Excalibur 4K UHD coming in 2025 from… (8 Viewers)

[MarkantonyII]

…Arrow (as per their hint postcard)!

 

[Konstantinos]

Wow!! Great news! I had hoped it would be Arrow!

 

[Lord Dalek]

This is another case of "There's nothing resembling 4k there", so don't get excited for anything other than the original mono track being included for once.

 

[JohnRice]

There will be tons of screaming about the image with this one. However, it will most likely be better than the current release.

 

[JoshZ]

This is another case of "There's nothing resembling 4k there", so don't get excited for anything other than the original mono track being included for once.

There will be tons of screaming about the image with this one. However, it will most likely be better than the current release.

Frankly, I doubt there's anything even close to 2K in that photography. However, I do think the older Blu-ray (which was probably scanned from an internegative) leaves at least a little room for improvement anyway.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

If there's any improvement to be made, it "may" be in black levels and colour space.

 

[Wes Candela]

"Let The Boy Try!!!"

 

[Ignacio]

I'm not that pesimistic. I believe the current Bluray leaves quite a room for improvement, in terms of image quality. The sound has always been quite poor, indeed. No wonder why John Boorman decided to release it just in mono, rather than using that weak Dolby Stereo track.

If they go to the OCN, "Excalibur" should make a good looking disc (except for the optical composites, which I don't think that are great). Oscar-nominated Cinematographer Alex Thomson used a mix of Cooke zooms and Zeiss T1.4 Primes, Harrison & Harrison Black Dot difussion filters, plus some push-processing, which was a standard procedure before high-speed film stocks ("Excalibur" used Kodak 5247, a 100T stock). The look should be a little rough, but dreamy, with a few optical flaws due to the lenses being used wide-open in dull light.

The pushing should increase grain and contrast, and the filters softened the image, but no more than the Double Fogs or regular Fogs used by Vilmos Zsigmond, William Fraker or Geoffrey Unsworth on several pictures (a bunch of great DPs who, in that order, coincidentialy, shot Boorman's three previous pictures). The filters, the push processing, etc. could make a bad translation to home video in the DVD era, but these days, with improved scans from the OCN, many 1970's pictures of these guys look pretty good in Bluray or 4K BD, IMHO.

 

[Mark Cappelletty]

I just screamed a little. And thanks for buying POSEIDON and taking one for the team.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

I've loved this film since seeing it in a cinema when it was released. I do agree there is room to improve upon the old disc. I think this was another of those films that got shown a lot on early pay TV. For me, if I want to watch a film about this particular legend, this is number 1 on my list.

It may be that the best this film will look will be on standard Blu and that 4K might push it into an area where some things look more...um...questionable. I thought the intent was this is supposed to be a soft looking picture. That is the desired look, I thought.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Funny thing, I recall friends and I once double featured this film with Python's Holy Grail. An awesome evening of fun movie watching.

I think the film I might double it with now, is The Green Knight. Which I really loved and seems somewhat influenced by Boorman's picture.

 

[richardburton84]

Per the below article (which is primarily about Exorcist II), the 4K edition of Excalibur will feature a commentary by David Kittredge.

That’s part of Boorman’s magic, too. My God, all the chances that he took with Excalibur. Geez, that could have gone south in about 30,000 different ways. And I actually think it’s his best film. [Kittredge contributed a commentary track to the Arrow 4K edition of the film.– Ed.] It just comes back to [the question], do you view movies as purely an escape mechanism to get out of your life or do you think that they’re actually works of art? I think if it’s the latter, it’s just far more, far more important that a movie try things and be interesting and have depth than just be enjoyable.

Interview: David Kittredge on the reviled and revived 'Exorcist II: The Heretic'

With his new documentary 'Boorman and the Devil,' David Kittredge goes deep into the tortured history of a misunderstood horror sequel.

thereveal.film

 

[Alex...]

 

[Alex...]

Specs and Special features for the upcoming Arrow Video 4K UHD of Excalibur (1981)

* Brand new 4K restoration from the original 35mm negative by Arrow Films presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.66:1 for the first time on home video

* Contains both the 141-minute Theatrical Cut and the 120-minute TV Version of the film

DISC 1 – FEATURE (4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY)

* 4K (2160p) Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation of the 141-minute Theatrical Cut

* Restored original lossless mono and DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio options

* Brand new audio commentary by Brian Hoyle, author of The Cinema of John Boorman

* Brand new audio commentary by filmmaker David Kittredge, director of Boorman and the Devil

* Archive audio commentary by director John Boorman

DISC 2 – EXTRAS (BLU-RAY)

* The Making of Excalibur: Myth into Movie, a never before released 48-minute documentary directed by Neil Jordan during the production of Excalibur

* To Be a Knight and Follow a King, a newly filmed interview with director John Boorman and actor Charley Boorman

* When Death Was but a Dream, a newly filmed interview with creative associate Neil Jordan

* The Charm of Making, a newly filmed interview with production designer Anthony Pratt

* Confessions of a Professional “Pain-in-the-ass”, a newly filmed interview with 2nd unit director Peter MacDonald

* Anam Cara, a new featurette on the working friendship of John Boorman and co-writer Rospo Pallenberg featuring a newly filmed interview with Pallenberg

* Divided Nature, a brand new featurette by film historians Howard S. Berger and Kevin Marr

* Trailers

* Image galleries

DISC 3 – BONUS (LIMITED EDITION EXCLUSIVE BLU-RAY)

* High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation of the 120-minute TV Version of the film, previously unavailable on home video

* Original lossless mono audio

* Excalibur: Behind the Movie, a 50-minute retrospective documentary in which cast and crew look back on the making of the film

Dawn of Discs