Boorman's masterpiece
I have acquired John Boorman's EXCALIBUR, which I remembered as an extraordinary experience - and it is. (However, infuriatingly, I ended up with one CD with the first half of the movie in Spanish, and the second in Italian. So much for file-swapping.) One thing that struck me, however, was a peculiarity of the cast: all the protagonists - Arthur, Merlin, Lancelot, Guinevere - are played by good, even excellent actors, but actors, except for Helen Mirren (Morgana), who for some reason do not seem to have had the most towering movie careers. Except for Mirren, you could not unfairly say that as far as the silver screen is concerned, EXCALIBUR was their finest hour. Among the second-rank actors, however, we find Gabriel Byrne (Uther Pendragon), Liam Neeson (Sir Gawain), Corin Redgrave (the Duke of Cornwall), Patrick Stewart (King Leodegrance). That's a pretty fantastic supporting cast. I wonder how many other cases there are where so many of the backing actors are more famous than the principals?