Excalibur and America

First, Excalibur is wonderful. Yes, it's dated in places. Yes, some of the acting is hammy, and some is downright amateurish. But it's so deeply felt, so serious. Maybe it is a product of the fact that so much story is crammed into the film, but each moment, every action is weighted with such importance, such significance.

And perhaps much of its weight is drawn from just how unkillable this material is. There is a reason we still dream of Arthur, still sketch him on screens large and small. These stories speak truths about our humanity. Think of the fact that Malory's Morte D'Arthur was completed in 1470, based on legends from much earlier. Think of what has changed about language, culture, humanity since then...

Now, what do we find in these stories? Hopes for peace destroyed by the petty human vices of those in power (pride, lust, revenge). Noble ideals falling into corruption and disappointment. The waste of good people in pursuit of hopeless quests. (Or seemingly hopeless quests.) These are themes we can relate to.

Recall the theme of the "body politic". Percival speaks to ailing Arthur: "You and the land are one." Arthur drinks from the Grail and replies, "I did not know how empty was my soul... until it was filled." He rises from his throne, mounts his horse at last to meet the corruption embodied in his incestuously conceived bastard Mordred, the land blossoming anew with his rejuvenation.

Now consider the inversion we experience living in a democracy: instead of prosperity and life flowing downward from our ruler, we elect the ruler(s). Now the land (first) and the king are one, with the health or sickness of the land (read: people) flowing upward to the ruler(s). We have accepted the (relatively new, American) myth that this form will ever and necessarily always produce prosperity and freedom.

From what grail can we sip to cure this sickness and dread which pins us slumped, pallid, upon our throne?