Review of Knightriders (1981) by Thomas L — 24 Aug 2009

What a great premise, and a great change of pace for George A. Romero. He wrote and directed this right after Dawn of the Dead, and even brought his leading man from that film, Ken Foree, over to this one to play Little John.

It's also neat to see an unknown Ed Harris tackle this role with gusto. Here he plays King Billy, head of this traveling troupe of motorcycle jousters who have their own little Camalot going until commercial interests intervene and Morgan (Tom Savini, also from Dawn of the Dead) falls prey to it, precipitating the undoing of Camelot as well as Billy's sanity.

I really wanted to like this movie more than I did, which always seems to be the case with Romero's stuff. With this one, it's just too darned long. There was no reason for this to be two and a half hours.

I can understand a storyteller's attachment to the material, but the last thing you want is for the material to become precious to you. That's a death trap. Otherwise, considering the budget was practically nothing (another Romero leitmotif), this was pretty decent.

Definitely unique, that's for sure.