John Boorman's Excalibur on DVD?...
 

this would be my pick for the absolute worst DVD release ever done...

they took the pan and scan... chopped off the bottom and the top and called it widescreen... and a terrible transfer... the scenes where headless men are riding legless horses... amazingly bad release...

i would call this film a masterpiece... definitely Boorman's magnum opus...

and all i am aware of is this one amazingly, precedent setting, miserable failure of a release...

i've written Criterion like 1000 times...

anyone know anything?... a rumor of a future release?... a different region disk that was well done?...

anything?...

The ellipsis...is killing me...

Anyway, I agree, horrendous treatment of a classic, not to the mention the convulsion-inducing cover. Is there anything better in other regions?

http://www.angelfire.com/bug/excalib...alibur-DVD.jpg

know nothing about the specifics of this title, but the cover sure is better.

Writing... Warner Bros.... would be far more... helpful.

ahhh... the very people... who murdered it... the first time...

yeah there's a thought...

a sarcastic one at that...

Criterion don't own the rights to the film and couldn't help you if they wanted to. You might as well write to Santa Claus. Warner own the film and don't have a history of licensing their movies to Criterion. If you want to complain to someone, complain to Warner.

Forget it, kid.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...on/santa_4.jpg

yeah...

i'll shoot my eye out...

what the hell... i'll write warner... i did think, i guess incorrectly, criterion could buy access to the rights for a title they wanted to release... didn't know they were stonewalled by warner....

so i've got write santa... and write the bastards that murdered the first DVD release...

anything else?... anyone?...

I'd definitely buy this. I've been holding off buying the original for years.

Well during HTF's Warner chat back in '06 the question was asked about an Excalibur SE and the response was:

"We know ARTHUR, EXCALIBUR and OUTLAND all need to be improved in quality."

Then another question about Excalibur was brought up and the response was:

"We know EXCALIBUR has a fervent following. We'll keep it in mind."

So now it's almost July 2007 and we've only had a HD-DVD version of Excalibur come along. Warner is usually good about these things (they are one of the best dvd-producing studios nowadays), so maybe just maybe we shall see something towards the end of the year.

"Your sword was stolen, Kay, but here's Excalibur!"

Excalibur is my favorite movie of all time, and I'd love to see a better edition come along, but that statement simply isn't true.

How about my custom cover?

http://home.gt.rr.com/hinson1701/Exc...alt-sample.jpg

That a nice cover you made there you get a pat on the back my boy.

Excellent cover. Hats off.

That's the cover I've been using since I ditched the snapper long ago...

Really?
I haven't watched this in a really long time, so I don't remember how it looks. But could it be that the "pan and scan" is actually just the entire full-frame 35mm image and the widescreen is how Boorman framed it theatrically?

That description doesn't sound right ... I haven't watched it in a while ... but I don't remember it being that bad. Certainly ... as noted in the DVDTalk review ... a big improvement over previous versions.
http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=308

"The king without a sword! The land without a king!" Have loved that movie for a long time. Really need a better version. Edited to say that's a great custom cover.

Wait, is there a custom cover posted here? I see nothing.

I believe Region 2 has the original one-sheet as a cover.

I kinda wish with the remake craze in Hollywood lately, they would get around to doing this. I would love to see an Arthur story with fantasy elements.

What, remake this? REMAKE this? I going to gouge my eyes out so I don't have to read the words "they should remake" any goddamned more.

Then watch Excalibur? -poke-

You might be using one of my older Excalibur covers (or perhaps someone else's that coincidently looks much like mine), but it's hard to believe that you have been using it since "long ago," as I created and submitted this cover for download only last week! :)

(You may have trouble seeing the sample I posted above, as my web space has been in and out today in terms of accessibility.)

*ducks I just think the film seems a little dated is all.

