The Best Lord of the Rings Movie That Never Was Is Coming To 4K

Hard as it is to imagine the phrases “Dark Lord” and “lasciviously dancing” in the same sentence, in another world (or Middle-earth), Sauron might’ve been a Mick Jagger type. In his thrall, the “femme fatale” wizard Saruman would’ve initiated a seduction...of Gandalf, to be precise.

This was director John Boorman’s vision for his three-hour-long The Lord of the Rings movie. Yes, singular. Around 1970, United Artists — which owned the film rights to J R R Tolkien’s trilogy — asked him to helm an adaptation. Over six months, he and Italian architect Rospo Pallenberg, who was looking to break into the movies, drafted a map of Middle Earth and in-depth character analyses, broke down scenes, and devised solutions to special-effects problems in a pre-CGI world. (To miniaturize the Hobbits, they figured, they’d cast 10-year-olds, give them facial hair and get adult men to dub over their voices.)

“We had devised an almost-unmakeable script,” wrote Boorman in his memoir. And by the time they submitted it, the setback-beset studio had neither the interest nor funds. Instead, his ideas and imagery eventually made their way into his medieval epic Excalibur (1981), which condenses the life and legend of King Arthur (Nigel Terry) into two-plus hours of swords and sorcery in the Dark Ages. With a 4K UHD Blu-ray now out, there’s no better time to revisit Camelot.

How Was Excalibur Received Upon Release?

Boorman’s film contrasts the lush beauty of the landscapes with the violence of the men who inhabit them, their armor streaked with blood, their vision blinkered by lust and greed. While cinematographer Alex Thomson’s painterly (and Oscar-nominated) compositions are imbued with a dreamlike sheen, conjuring an atmosphere of magic, this is a world in which prophecies are serious business and people seek out visions of the future to validate their present choices.

Excalibur’s skillful evocation of mood, however, is sometimes at the cost of narrative clarity. Pared down from Boorman’s original four-and-a-half-hour long script, a single cut in the film snips away years, and rapid character development translates into inconsistent behaviour. Distinguishing between Arthur’s knights under all that gleaming armor is a task. Every rapturous mention of Excalibur’s “wondrous vision” and “impassioned, hypnotic imagery” in a review accompanied criticism of its “near-atrocious dialogue” and lack of “clear storyline.”

It was still the number one film in America during its opening weekend, eventually grossing $35 million on a $11-million budget.

Why Is Excalibur Important to See Now?

The film’s invaluable cinematic contributions include the wealth of talent it scouted; watching it now is an exercise in spotting A-listers before their heyday. A pre-Star Trek Patrick Stewart appears briefly, Ciarán Hinds plays a knight, and this was also the first-ever screen appearance of two of Ireland’s finest actors — Gabriel Byrne and Liam Neeson.

For all it was, the film is also fascinating as an insight into what could’ve been: Boorman’s unrealized LoTR project. Its artistic influence is apparent right from the outset. “I’m trying to suggest a kind of Middle-earth in Tolkien terms,” said the director about crafting the world of Excalibur. “Landscape and nature and human emotions are all fresh.”

The settings of some of Excalibur’s most pivotal sequences — such as the waterfall where Arthur meets Lancelot (Nicholas Clay), and the Lady of the Lake later appears — were locations Boorman had previously scouted for LoTR. The arena in which Lancelot’s trial by combat is staged was originally built to film council of Elrond scenes.

Tolkien’s story and Boorman’s epic share obvious similarities. Arthur is the Frodo figure, a young boy set on a perilous quest, guided by the Gandalf-like wizard Merlin. Like LoTR’s Narsil, Excalibur itself is an ancestral sword that is broken and eventually reforged, belonging only to the rightful king. Boorman’s script sees Gandalf return to Middle-earth after his death, not because he’s “sent back…until [his] task is done” as in the book, but because “a silly voice called [him] back, a Hobbit voice.” Likewise, Arthur’s love for Merlin, verbalized as he calls out for him, revives the wizard in spectral form.

The director also retained, and reworked, some of his more eccentric LoTR choices for Excalibur. A sequence in which the sorceress Morgana (Helen Mirren) traps Merlin (Nicol Williamson) in ice parallels Gandalf encasing the Fellowship in a glacier to escape attacking Wargs. The addition of sex scenes — such as one envisaged between Galadriel and Frodo — would’ve appalled LoTR book purists but Pallenberg’s desire for “eroticism and horror” could, and did, find a place in Boorman’s R-rated fantasy.

The final shot of Excalibur, in which the mortally wounded king is carried off to the magical land of Avalon by ship, parallels Frodo and Gandalf sailing to the undying lands. The last line of Boorman’s LoTR script is an elegiac fit for Excalibur too: “The tiny vessel sails on, a smudge on the glistening sea.”

What New Features Does Excalibur Blu-ray Have?

Arrow Films’ three-disc release includes the 120-minute TV Version of the 141-minute-long film, previously unavailable on home video, but now in high-definition Blu-ray format. Two brand-new commentary tracks accompany an abundance of featurettes, including a never-before-released making-of documentary shot during the film’s production.

Also worth seeking out are the new interviews with Boorman, his son Charley — who plays the young Mordred — production designer Anthony Pratt and 2nd unit director Peter MacDonald. Another illuminating featurette traces Boorman and Pallenberg’s longtime creative partnership. You can see the full list of features below.

3-DISC 4K ULTRA HD LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS

• Brand new 4K restoration from the original 35mm negative by Arrow Films presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.66:1 for the first time on home video
• Contains both the 141-minute Theatrical Cut and the 120-minute TV Version of the film
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Reversible sleeve featuring two original artwork options
• Collectors' perfect-bound booklet containing writing by Charlie Brigden, K.A. Laity, Kimberly Lindbergs, Josh Nelson, Philip Kemp, John Reppion, Icy Sedgwick and Jez Winship
• Double-sided fold-out poster featuring two original artwork options
• Six postcard-sized reproduction art cards

DISC 1 - FEATURE (4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY)

• 4K (2160p) Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation of the 141min Theatrical Cut of the film in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
• Restored original lossless mono and DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio options
• Brand new audio commentary by Brian Hoyle, author of The Cinema of John Boorman
• Brand new audio commentary by filmmaker David Kittredge, director of Boorman and the Devil

DISC 2 - EXTRAS (BLU-RAY)

• The Making of Excalibur: Myth into Movie, a never before released 48-minute documentary directed by Neil Jordan during the production of Excalibur
• To Be a Knight and Follow a King, a newly filmed interview with director John Boorman and actor Charley Boorman
• When Death Was but a Dream, a newly filmed interview with creative associate Neil Jordan
• The Charm of Making, a newly filmed interview with production designer Anthony Pratt
• Confessions of a Professional "Pain-in-the-ass", a newly filmed interview with 2nd unit director Peter MacDonald
• Anam Cara, a new featurette on the working friendship of John Boorman and co-writer Rospo Pallenberg featuring a newly filmed interview with Pallenberg
• Divided Nature, a brand new featurette by film historians Howard S. Berger and Kevin Marr
• Trailers
• Image galleries

DISC 3 - BONUS (LIMITED EDITION EXCLUSIVE BLU-RAY)

• High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation of the 120-minute TV Version of the film, previously unavailable on home video
• Original lossless mono audio
• Excalibur: Behind the Movie, a 50-minute retrospective documentary in which cast and crew look back on the making of the film