Instruct: Given a question, retrieve documents that can help answer the question.
Query: When was the film Excalibur released?
Excalibur was the number one film during its opening weekend of 10–12 April 1981, eventually earning $34,967,437 in the United States.[5] As of 2018, it currently has a 78% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 41 reviews.[21]
Film critics Roger Ebert and Vincent Canby criticized the film's plot and characters,[6][7] although they and other reviewers[8] praised its visual style. Excalibur opened at number one in the United States, eventually grossing $34,967,437 on a budget of around US$11 million to rank 18th in that year's receipts.[5]
In 2004, Marvel Comics launched a new ongoing series titled "Excalibur". Aside from the name and the writer (Claremont), it had no connection to Marvel's previous "Excalibur" titles. The series' last issue was #14, released in May, 2005.
Excalibur BBS was a Windows-based GUI BBS Client / Server software, developed by Excalibur Communications. Excalibur was released in 1993, and it has not been officially supported since 1999, when Excalibur Communications ceased operations.
The film was released on video on a dubbed VHS in Germany by Highlight Video, on a Dutch-Subtitled VHS in the Netherlands by Excalibur Benelux and in Canada on NTSC VHS by Alliance Releasing. In the United Kingdom, it was released on video as "Escape from Madness."
Boorman had planned a film adaptation of the Merlin legend as early as 1969, but when submitting the three-hour script written with Rospo Pallenberg to United Artists, they rejected it deeming it too costly and offered him J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord Of The Rings instead. Boorman was allowed to shop the script elsewhere, but no studio would commit to it. Returning to his original idea of the Merlin legend, Boorman was eventually able to secure deals that would help him do Excalibur. Much of the imagery and set designs were created with his original vision of The Lord Of The Rings in mind, and it has been noted that certain scenes are reminiscent of Monty Python's 1975 comedy film, Monty Python And The Holy Grail.[10]
List of American films of 1981 Excalibur, King Arthur's sword, the central symbol of kingship for Malory and the film List of films based on Arthurian legend List of sword and sorcery films
Within weeks, the album went gold in France (Top 10). Five concert performances took place between October 1999 and June 2000, including one at Paris-Bercy. A live recording, released as "Excalibur, le concert mythique" ("Excalibur, the legendary concert") (CD and DVD) was recorded at the first concert in Rennes on 12 October 1999.
The (old) stable Release 2010 "Kanotix-Excalibur" was based on Debian 5 ("Lenny") and had compared to Thorhammer some basic changes (based on Debian-Live, bootloader Grub2). Furthermore, Kanotix-Excalibur was available for 32-Bit and 64-Bit architecture and a 2in1 iso with both. Additionally there are Kanotix Excalibur 2010 KDE4 (KDE SC 4.3.2) versions available and a "all-in-one"-DVD.iso. Kanotix-Excalibur contains the more up-to-date Ubuntu-kernels 2.6.32-BFS with special patches. During the development most of the Kanotix-Excalibur-test.iso were not published but accessible to the community. A first "Preview"-Version was published on December 27, 2009. The final "Kanotix-Excalibur-2010" was released on 8 June 2010, just in time for LinuxTag 2010.
Others have praised the entire film, with Variety calling it "a near-perfect blend of action, romance, fantasy and philosophy".[8] Sean Axmaker of Parallax View said, "John Boorman's magnificent and magical Excalibur is, to my mind, the greatest and the richest of screen incarnation of the oft-told tale."[24] In a later review upon the film's DVD release, Salon's David Lazarus noted the film's contribution to the fantasy genre, stating that it was "a lush retelling of the King Arthur legend that sets a high-water mark among sword-and-sorcery movies."[25] A recent study by Jean-Marc Elsholz demonstrates how closely the film Excalibur was inspired by the Arthurian romance tradition and its intersections with medieval theories of light, most particularly in the aesthetic/visual narrative of Boorman's film rather than in its plot alone.[26]
Warner also experimented with the "rental-only" market for videos, a method also used by 20th Century Fox for their first release of "Star Wars" in 1982. Two known films released in this manner were "Superman II" and "Excalibur". Other films released for rental use include "Dirty Harry", "The Enforcer", "Prince of the City", and "Sharky's Machine".
His liquid form eventually drained away, forgotten by Excalibur. When he regained his senses, he felt that Excalibur didn't care about him, because they had never searched for him after his disappearance. He discovered the Crazy Gang, former enemies of Excalibur, who were just burying one of their own: the Executioner. The Executioner was a robot, completely hidden in green robes, who wielded an axe. Feron stole the robes and the axe and posed as the Executioner to the Crazy Gang, turning them against Excalibur again. They invaded Captain Britain's bachelor party, but when Feron was unmasked, he and Excalibur settled their differences, once he realizes that Excalibur was quite busy dealing with all other manners of threats. He attends Captain Britain and Meggan's wedding, after which Excalibur is disbanded.
