Excalibur

Excalibur (1981)

19 quotes

(3 votes)

Movie Quote Quiz

Arthur: Any man who would be a knight and follow a king... follow me.

Sir Ector: I remember my first joust. It looks far worse than it feels.

Arthur: Thanks be to God you're alive.
Lancelot: I, the best Knight in the world bested! This is a great day! For my search is over, my King. Make me your champion.
Arthur: But your life and lands are far from here.
Lancelot: I gave up my castle and my lands. This is my domain. Within this metal skin. And I pledge all that I still own. Muscle, bone, blood and the heart that pumps it.
Arthur: And a great heart it is. Sir Lancelot, you will be my champion.

Perceval: Lancelot help us! Come back to us! Arthur needs you! Lancelot.

Merlin: When a man lies, he murders some part of the world.

Arthur: I was not born to live a man's life, but to be the stuff of future memory.

Merlin: Remember, there's always something cleverer than yourself.

Arthur: Now, once more, I must ride with my knights to defend what was, and the dream of what could be.

Arthur: Which is the greatest quality of knighthood? Courage? Compassion? Loyalty? Humility? What do you say, Merlin?
Merlin: Hmm? Ah. Ah. Ah, the greatest. Uh, well, they blend, like the metals we mix to make a good sword.
Arthur: No poetry. Just a straight answer. Which is it?
Merlin: All right, then. Truth. That's it. Yes. It must be truth above all. When a man lies, he murders some god of the world. You should know that.

Uther: Merlin! Where are you? Call your dragon to weave a mist to hide us.

Merlin: Ooh, that plan is well known. You'll have to do better than that.

Mordred: Any message for your dear brother, my father?
Morgana: You are my message.

Morgana: Your eyes never leave me, Merlin.
Merlin: Can't I acknowledge beauty?
Morgana: Can't you acknowledge... love? Perhaps you ache for what you've never known.
Merlin: Perhaps you lust for what you cannot have.

Perceval: I can't give up hope, Lancelot. It's all I have.

Merlin: The future has taken root in the present.

Merlin: It is a lonely life, the way of the necromancer... oh, yes. Lacrimae Mundi - the tears of the world.

Merlin: The days of our kind are numberèd. The one God comes to drive out the many gods. The spirits of wood and stream grow silent. It's the way of things. Yes... it's a time for men, and their ways.

Merlin: You're not listening... well, your heart is not. Love is deaf as well as blind. That's it.

Merlin: Stand back! Be silent! Be still... That's it... and look upon this moment. Savor it! Rejoice with great gladness! Great gladness! Remember it always, for you are joined by it. You are One, under the stars. Remember it well, then... this night, this great victory. So that in the years ahead, you can say, 'I was there that night, with Arthur, the King!' For it is the doom of men that they forget.

Visible crew/equipment: After Arthur drinks from the Grail and goes to visit Gwinevere at the convent and she gives him the sword back, he paces around her chamber- you can clearly see the film crew reflected in his armor.

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Trivia: Producer/screenwriter/director John Boorman deliberately chose renowned stage actors Nicol Williamson and Helen Mirren to play the sorcerer Merlin and the sorceress Morgana, knowing very well that Williamson and Mirren hated each other in real life (because of a disastrous stage production of Macbeth they worked on, years earlier). Boorman anticipated real friction, tension and anger between the two actors, which was the effect he wanted onscreen. On the contrary, the experience of working together in "Excalibur" completely changed Nicol Williamson and Helen Mirren into the best of friends.

Charles Austin Miller

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Question: At the very end, Arthur's body is being carried away on a barge, with three women standing above him. Are those three women the fates?

Answer: They were the Goddesses of Avalon. A group of women who each have a specific magical power. They were the makers of Excalibur, healed King Arthur's wounds from his first battle and took him to his final resting place, readying him for the day he would be needed again.

Most Arthurian myths attribute elves as making "Excalibur", and also "Clarent," King Arthur's other magical sword.

raywest

Answer: Or possibly they were attendants of Arthur, who would set the ship on fire, then have the option to die with their king, or to try to swim to shore. The Vikings did stuff like that. Why not imagine that the Brits did too?

Answer: Not the fates, but enchantress fairies. The Lady of Lake, who took back Excalibur at the end, was such a fairy.

raywest

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