MovieChat Forums > Excalibur (1981) Discussion > I would like a three-hour director's cut

I would like a three-hour director's cut


Last night I rewatched Excalibur for the first time since I was a child. Going into it, I remembered almost nothing from my first viewing all those years ago, but one thing I did remember was that I didn't really understand the movie.

Upon my re-watch, however, I found it to be one of the most interesting films I've seen in a long time, though also kind of a weird one. The narrative does not really play out like a conventional movie and the whole thing has an almost fever dream-like quality to it. But if you can fall into the film's rhythm and vibe, it's easy to get mesmerized.

The visuals are amazing and the way that director John Boorman brings the middle ages to life is very interesting. You get the sense that it's not really the medieval world as it was, but as he dreams it to have been.

My one real complaint, however, is that things happen a little too fast, with none of the usual connective tissue to tie the various segments of the movie together. Like, one moment Arthur is finding Lancelot and Guinevere together and then three scenes later that episode is completely forgotten and it's time to go find the grail, which has not been mentioned at all in the movie up to that point. There's just a sense, at times, that there were scenes that ended up on the cutting room floor. I'm not sure if that's actually true, but while the movie is already fairly long at 2 hours 20 minutes, I'd love to see a three-hour director's cut that fleshes the story out a little more.

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According to IMDb trivia - The original cut of this movie was over three hours long. Amongst the many scenes that were lost, but briefly glimpsed in the trailer, was a scene where Sir Lancelot (Nicholas Clay) rescued Guenevere (Cherie Lunghi) from a forest bandit.

I don’t think the above scene would have added anything but I do agree at times the film seems to jump too much.

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I would definitely like to see that cut of the film. While for a 140-minute film I would usually conclude it's too long, this is a rare case where I must conclude that it is too short. Some extra runtime where the story is allowed to breathe a bit more would be great.

I'm sure we'll never see it, especially since he seems retired now and the footage (if even still extant) would require restoration, but it would be great if the studio would bring Boorman in to go through the footage and give us his definitive cut.

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