DRAGONHEART
A film review by Lucas Wolenczak
Copyright 1996 Lucas Wolenczak
with Dennis Quaid as Bowen and Sean Connery as Draco
images can be found via ftp at ftp.stgenesis.org/pub/Fantasy/DragonHeart
Well I must admit - this movie shocked me. Not with blood and gore I expected to go see - but with it's ability to tell a story - a realistic story. A story which left you spellbound from the beginning until the end. This movie is spectacular - from the graphics to the humor - it held me in awe throughout. The usage of Morphing techniques gave the Dragon (named Draco after the Draco constellation) all the characteristics of Sean Connery. It's a tale of the old ways - the days of King Arthur - the struggle for power and glory while still attaining those now ancient respects. It reminds us that even the purest of people have evil lurking within and through courage and honor - these evils can be repressed and molded instead into something greater. The movie opens with a prince and his teacher learning the art of swordsmanship and fencing. The prince is quick and forgets to fight with his head and heart instead of his body. The knight, his teacher, reminds the prince of the old ways, molds the boy into the perfect king. However in the middle of their lesson - a kings advisor disrupts them to request their presence at a nearby battle. A battle where the peasants have built themselves a small stronghold with which to fight back against the king's tyranny. The king does not return from this battle. As the peasants tear him from his horse and proceed to beat him to death, the king's son rides to his father, and hiding among the debris and machinery he claims the crown. Suddenly, a young maiden falls from above, and the heir to the thrown is peirced by the heart - a mortal wound. Calling upon the Dragon, the prince's mother pleads for her son's life. In his last words, the prince honors the dragon's wishes and promises to be a better King than his father, to end to tyranny, the destruction and slavery. To return to the ways of King Arthur and his men. The Dragon, removes part of his own heart, and shares it with the prince, with hope that the good of the Dragon's soul will purify and devour the soul of the King's within the boy. Evil however cannot be cured with one pure drop of blood for the prince, now the King, enslaves those who rebeled and murdered his father to build himself a grand castle. The King truely spoiled and rotten finds joy in taunting and making life for the commoners pure hell. His teacher, disgusted by the King, breaks from the King's service and goes in search for the Dragon which poisoned his teachings. Convinced the Dragon was truely evil, he sets out hunting down all Dragon's he can find. Making a small profit on the side for his duties. Laced with Humor, the knight, Bowen meets his match. In a fast paced and long fight, the Dragon (proclaiming he *is* truely the last dragon left) and Bowen join together in an attempt to keep them both alive. The begin going from town to town conning the locals for their gold. The Dragon pretends to attack, and harmlessly burns feilds and flys around menacingly. Bowen rides in claiming he will kill the Dragon for a bag of Gold. The first town agrees (they stiffed him on a previous Dragon slaying and now paid two bags of gold in advance). Bowen fires a harpoon like device - the Dragon catches it and swiftly brings it under his wing crying out in fake agony and crashes into the lake. The lake being dep enough covers the Dragon completely, and the Dragon then swims away. The town rejoices and the two move to the next town.
