Excalibur Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		5.0
Overall		4.0

Excalibur Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 18, 2026

Fans of J.R.R. Tolkien are probably aware that before Peter Jackson's now venerable The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy, there was a heavily redacted animated The Lord of the Rings directed by Ralph Bakshi. What may not be widely known, however, is that Bakshi's version arose from the veritable ashes of previously proposed live action version which had been under development at United Artists with John Boorman as the guiding light. Boorman's original concept for a Lord of the Rings film ultimately fell sway to both internal strife at the studio along with budgetary concerns (among others), but United Artists tried to salvage things somewhat by moving on to the Bakshi adaptation, though there was reportedly some pretty bad blood between the two "B" directors in terms of the perceived "handover". If Bakshi got The Lord of the Rings as his "leftovers", something maybe a bit similar might be stated about Boorman and Excalibur, since at least some of Boorman's thinking about and approach toward adapting the epic Tolkien tomes were ported over to his reworking of the Arthurian legend(s). As usual, Arrow is providing a new release with a 4K restoration, two bonus discs, and their typical assortment of swag and handsome packaging.

Excalibur had a pretty long ago 1080 release (so long ago the disc is 749 in our database) courtesy of Warner Brothers, and Ken Brown's Excalibur Blu-ray review provides plot information, a list of supplements and Ken's reaction to the technical presentation. I freely admit I have something of a soft spot for this film, despite my awareness of some of the deficits Ken mentions in his review, and so in the latest example of my "different reviewers means different opinions" mantra, my overall score for the film reflects that.

Excalibur Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Excalibur is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.67:1. Arrow's insert booklet contains the following information on the presentation (per Arrow's relatively recent standard operating procedure, they provide the same booklet for both their standalone 4K and 1080 releases, hence some irrelevant verbiage below):

Excalibur has been exclusively restored by Arrow Films and is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.66:1 with restored original mono and 5.1 audio mixes. The film is presented in 4K resolution in HDR10 and Dolby Vision. The original 35mm camera negative was canned in 4K 16 bit at Warner Bros. Motion Picture Imaging. The film was restored in 4K and color graded at Silver Salt. The mono mix was restored by Þorsteinn Gislason. The 5.1 mix was restored by Deluxe Audio, London. The 5.1 audio mix was newly created using the original mono mix audio elements.

As part of the restoration process Warner Bros. researched what audio materials they had archived and identified a set of original LCRS audio elements that were created during post production. However, these elements proved to be unusable. Further research showed that these were unfinished mixes that were abandoned prior to completion due to time constraints. This was also confirmed by director John Boorman.

All materials sourced for this new restoration were made available by Warner Bros.

Additional 35mm prints were accessed from Warner Bros. and the BFI for reference. QC reveiw was completed by Pixelogic.

This is an impressive upgrade from a number of standpoints when compared to the old Warner Brothers 1080 release, including a correction of the aspect ratio and a somewhat darker look (the Warner Bros. release looks a bit artificially brightened now in hindsight). As fans of this film no doubt know, large swaths of Boorman's vision are liberally adorned with mists, fogs and vaporized breath from both humans and horses, and all of those stylistic choices along with what are frequently rather dim lighting conditions probably provided some compression challenges, but on the whole I was really positively struck by the look of the grain field throughout this presentation (of course I have a few quibbles, which will be discussed in a moment), and in fact as I often do, I have a hunch some may prefer the look of grain overall in this 1080 edition when compared to Arrow's 4K UHD release. While the overall palette is understandably aided by HDR in Arrow's 4K version, even in SDR greens are especially vibrant throughout, including some of the special effects work surrounding Excalibur itself. Blacks are also impressively deep, something that aids many of the framings that tend to feature close-ups of faces surrounded by imposing shadows. In terms of absolute consistency, grain resolution probably admittedly falls a bit shy, as there are noticeable spikes at times that seem divorced from lighting conditions, at least on occasion, and maybe ironically at least some of the spikes are not related in any way to the aforementioned mists, fogs and vapors. For instance fairly early on the first forest scene with Merlin and the Lady of the Lake can be a bit fuzzy in midrange shots, with some noticeably discolored grain, and several of the subsequent forest scenes have grain thick enough to almost cause waves flowing over the tree tops. Interestingly, though, some forest scenes, like the one with Merlin and Arthur at slightly past the half hour mark, can show a much more tightly resolved grain field even if lighting conditions are really pretty similar to a lot of the other forest material. Somewhat discolored clumpy grain can show up intermittently, as in the early interior scene with the dancing and festivities, where HDR's emphasis on the orange adjacent grading may only exacerbate the thickness of the grain. Old school composited effects are not especially artful at times but may look a bit better at this resolution when compared to the 4K version.