As I stated above, the OP is incorrect. The DVD is indeed widescreen (I checked it myself last night to make sure I wasn't dreaming). The VHS version/TV versions were indeed pan-and-scan. I watched this movie at least 100 times on VHS and remember being aghast at first seeing the widescreen DVD image and noticing cool things happening in the periphery (like Gawain getting his side sewn up in the "meeting Lancelot" sequence).

Yes, quite dated. Looks like around 1000 A.D., in fact. -rolleyes-

Replace Katrine Boorman? -screwy-

MK, that is an excellent point. :toast:

I flipped past the HD version of Excalibur the other night on one of my HD movie channels and the quality looked great IMO. Didn't know it was already available in HD format. Might have to get it, unless anyone can give me a valid reason not to do so.

Commander Dan: how much to make one of those covers for me man? :)

Remake it, and with Hollywood's current thinking on classic stories, put Will Smith in it!

Yeah, I can see it now...

---

(The sword Excalibur breaks)

Will Smith as King Arthur: "Aww, hell no!"

(Lady in the Lake lifts up a new, undamaged Excalibur)

Will Smith as King Arthur: "Now that's what I'm talkin' about!"

(Will Smith as King Arthur takes Excalibur from Lady in the Lake and then puts on Converse tennis shoes)

Will Smith as King Arthur: "Now let's go kick Mordred's ass!"

---

the Excalibur DVD is some form of an open matte widescreen release as i said it was...

if you want to tell yourself John Boorman CHOSE to cut people's heads off in a frame to show only their torso, or cut the tops of their heads off in a scene focusing on a single face... it's a free country i guess... that isn't how DP's and director do things... you can tell from watching the DVD something is wrong...

what i posted is accurate... it's a distorted release with black bars to make it a 'matte widescreen' like companies did with so many of the Woody Allen movies on DVD... Bride of Reanimator... etc... maybe i mis-spoke with the use of the term 'pan and scan'... but that is the effect... if you simply watch the VHS copy of the film you see all the heads at least... though i guess you do see new images on the sides or periphery of the open matte release... the picture is distorted...

either way... at least we all agree it needs to be redone...

i hope it will be...

i found the entire chat session with Warner online and that does seem promising...

Well, there is an HD-dvd of it that came out just a couple months ago, I'm assuming that has the best transfer possible (and correct).

Okay, okay I take it back. The original is fine, no need to remake it!

NO NEED TO REMAKE THIS CLASSIC!!

If it was remade it would be PG-13 and Orlando Bloom would probably play Lancelot.

Or someone even worse, like the guy who plays Reed Richards in the Fantastic Four movies.

But even if they got someone cool like Clive Owen for Arthur, they'd probably still fuck it up...

Try it again without the word remake. What about just another telling of the King Arthur legend? Done right I would gladly welcome that, especially since the last one wasn't great.

I've always thought the film was shot open matte and haven't heard anything to refute that (from a knowledgable source). For me, the framing has never been an issue on DVD or HD DVD.
The HD DVD is not going to impress people who are looking for King Arthur style visual flash and pop. Many scenes grainstructure is well in evidence, and also, there is a lot of diffusion going on- which is obviously fully the intent of the DP and the director. It has a softer, more muted look than I was expecting (even though I saw this theatrically in '81).
That said, watching the HD DVD when it came out last fall, I was entranced and found myself more immersed in the film than I have been since I first saw it.
I can recite whole passages of the film by heart, but seeing it in HD- the subtle accumulation of more fine detail has a somewhat subliminal effect. Everything becomes more immediate. I had a blast the last time I watched it and don't regret the HD DVD purchase at all.

I only bring that up because this particular disc gets hit a lot in on-line reviews for being a poor example of HD and not being a 'worthwhile' upgrade over the sd version. If you have a large display, especially a 1080p fp- it is absolutely worth the upgrade- as is every other HD disc I've seen so far.

Are you sure you weren't watching Lancelot du Lac? :)

What kind of display do you own?

Forget Excalibur, they need to remake Zardoz!