Excalibur (1981)

Costume Design by:

- Bob Ringwood ( notable efforts: Dune (1984), Solarbabies (1986), Batman (1989), Batman Returns (1992), Demolition Man (1993), The Shadow (1994), Batman Forever (1995), A. I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) )

John Boorman's ethereal and grandiose adaptation of Le Morte d'Arthur was a striking cinematic depiction of the Arthurian cycle, with its direction and dialogue combining to give the film an 'epic' feeling that most films even til now don't manage. Bob Ringwood's costume designs for the film, whilst definitely rooted in the medieval era, have several fantastical elements of them that make them purely ahistorical - the intention of this was in order to prevent the film having a set 'era', as it was not a historical film by any measure.

The film features several knights warring for the English realm, clad in armor suits that reflect Ringwood's intention perfectly, as they do not really resemble any existing knight armor at all, being much more bulky and imposing and covered in furnishing that push the design into purely fantastical territory - the presence of spiked discs on the legs and arms, as well as the armor having metallic studs fixed on various regions. The armor suits, whilst designed by Ringwood, were constructed by the armorer Terry English (who also designed the armor of the Colonial Marines in Aliens), and there were several individual suits made, with the first notable one being that of King Uther Pendragon (Gabriel Byrne) who sports a helmet that has been designed to resemble a dragon's snouted head. Other knights have differing arrangements of shoulder armor pads - King Arthur himself (Nigel Terry) always has an armor suit with curved upright shoulder pieces - but almost every armor suit is fitted with an individual helmet design, usually fitted with spikes or studs.

After King Arthur encounters the gallant Sir Lancelot (Nicholas Clay), he and his followers all start sporting gleaming silver armor designed after Lancelot's own, which whilst far less bulky than the standard armor of the film, has been designed with frill-like ridged pieces fixed on the helmet, elbows and knees. Arthur's armor, meanwhile, stays the same except for now being silver, and with a golden piece around the neck collar to symbolize the Round Table.

King Arthur of course marries Guenevere (Cherie Lunghi) who sports a good deal of pretty dresses across the film's runtime. Whilst the film's medieval fashions aren't purely fantastical, they are indeed different enough to certainly be ahistorical, though it is mostly the dresses of Guenevere and Morgana that are worth noting. Guenevere's wears a shiny golden-white bride's dress to her wedding, and is then briefly seen in Camelot wearing a flowing dress made up of multicolored diagonal stripes, which is sadly not seen again in the film.

At the banquet scene, Guenevere sports a white and golden dress that is not seen fully, but is worn with a crown that consists of a golden head bangle fixed with dangling golden pieces.

Guenevere also briefly sports a bedroom gown made of a golden and brown patterned fabric and fixed with multicolored shining discs all over to resemble jewels.

At the tournament to defend Lancelot's honor, Guenevere wears her last notable dress which is perhaps the most striking, being hooded and made of a shiny golden fabric resembles fish scales, and is again worn with a head bangle crown that has been fixed with dangling pieces, this time short discs.

The only other notable dresses seen in the film is the metallic veiled habit worn by the nurse that is only briefly seen during Mordred's birth scene (notice also the 'monks' with armor helmets under their hoods) and the multicoloured ridged gowns worn by the women inside the Duke of Cornwall's castle, who wear purple dresses underneath the gowns.

Arthur is guided by the magician Merlin (Nicol Williamson) who sports two main outfits in the film, though with both he wears a metallic helmet designed like a skullcap, which was again sculpted by Terry English. The shining silver contrasts against Merlin's garb, with the magicians cloak being far more striking - not only does the cloak have a stiff fixed collar, giving Merlin an almost regal air (as well as how for the most part, stiff raised cloak collars were a design motif with fictional wizards as is), but the cloak itself is made of a wondrous multicolored patterned fabric of shining blue, green and black, almost giving Merlin a shimmering appearance.

Of course, being a film entirely about the mythical sword Excalibur, the Lady of the Lake appears, and is shown wearing a silvery gown made of a pattern that almost resembles fish scales - a similar pattern almost to Guenevere's tournament dress.

Of course the enemy of Arthur is his estranged sister Morgana (Helen Mirren) who of course is clad in some of the film's more striking outfits as the film goes on. Her first outfit is relatively simple and safe, just being a blue dress with a pink veil and a thick grey-green cloak.

In Camelot, Morgana starts wearing more seductive dresses as she becomes more aware of her malevolent power, with the first of these being a multicoloured dress (designed in almost a similar way to Merlin's cloak) worn with head bangles, necklaces and again the pink veil.

When Morgana tricks Merlin into giving her his powers, she wears a simple black dress worn over a black thread fishnet, which she then just wears when she seduces and sleeps with Arthur (seen more clearly in one production photo from the film) - Morgana sports some of the film's most ahistorical but stylish costumes.

Morgana then wears a green and red dress that has again been designed to have a net motif, in this case, it has been cut into an alternating pattern, with the red fabrics on the top and the holes sewn especially to form a line down her front - with this dress, she also wears some elaborate head jewellery. Sadly, this costume, despite being one of the more striking ones, is seen just too briefly (but at least, clearly).

Morgana's last outfit is sadly not seen clearly much - this time, she is clad in revealing chest armor that is worn over a black skirt, as well as worn with armor pieces around the arms and of course silver jewellery over the neck and head. One of the more fantastical of the film's costume designs, the silver breastplate is also carved to have nipples, which along with Mordred's golden armor, is a design aspect that Ringwood would carry on again when he designed the costumes of Joel Schumacher's Batman Forever, in particular the Batman suit with the sculpted nipples. The Morgana armor still exists, and in fact was actually used again in publicity material for the London Beauty Expo, though it had been slightly tweaked first.

Lastly of course, is the armor worn by Morgana's son Mordred (Robert Addie) who sports the film's most memorable costume - the golden armor suit with a helmet carved to resemble almost a cherubic face of curly hair, which is a contrast to the character's evil nature. There are actually two armor suits (again built by Terry English), one for the adult Mordred and the other for his younger self which appears first - design-wise, it is identical. The 'adult' suit however (which still exists), showcases the design much clearer, and again has the intentionally ahistorical design sense of the other armor suits, in this case spiked pieces, as well as of course the helmet, worn with a 'beard' of golden chain mail. As said earlier, the suit is designed with sculpted musculature including nipples, a design aspect that Ringwood would use both on his design for the 'stillsuits' in David Lynch's Dune and of course the Batsuit in Batman Forever.