Excalibur Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The theatrical cut of Excalibur offers DTS-HD Master Audio Mono and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 options. I have to say the mono track is really more than serviceable for this film, perhaps surprisingly given its epic scale and its use of both (maybe slightly questionable in the case of Wagner, less so in terms of Orff) source cues and original underscore and a glut of sound effects. The 5.1 mix just can't quite escape its "roots", so to speak, and a lot of the ostensible surround track is still pretty front and center heavy, though there are certainly signs of things opening up in the outdoor material in particular. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Excalibur Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Disc One

• Theatrical Cut (2:20:45)


• Audio Commentary with John Boorman


• Audio Commentary with Brian Hoyle


• Audio Commentary with David Kittredge

Disc Two

• The Making of Excalibur: Myth into Movie (HD; 48:19) is a first rate archival making of piece directed by Neil Jordan. This is evidently the first time this has been released for home consumption.


• To Be a Knight and Follow a King (HD; 28:12) features a pair of separate 2025 interviews with John and Charley Boorman.


• When Death Was But a Dream (HD; 25:07) is a 2025 interview with Neil Jordan.


• The Charm of Making (HD; 26:11) is a 2025 interview with production designer Anthony Pratt.


• Confession of a Professional "Pain in the Arse" (HD; 1:15:44) is a 2025 Zoom adjacent interview with 2nd Unit Director Peter MacDonald. This is moderated by Howard S. Berger, who contributes some introductory text and who has edited this rather cheekily at times, especially since the sweet seeming Mr. and Mrs. MacDonald were (as my sons tell me I do) "struggling with technology". This does come with a disclaimer about video quality as a result.


• Anam Cara (HD; 37:34) is a 2025 visual essay by Howard S. Berger which includes an interview with co-writer Rospo Pallenberg.


• Divided Nature (HD; 30:07) is a 2025 featurette by Howard S. Berger and Kevin Marr AKA The Flying Maciste Brothers. This bears the subtitle The Death & Life of Illusion in the Cinematic Kingdom of John Boorman.


• Trailers

Teaser Trailer (HD; 1:48)




Theatrical Trailer (HD; 2:28)

• Image Galleries

Black & White Stills (HD)




Colour Stills (HD)




Posters (HD)




Original Production Notes (HD)




Draft Screenplay (HD)

Disc Three

• TV Version (HD; 2:00:09) is presented on home video for the first time. A submenu offers the following information:

  This version of Excalibur was created for television to make the sex and violence more "PG friendly" and recue the overall runtime to 120 minutes. While it does not feature any deleted or alternate scenes, it does include unique voiceover from Merlin in some scenes. Never available before on home video, this presentation is reconstructed from the new restoration based on a standard definition reference tape held in the Warner Bros. archives, with one shot unique to this version upscaled from tape. While we have preserved the original theatrical aspect ratio here, on broadcast the film was "panned and scanned" to fit the standard 4:3 TV screens of the period.

  This features LPCM Mono audio.


• Excalibur: Behind the Movie (HD; 52:24) is an enjoyable retrospective with some fun archival footage and a ton of interesting interviews with the Boormans, Helen Mirren, Liam Neeson, Patrick Stewart and many others. This bears a 2016 copyright.

Arrow is providing fans with another really handsomely packaged release with a good deal of swag. An O ring slipcover houses a slipbox which itself encloses the keepcase with three discs, a double sided fold out poster and another nicely produced perfect bound collectors' booklet with a number of outstanding essays. The keepcase features a reversible sleeve and holds six post card sized reproduction art cards.

Excalibur Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It might be jokingly offered that the sheer length of Boorman's epic may make this the "once and forever king" as opposed to T.H. White's formulation, but despite its excesses and issues, the film is often absolutely gorgeous to simply watch and listen to. Technical merits are solid and as usual Arrow has aggregated both impressive on disc supplements and a wealth of enjoyable swag, all in handsome packaging. Recommended.