New Release: Excalibur and The Mission Blu-ray

Excalibur

Warner Home Video brought two 1980s classic films to Blu-ray, both starring Liam Neeson (The A-Team): 1986 historical drama The Mission on Dec. 7, 2010, and 1981 sword fantasy Excalibur on March 8, 2011.

The Mission Blu-ray was available earlier at Amazon through an exclusive agreement.

Also starring Robert De Niro (Once Upon a Time in America), Jeremy Irons (Eragon) and Aidan Quinn (Flipped), The Mission tells the story of a group of 18th century Spanish Jesuits who try to protect a remote South American Indian tribe who are in danger of falling under the rule of pro-slavery Portugal. Directed by Roland Joffe (The Killing Fields), the movie won an Oscar for best cinematography and was nominated for six others, including best director and best picture. The screenplay by Robert Bolt (Doctor Zhivago) and Ennio Morricone’s (The Untouchables) score also won Golden Globe awards.

Priced at $24.98, the Blu-ray includes these special features:

• commentary by Joffe
• and the BBC Omnibus documentary People On a Mission, chronicling the movie’s South American location shoot and the lives of the Waunana Indians who portrayed the film’s Guanari tribespeople.

Directed by John Boorman, the helmer behind Deliverance, Excalibur tells the story of legendary King Arthur and is based on a book by Thomas Malory. The film’s cast is made up of a who’s who of actors from the U.K., including Neeson, Helen Mirren (Red, The Last Station), Patrick Stewart (X-Men), Gabriel Byrne (TV’s In Treatment) and Ciaran Hinds (Road to Perdition).

The Excalibur Blu-ray, priced at $19.98, was not the movie’s high-definition debut, as Warner released the film on HD DVD before that format lost out to Blu-ray in the high-def war.

Buy or Rent Excalibur
Blu-ray | Instant Video	Blu-ray	Blu-ray

Buy or Rent The Mission
Blu-ray | Instant Video	Blu-ray	Blu-ray