In the film, Excalibur, the audience gets no details on Sir Launcelot.

All the audience get

is that Sir Launcelot becomes a part of King Arthur’s life because Arthur isn’t able to defeat

Launcelot in combat in an honorable fashion. Besides Launcelot’s loyalty to the king and his

sworn love towards Queen Guinevere, the viewers get no inside information on him. Launcelot is

introduced as Launcelot, Knight of the Lake. All he says is that he has not yet found a worthy

opponent to match his equal strength. Launcelot also says that he is in search of a king to train

him. Besides these basic facts, the audience gets no other inside information on Launcelot.

A couple scenes later Perceval becomes a part of the movie. The way Perceval becomes a

part of this story is because he hunts a rabbit for Launcelot, prepares it for eating and once

Launcelot awakens from his sleep Percival takes advantage of the moment and asks Sir

Launcelot to take him as a trainee and teach him to become a knight.

These two characters, Launcelot and Perceval are portrayed differently in the book

compared to the film. For example, Launcelot is introduced from the beginning of the book in

the second section, while in Excalibur, he is introduced almost an hour later and he is an adult. In

the book, Merlin meets Launcelot’s parents, King Ban and Queen Elaine and tells them how

successful and well known their son will become. Even though readers do not directly get to

know who Launcelot is, the readers are aware of how his character will later on effect the story’s

plot. When Merlin meets Launcelot’s parents, he mentions that Launcelot will be the best knight

to have ever existed. After this, some time passes by in the text and readers learn more about Sir

Launcelot and his adventures. Readers even get to meet Sir Launcelot’s nephew, Lionel.

Another difference one can distinguish between the film and the reading involve the two

characters of Perceval and Beaumain. If one does not pay well enough attention, viewers can
easily confuse them and instead of thinking they are two different and separate characters one

will definitely think they are the same person. The book speaks of Beaumain, whose name is

later on revealed as Sir Gareth, son of Lot. Beaumain came to the castle and asked for three

things, those were to be fed, to become a knight and to pick up a specific case as a knight.

Perceval, in the film, is the one who feeds Lancelot and through this he is able to reach the castle.

Kay is in charge of training Perceval but Perceval is taken as a joke and Perceval does not

become a knight until he stands up for Queen Guinevere, since Launcelot does not show up on

time to fight against Sir Guwane. In the book Perceval is the son of Sir Pellinore and does not

end up fighting against Launcelot. Also in the readings, Arthur is Gareth’s uncle and is later on

killed by Launcelot.

The directors of this movie don’t spend as much time on explaining who Launcelot is.

The producers of this film don’t bother to go into detail about Launcelot’s family nor do they

focus on Launcelot’s quests with his nephew. Lionel is not even brought up in Excalibur. The

reason for this can simply be because the producers did not want to extend the movie

furthermore. The movie is about two hours and thirty minutes long. Even with this length the

movie still excludes various parts of the book. Secondly, the decision of not focusing on

Launcelot’s background can also be to add a mysterious side to his character. In the beginning of

the film when Guenevere meets Launcelot, his mysteriousness seems to attract Guenevere more.

Another reason can be that the directors of the film would much rather focus on King Arthur

instead of focusing on Launcelot. After all it is based on King Arthur’s life and revolves around

the king, although Launcelot is one of the main characters, his presence is not as strong until he

has an affair with Guinevere. As to why the directors made Perceval similar to Sir Gareth, one

possibility is to reduce the amount of characters there are in the book. The amount of characters
in the book make it difficult to remember who each person is and how they are related to other

characters. Reducing characters and making one similar to another from the reading make it

easier for viewers to understand what is going on and how each character is or is not related to

another.

Some of the other differences that were also noticed involve Merlin and Arthur’s sister.

In the film Arthur’s sister, Morgana, and Merlin seem to have an intimate relationship going on.

Morgana wants to understand more about the magic Merlin deals with and an assumption can be

made that she also shows interest in him as a lover. Morgana ends up in Merlin’s hideout and

learns about the wonders of the dragon but she also uses what she discovers to harm Arthur. In

the readings Arthur’s half sister is named Morgan le Fay instead of Morgana. Morgan le Fay’s

intentions to harm Arthur can be seen since the beginning of Le morte d’Arthur but in the movie

Morgana’s intentions towards her brother are not seen until after her meeting with Merlin.

A reason as to why the producers could have made this change in revealing Morgan le

Fay’s intentions was to add a plot twist to the movie and make it more interesting to watch. For

those who hadn’t read the book the scene where Morgana sleeps with Arthur by deceiving him

would be much more than just shocking. As for the change in name from the producers part, it

may just simply be to make it easier for the audience to remember who each character is. In

some cases, the audience may have difficulty remembering Morgan le Fay and would much

more easily remember the name Morgana.