between the knights of good and evil decides the fate of Camelot.
This wildly violent and sexual adaptation of Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur might not immediately strike one as midnight material, but believe us — it is one hell of a ride. Starring Nigel Terry as Arthur, Nicol Williamson as Merlin, Nicholas Clay as Lancelot, Cherie Lunghi as Guenevere, Helen Mirren as Morgana, Liam Neeson as Gawain, Gabriel Byrne as Uther, and Patrick Stewart as Leondegrance.
“John Boorman is an intoxicated moviemaker, with a wonderful kind of zeal — a greed to encompass more and more and more in his pictures…. I don’t know-of any other director who puts such a burnish on his obsessions.” —Pauline Kael, New Yorker