Simon achieved fame with his rock opera "Excalibur, La Légende des Celtes" ("Excalibur, The Legend of the Celts") (Sony) in 1999, of which he was both songwriter and producer. The first part of an intended trilogy, "Excalibur" blended musical styles and was performed by Roger Hodgson (ex-Supertramp), Fairport Convention, Dan Ar Braz, Tri Yann, Angelo Branduardi, Didier Lockwood and Gabriel Yacoub. Within weeks, the album went top 10 and gold in France. Five concert performances took place between October 1999 and June 2000, including one at Paris-Bercy. A live recording, released as "Excalibur, le concert mythique" ("Excalibur, the legendary concert") (CD and DVD) was recorded at the first performance in Rennes, October 12, 1999.
Wood used this argument during congressional meetings on SDI. When asked about the possibility of a Soviet version of Excalibur and what a US response might be, Wood stated that X-ray lasers could be used against any object in space, referring to this as a "counter-defensive" role. This claim was quickly turned against him; if Excalibur could destroy a Soviet SDI system, then a Soviet Excalibur could do the same to theirs. Instead of ending the threat of nuclear weapons, Excalibur appeared to end the threat of SDI. More worryingly, when one considered such scenarios, it appeared the best use of such a system would be to launch the first strike, and then use the lasers to blunt the enfeebled response. Miller immediately sent a letter countering Wood's claims, but the damage was done.
Simon has also written two novels on the story, "Excalibur, le cercle de Dragon" (Excalibur, the circle of Dragon), was released in March 2008. A second volume was published in October 2009 called "Excalibur, la prophétie de Merlin" (Excalibur, The prophecy of Merlin).
Miramax, which was owned by The Walt Disney Company, paid $3.5 million to buy the worldwide distribution rights. Later, Harvey and Bob Weinstein (the co-chairmen of Miramax) were forced to buy back the film from Disney and created Shining Excalibur Films (a one-off company) to release the film, due to Disney's policy forbidding the release of NC-17 rated films. Eamonn Bowles was hired to be the chief operating officer of Shining Excalibur Films.
When Excalibur first premiered on HBO in 1982, the R-rated version was shown in the evening and the PG-rated version was shown during the daytime, following the then current rule of HBO only showing R-rated films during the evening hours.
Excalibur was filmed in Irish locations in County Wicklow, County Tipperary, and County Kerry. The early critical battle scene around a castle, in which Arthur is made a knight by Uryens, while kneeling in a moat, was filmed in Cahir Castle, in Cahir County Tipperary, Republic of Ireland, a well-preserved Norman castle. The castle's moat is the River Suir which flows around it. The fight with Lancelot was filmed at Powerscourt Estate's waterfall. Other locations included Wicklow Head as the backdrop to the battle over Tintagel, the Kerry coast as the place from which Arthur sails to Avalon and a place called Childers Wood near Roundwood, County Wicklow, where Arthur comes on Excalibur in the stone. At the time, John Boorman was living just a few miles down the road, at Annamoe.[11]
The final part of the trilogy, "Excalibur III The Origins" ("Excalibur III: The Origins"), was released in 2012.
When first released in the United Kingdom in 1981, the film ran to 140m 30s, and was classified as a "AA" by the BBFC, restricting it to those aged 14 and over.[1] In 1982, the BBFC replaced the "AA" certificate with the higher age-specific "15", which was also applied to Excalibur when released on home video.[28]
The film was also released in America on Laserdisc by Image Home Entertainment. The film was later released on VHS. Excalibur Films, despite mostly dealing with pornographic film, released it on DVD on August 23, 2002. as the company was formed by the film's executive producer.
In 2007, Simon released the second part of "Excalibur", "Excalibur II, l'anneau des Celtes" ("Excalibur II, the ring of the Celts") with contributions from Jon Anderson (Yes), Alan Parsons, Barclay James Harvest, Maddy Prior, Jacqui McShee, John Wetton, Justin Hayward, Flook, Karan Casey, Fairport Convention, Andreas Vollenweider and Martin Barre.
In many versions, Excalibur's blade was engraved with phrases on opposite sides: "Take me up" and "Cast me away" (or similar). In addition, when Excalibur was first drawn, in the first battle testing Arthur's sovereignty, its blade blinded his enemies. Malory[23] writes: "thenne he drewe his swerd Excalibur, but it was so breyght in his enemyes eyen that it gaf light lyke thirty torchys."[note 3]
The 4th Excalibur album, "Excalibur the Dark Age of the Dragon" was released on 10 November 2017.
Simon's novel, "Excalibur, le cercle de Dragon" ("Excalibur, the circle of Dragon"), was released in March 2008. A second volume was published in October 2009 called "Excalibur, la prophétie de Merlin" ("Excalibur, The prophecy of Merlin").