If you’ve been following my monthly reading (both on my posts here, yes, April is coming soon), or Twitter, you know I’ve read a lot of King Arthur books lately — everything from Peter David’s Arthur-as-Mayor-of-New-York series, to Steinbeck’s take on the legend, and currently Twain’s satiric A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. I branched out recently into a film version of the legend (did not care for the Clive Owen 2004 film), with John Boorman’s Excalibur.

I watched the movie once before, years and years ago, when I was in high school — I don’t actually remember it very well. However, I appreciate it considerably more now (particularly with all of my recent reading).

My favorite scene, which pretty much says anything you’d need to know about Arthur’s character, is this scene, from the beginning of the film.

I particularly love how Uryens goes from “I’m going to chop this fool down!” to “I can’t believe I’m knighting him!” to “I want to have this man’s babies!” All in about the time it takes him to tap the flat of Excalibur three times on Arthur’s shoulders.

(Also, unrelated, an interesting article on the design of the Excalibur prop from the film).