Excalibur
Screenplay by
Rospo Pallenberg
and
John Boorman
Adapted from "Le Morte D'Arthur"
by
Rospo Pallenberg
FADE IN:
EXT. FOREST - NIGHT
Darkness. The sound of battle cries and the clang of metal upon metal. The forest lights up with huge sparks flying from sword and ax as armored knights hack and swing at each other. Mounted knights collide head-on at full gallop, their armor made incandescent in the clash. Sparks eddy in their wakes and float to the ground. The forest catches fire.
MAIN TITLES on the flames. Out of the sounds of ancient battle grows music, heroic and barbaric, shot through with melancholy.
Two crazed eyes reflect the fire. The eyes belong to a man without age, at once ancient and boyish, female and male; his eyes are pained from the burden of too much knowledge. So close is he to the flames that a lock of his wild hair sizzles alight. He slaps at the fire as if it were an annoying insect. He wears a cloak of black trimmed with silver. It is Merlin. The wizard weaves a path through the burning forest, dodging the combatants, searching.
MERLIN
Lord Uther! Lord Uther!
