Review of Dragonslayer (1981) by Carter M — 01 Aug 2004

There have been many movies made over the years who owe their environment to Tolkien. You know, the "Middle Earth" overrun with elves, dwarves, dragons and wizards? A few, like "The Sword and the Sorcerer" were okay, while others, like "Legend" were not. Among the heap of clones like "Willow", "Dragonheart" and the ghastly horrible "Dungeons and Dragons" rose one movie which actually pulled this style off. It did it quite well, in fact, and was really the standard to which these movies could be judged until Peter Jackson came along and set a new, impossibly high, standard. This movie was "Dragonslayer", and it managed to show all the types of people that kids who have been playing "Dungeons & Dragons" had learned about during their role playing but never actually seen accurately in a movie. There was the Wizard, the Apprentice, the Warrior and the Cleric all laid out in roles that made sense in the little Medieval Kingdom the movie was set in. The role of Dragons and how in their misery and spite they scorched the earth was frighteningly laid out, as was the King's sacrificial deal with it to keep it at bay.

The effects were top notch. Before computers made dragons like the ones in "Reign of Fire" possible, this movie set a standard by emplyoing a "go-motion" system which used a robotic dragon which would move by mechanical computer control while the camera slowly filmed. This created motion blur and believable movement. The dragon design was very frightening as well and is much of what makes the movie work.

The plot is simple and not grandiose. This film was made by a partnership between Paramount (the same year they made "Raiders of the Lost Ark") and Disney. Sometimes the Disney shows a little, and that's unfortunate, but for the most part the film seems serious enough.

My favorite thing about this movie, though, is the performance of Sir Ralph Richardson. This was his last film (This and Time Bandits were shot the same year). But he brought the wisdom, ominousness and wry charm to this role that I have never seen an actor bring to a Wizard. Even Sir Ian McKellen, whom I really respect and admire, did not quite hit the sweet spot for me in his portrayal of Ghandolf (okay, so he was a 9.999 out of 10). Richardson is everything I ever imagined an old wizard to be. Seeing him rise from the ashes lit in orange and floating over fiery water in the dragon's fire cave was chilling and powerful. And he managed to perfectly capitalize on that by asking if Galen had brought any food with him as soon as he was finished rising from the dead... Brilliant.

See this movie and realize how long we've been waiting since 1981 until LOTR came out in 2001 for another good tale of Dragons and Wizards.