The movie Excalibur, directed by John Boorman is almost three decades old but is remains perhaps the finest evocation of the Arthurian Legend. It is also unusual in being infused with research. There is great fidelity to the original legends and even when there are deviations from the norm they are done intelligently. Since the Arthur legend is the Core Myth of the British Isles and has had enormous impact on literature it is worth looking at the film version of this myth yet again.

Like all good myths it seems to offer a dark and bleak vision about life. That is because myth does not shy away from the fact that Human existence generally sucks. What they teach with this unflinching vision is a way of transcending what need not be inevitable misery. When the film begins it is a gloomy, damp brooding world it reveals, a world that is not sanitized with nostalgia but is the dirty reality prevalent in the middle ages. England is under a king who is finding it difficult to exert his position as Primus Inter Pares, the First Amongst Equals. Uther Pendragon is no virtuous knight; he is barely more than a rapacious, brutal robber baron, more kin to Mongol and Viking than anything else. The Arch-Mage of Britain, Merlin, has only this uncouth loutish tool to hand to help bring about a new age. Like all men of wisdom he works with what is at hand instead of lamenting for what is not yet. The magician and shaman wears a silver skullcap, the only gleam of light, knowledge and hope in an unredeemingly dark and foul environment.

Uther is at strife with Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall and he can't win. At the reconciliation feast he observes, Ygraine, wife of Gorlois and he is seized with lust for her. This was not entirely his fault as Gorlois encourages his wife to dance erotically in order to flaunt-taunt Uther with what was not his. Merlin is commanded to help Uther fulfill his lust. Uther does not understand that mages always have purposes of their own and he is a mere tool for the 'reluctant' magician's designs. He rides the breath of the Dragon, which Merlin unleashes and appears before Ygraine in the form of Gorlois. Merlin is instantly aware this venture will come to a bad end, Uther has no Awareness in him. The casting of the spell exhausts him, another bad sign, as the harmony with earth energies should renew and replenish, not drain him. Uther pounces on her in a dramatic high point, a frenetic rutting copulation in full armor! Not the light armor of the actual historical period, but the full fantasy armor of the 15th century, the moving steel column that only gunpowder would dethrone from its invincibility. His armor is his callous and dull nature, neither sense nor light can reach him, nor emerge from within. He is not open to growth and life, and he perishes in an ambush later. The poor lady is left pregnant from this unwitting rape - and Merlin spirits away the child thus born for he will become Arthur, future king of England.

Determined that the next king will not be a fiasco like Uther, Merlin plants the sword Excalibur - the notion of Awareness- into the cold stone that the medieval heart has become. Only the true king may pull it out, one who is Aware and has a viewpoint that extends beyond feasts and fornication. Arthur as a young man easily does so, though his foster brother Sir Kay has a shot at imitating royalty. Power is not given but assumed, true, but it invariably finds you out if you lack in virtue. Kay's pretences do not last and Arthur is assured of at least a band of partisans on his side. He withdraws to the forest, that mythic realm of learning and inner understanding, where he puzzles his way through Merlin's enigmatic talk, but he does learn that the Dragon is actually nothing but the World. Merlin's power is merely an ability to align himself with the Flow of the World. What he does not realize, being too young, is that the king is the representative of the land, and by extension the world. Hence his famous name, Arthur Pendragon. He is an impetuous young flame spurting all over the place, he is not yet a great fire that burns steadily and warms a kingdom.

Many barons feel a young man as king is a contentious point and they take the debate to the castle of Arthur's chief supporter, hoping with fire and sword to lend a poignant note to their arguments. Arthur joins the forces rallying to repel the siege, and he enters the filthy muck of the moat to fight it out. The king has to understand, even experience, the level of his people before he can raise them. His enemy is overcome with admiration for such spirit but he objects to acknowledging a liege a boy who has not even been knighted formally. Arthur, grasping Excalibur, shows his Awareness by asking his foe, the representative of all the disgruntled people, to knight him right in the moat! This masterstroke of popular validation was not foreseen even by a flabbergasted Merlin, but from then on there is no doubt who is the true king. His Awareness is what wins through, of which Excalibur is but a symbol, an awareness that allows him to intuitively understand the grievances of this people and rectify them. Excalibur literally means "Cut-Steel", as do its other names, Caliburnus or Caledfwlch. It represents a mental quality of cutting to the heart of a matter, and is not pure physical strength. His intuitive request to be knighted is a manifestation of that supple and penetrative strength of mind.

He meets, and falls in love with, Guinevere. Merlin tries to warn him obliquely. "Looking at the cakes is like looking into the future. Until you bite into it, what do you really know? And then of course, it is too late." The young King defeats all opposition and has dedicated band of knights around him, and he decides to build the perfect city, Camelot and place within it The Round table, symbol of their equality and unity. But they are all still a rough hard bunch, exemplified in their black armor and curiously beastlike helmets. There have been no internal modifications, they can still slip back into unreason any minute. In a deft touch, the gloomy lighting changes to sharp illumination representing their attempt to live in the light instead of their formerly preferred darkness.

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