Dragonslayer (1981)

Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Dragonslayer has all of the quintessential components of a classic fantasy fiction story. Adventure, romance, the unlikely hero, magic and of course a dragon. Watch this if you enjoyed movies like Conan the Barbarian, Red Sonja, The Beast Master, Dark Crystal, Legend, Willow, Jason and the Argonauts, Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger.

They do not make movies like this anymore. Too bad this is the case. The Hobbit/Lord of the rings is the only other film that I think gave fantasy films a good name. There are a few others that I enjoyed but many are garbage with stupid crappy humor and B rated filming. I wish they would make more movies like this.

This film blends witchcraft and wizardry , adventures , battles and is extremely fun and amusing . A sorcerer's apprentice (Peter MacNichol) is sent to kill a dragon which has been devouring girls from a nearby kingdom . An older magician (Ralph Richardson) is the mentor of the rockie sorcerer . The young boy dreams becoming a valiant sorcerer and join forces with a girl (Caitlin Clarke) to vanquish a horrible dragon . The young wizarding apprentice suddenly finds himself the only person who save the kingdom from a free-breathing dragon . This fantasy movie packs action , witchery and and sorcery with impressive battles . Likable performance by a young Peter MacNichol , though is the first film released under the Disney name to have full frontal male nudity , as when Peter MacNicol jumps into the water, his legs swing wide giving the audience a quick shot of his genitals . Funny acting by the veteran Ralph Richardson and enjoyable support cast . The story has many familiar dragon motifs found throughout Western culture , in particular Saint George and the Dragon, in which maiden sacrifices were made to appease a harassing dragon. Saint George's tale also includes a sacrificial lottery resulting in the surprise condemnation of a princess , Saint George is also frequently depicted with a magic blessed lance or a sword . Smart screenplay by Hal Barwood dealing with fantasy medieval , dragons , necromancy , fantastic kingdoms and many other things . Entertaining and fun movie with acceptable special effects bringing the dragon to life . Work on dragons made by CG sometimes seem authentic , but is also noted its computer realization . First film to use go-motion, a variant of stop-motion animation in which parts of the dragon were mechanized and the movement programmed by computer . During shooting, the computer moves the model while the camera is shooting, resulting in motion blur, which makes the animation more convincing . The only thing that let it down from this perspective , was that some of the parts in between the dragons fighting were a little dull . Colorful cinematography , shot on location in Wales , though the final scene was shot in Skye, Scotland and many town locals were employed in the film as village extras. Thrilling as well as spectacular musical score by the classic Alex North , some of the score by Alex North was "recycled" from music he'd originally composed for 2001: A Space Odyssey that went unused . This co-production between Walt Disney Pictures and Paramount was efficiently directed by Matthew Robbins and it was more mature and realistic than most Disney films of the time .The picture belongs to Fantasy/Dragon sub-genre ; other important films dealing with Dragons are the following : ¨Dragonheart¨ by Rob Cohen with Dennis Quaid , Dina Meyer , Jason Isaacs and Julie Christie ; ¨Dragonheart , a new beginning¨ with Chris Marterson , Figueroa and Harry Von Gorkum ; ¨Dragom Storm¨ (2004) by Stephen Furst with Maxwell Caufield , Angel Boris , Tony Amendola and John Rhys Davies ; and other latter day movies and belonging to this Dragons sub-genre are ¨Reign of fire¨ (2002) by Rob Bowman with Christian Bale, Matthew McConaughey , Izabella Scorupco , and Gerard Butler ; ¨Eragon¨ (2006) by Stephen Fangmeier with Edward Speleers , Robert Carlyle , Sienna Gullory and John Malkovich .

Recently I rented this movie through Netflix because I had not seen it for many years and wanted to see if it lived up to my nostalgia. And I have to say that Dragonslayer (1981) is still a special movie to me.There is not much plot in the movie that is not described in the title. Peter MacNicol plays a sorcerer's apprentice who, when his master is killed before fulfilling a promise to slay a dragon, must attempt to slay the dragon himself.Because it was released at the start of a run of sword-and-sorcery movies produced in the 1980s, Dragonslayer is different from almost every other movie in the genre that followed it. In fact, it is almost unique in movie history.I actually believe that Dragonslayer has more in common with Jaws (1975) than it does with other 1980s fantasy-adventure movies.Director Matthew Robbins, no doubt influenced by Steven Spielberg's directorial techniques in Jaws, introduces the dragon slowly, in fleeting glimpses, before finally revealing it in its entirety after more than an hour of screen time.There is, for example, a great shot from behind a character's head as he slowly rises to his feet with the dragon in front of him, with the dragon's head only just visible around his own.The director also makes clever use of camera angles to suggest that people are constantly in fear of death from above, crouching and even crawling along the ground in apprehension of awakening a sleeping dragon.Like almost all the sword-and-sorcery movies of the 1980s, Dragonslayer is also a triumph of production design. Production Designer Elliot Scott creates a world in which a fire-breathing dragon does not seems out of place. The sorcerer's castle is appropriately dark and dreary, the people live in a village that appears to be little more than sticks and rocks put together, and the dragon's lair, full of fire and steam, is an unforgettable sight.The screenplay has perhaps just the right amount of plot in it, yet I cannot say that it impressed me as much as the direction and production design, because it seems more like a series of clever ideas than a coherent screenplay.I do not want to spoil the movie for those who have not seen it, but I thought it was a clever touch for the hero to use a shield made of the dragon's own scales for protection against its fiery breath. Also, when the hero ventures into the dragon's lair, the dragon is hiding in the last place that you would expect a fire-breathing dragon to hide.Like many other movies of the genre, Dragonslayer does suffer from a bit of an identity crisis. Is this a movie for adults or for children? Obviously few people over the age of twelve care about the slaying of a dragon, yet the unrelenting grim and serious tone of the work suggests an ambition to be more than just a "kids' movie." This tone is maintained so completely that the jokey, lighthearted ending seems out of place, compared to everything that has preceded it.The screenplay also suffers from some awkward moments of transition, as when the hero, after battling the dragon, appears outside the dragon's lair, with no explanation as to how he escaped or survived. The myth of Saint George and the Dragon, which provided most of the source material for the screenplay, suffers from the same abrupt transitions, if I remember correctly, yet the screenplay should have improved upon the flaws in the source material.I also cannot praise the movie as an actors' showcase, especially since Sir Ralph Richardson, obviously the best actor in the movie and giving one of his last performances, is on screen the least amount of time. The other performances are merely serviceable, nothing more.I would give this movie 7 out of 10, because if you are a fan of fantasy movies then the movie is definitely worth seeing at least once. If you are not a fan of fantasy movies, then you might give the movie only 5 out of 10, as its good points would not be as meaningful to you.I have to admit that I have no idea how people today, accustomed to Lord of the Rings and other lavishly produced computer-generated spectacles, would view this movie. I would like to think that the movie has held up better than many other movies that rely upon special effects, thanks to its production design, and Alex North's atmospheric musical score, yet maybe this is not enough for viewers today.Perhaps the greatest praise that I can give this movie is that, at least for me, it is memorable and unique.This movie should always have a place in movie history, if only for its special effects. It was released the same year (1981) as Ray Harryhausen's last special effects movie, the original Clash of the Titans, and introduced a new stop-motion technique, "go-motion," which would be the special effects-industry standard for the next twelve years, until Jurassic Park was released in 1993 and made all stop-motion effects seem obsolete.It would be easy to dismiss Dragonslayer as merely a footnote in the history of fantasy and special-effects movies, but I would prefer to think that, when viewed today, it still succeeds in transporting the audience to another time and place and makes them believe the impossible.