Powerful Witches or Weak Damsels:
Female Characters in Arthurian Films
One could hardly imagine three more different depictions of Morgan le Fay
in film than those in John Boorman’s 1981 Excalibur, NBC’s telefilm Merlin
from 1998, and TNT’s adaptation of Marion Zimmer Bradley’s novel The Mists
o f Avalon in 2001. These are three among many adaptations of the Arthurian
legend in film over the years. From a 1904 version of Parsifal to the 2004 King
Arthur,! there have been many visions onscreen of the storyline and principle
characters, with each writer or director giving the tradition his (principally his)
own interpretation. In contrast to the original medieval versions of these stories,
in which one would not expect to find positive and powerful female figures
(with the exception of the Lady of the Lake), one might hope that contemporary
films might contain such a figure. These three films in particular show a
progression in the female characters, especially the magical female characters,
evolving from a male-centered point of view in Excalibur to a female-centered
point of view in The Mists o f Avalon. The question posed particularly by Mists
becomes whether the female characters actually gain in power at the same time
that they gain in audience sympathy or do they lose power in order to gain a
sympathetic portrayal.
A confrontation between masculinity and femininity is represented by the
movie Excalibur, which came out in 1981. The movie fairly declares war on
femininity as represented by the three female characters: Igrayne, Morgana,2 and
Guenevere. Only Igrayne has a positive effect on the society by giving birth t