The second town proved to be a bit more difficult. The young maiden who's father was responsible for the original uprising against the King's father, had earlier been imprisioned after attempting to murder the King (he had burned her father's eyes out for killing his father). He declared she was to be his bride, however the King's mother, ashamed of her son, leads the young woman to safety. Now outside the walls of the castle and back in her own village she attempts to rally her people again against the King. They return in throwing food at her and soiling her face and clothes as well as taunting her as well. Nevertheless, the Dragon rides in again scaring the locals. Bowen of course is there to save the day, and mistakenly mentions that the Dragon does accept young maiden sacrifices instead but he'd leave that up to them. Assuming they'd pay him instead he's rather surprised when they tie up the young maiden and offer her to the Dragon. Bowen is in trouble. He tells the Dragon to eat her or something - anything to get him out of trouble. The Dragon reluctantly agrees and upon returning, Bowen is shocked to find the Dragon and maiden singing and chatting with each other rather than seeing him picking his teeth of her remains. Much to their enjoyment, the King returns to claim his bride, claiming that she had become lost. Responding to her wishes, Bowen tells the King that she seems to want to remain lost - however this does not please the King. Instead Bowen and the King draw their swords in an attempt to settle the King's whim. In a last attempt, the King prepares to kill Bowen as the Dragon comes to his rescue. Frightening the King - the trio is now onto the next town. Before reaching the town the maiden discusses at length how and why they should rebel against the King. Bowen isn't listening very well, however little does he realize the surprise he's in for at the next town. Upon Arriving, the town agrees to pay Bowen to rid them of the Dragon (who this time aparantly is eating their pigs - their only means of survival). The maiden, disgusted at their plans, attempts to foil them however is nearly laughed out of town when she tries to convince the commoners that the Dragonslayer and the Dragon are in cahoots. Bowen again sets up their trap - the Dragon catches the harpoon and plumments to earth - his body submerges in the lake about two feet before an earth shattering thud is heard and the Dragon falls flat on his back. "Think think think..." Mutters Bowen to Draco. "It's not getting any deeper" responds Draco. The villagers however dont' care - they have a huge peice of meat before them they can slaughter and be fed for weeks. Draco isn't for that and immediately he's up and runs off flying out before they grill and broil him as well. The villagers are not happy, however the maiden, Bowen and the travelling Bard who has joined them will still satisfy them for a good meal. Draco returns in time and swoops all three away. As the movie continues we learn more about Draco and Bowne and their past as well as their sour feelings towards the King. The Young Maiden convinces them to attack back against the King and eventually they agree. The locals are against the entire idea at first - they had been there once before with her father - and remembered the aftershock as well. However, when they saw and met the Dragon who would be on their side - the immediately began to learn and manufatcture weapons of all kinds. When the King learned of their camp - he gathered all of his men together and made sure they were ready for these rebels. The Kings mother even offered him a gift of the three finest Dragonslayers around. As the rebels approached the Castle, the Kings men went to meet them. The locals turned and ran into the shetler of the Forrest - luring the King and his men with them into their fight. A massive battle ensued - as the King realized he was defeated, he called for the retreat. Bowen refused to let the King live and get away to rally more troops - he called to the trees for the bard/monk to stop the king. The bard shot the King in the chest - immediately we see the Dragon double over and fall as well. The King pulls the arrow free and suddenly realizes why he still lives. Turning, he rode back to the castle - they had now captured the Dragon and the King wanted to be sure that the Dragon remained safe - forever. The link between King and Dragon were realized - the King knew the Dragon was his only life link, if the Dragon died, so did he. The Rebels banner together again to storm the castle through the entrance which the maiden first left with the Kings mother - they galantly fought their way through to the Dragon. Bowen refused to kill Draco however since the King's mother's attempt to kill Draco failed (she originally hired the Dragon Slayers to "Fix a mistake i never should have let live") - Draco knew the only way to bring down the king, would be if Draco died. Draco held the life of the two hearts, and without his beating, the King would die. Draco begged Bowen to kill him and in a shocking slow motion ending, Bowen swung his axe into the opened heart of Draco. The King fell to the ground and died almost immediately. Draco remained alive for a few more minutes, then lay down peacefully and died as well. The last Dragon had fallen, once Bowen's enemy, and now his best friend had to be sacrificed for the good of the kingdom. And in the tale of Draco's ancestors expressed early in the movie, Draco's body vanished into dust and took to the stars - he joined his great ancestors as a star among the Draco constellation - the resting place for the Dragon's who truely made a difference and were great. Bowen and the maiden took the throne and led their people to happiness and greatness as Draco watched over them from above.
The movie is truely spellbinding. The animation, morphing, humor and amazing directing talent and truely gifted story writing brought a life to this film unlike any others. I went to the movie expecting to see a cross between BraveHeart and Hamlet (truely great movies) but was not disappointed to see something totally different. It was a movie which made you think, yet you didn't have to know anything about the era of which this movie took place, or know anything about Dragons and Monarchy or the language of the times to thouroughly enjoy this movie. This is a movie that portrays Hollywood in it's truly spectacular light - it shows what the movies represent - present day story telling. It didn't engross you with details, or blood and gore, it didn't trick you with riddles and puzzles. It was a mature, humorous film. One which involved the humor of present day without making us think it was a movie done in 1996 about the 900 AD times. It truely placed you in the middle of the movie - It involved you so thouroughly in mind and spirit, that you left the movie with a peice of the DragonHeart.
Comments may be sent to leigh@phoenix.net Leigh - "Wolenczak" http://www.phoenix.net/~leigh phoenix.dal.net
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