John Boorman’s Excalibur claims to be adapted from Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur, but is in reality drawn from several sources, many of which contradict Malory’s version of the legend; however, by adapting Malory in this way, Boorman is in fact following directly in his footsteps, for Malory also claims to draw from one source but uses many, in addition to his own imagination.
Though George Herbert was an Anglican rather than any of the non-conformist sects and clearly appreciated the physical beauty of high church cathedrals and rituals, his poetry clearly portrays a Calvinist theology, indicated that he refused to take part in the separatist debates of his time, preferring rather to chart a middle way between the extremes many around him were pursuing.
The two major film versions of Shakespeare’s Henry V, one directed by Laurence Olivier in 1945 and one by Kenneth Branagh in 1989, use nearly the same script of the play but end up with very different attitudes toward war, each being influenced by their cultural and historical context.
SHAKESPEARE’S SONNET 55
Not marble, nor the gilded monuments
Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme;
But you shall shine more bright in these contents
Than unswept stone, besmeared by sluttish time.
When wasteful war shall statues overturn,
And broils root out the work of masonry,
Nor Mars his sword nor war’s quick fire shall burn
The living record of your memory.
‘Gainst death [...]
