Dragonslayer (1981)

Actually I liked this flick quite a bit.

In fact, I created a Thread for DRAGONSLAYER just about 2 months ago. However it was deleted away during the Server Migration a few weeks back.

He's only apprenticed to one, magic seems to be fading from the world and he wants to hold onto it.

Seeing how she willingly rigged the lottery so her name was chosen, I don't think they'd have gotten a lot of resistance from her in getting her to the lair.

Here's a time machine. Go back to 1981 and do better.

Fainted from the sight of a gigantic dragon hovering over her? Knocked unconscious by a blow from a claw? Grabbed by the legs and dragged? Does it really matter?

As for the magic, if magic existed, and if it was possible simply through study and hard work to master it, wouldn't you want to use it?

I thought it was pretty shoddy but it had a few enjoyable moments.

The Obi-Wan comparison is very apt, I suspect that they were trying to cash in on the recent success of other fantasy movies but failed to tell a good enough story to make it memorable.

The effects weren't really that bad for the time though, and I thought the girl who was pretending to be a boy so she wouldn't get eaten was pretty interesting.

....

Honestly, I dig this movie well enough. All these complaints seem trivial, and the special effects were pretty damn great if you ask me.

The Novelization by Waylend Drew would probably answer a lot of the above questions as well.

The special effects still stand the test of time. I liked the Vermithrax Dragon even better than the Sean Connery one in Dragonheart.

It's one of the five best sword & sorcery films ever made. Anyone who claims otherwise has highly questionable taste in film. Not to mention the fact that anybody who lists poor special effects among the reasons for a movie's lack of quality (which, in this case, isn't even accurate) is very likely the kind of person who pays no attention to writing, cinematography, music score, or performance, all of which this film has in spades. I don't care if the effects are paper cutouts waved around on sticks.

Well, Lord of the Rings complicated things a bit. I didn't like The Two Towers all that much, but Fellowship and Return are films I have equal fondness for, so I'm inclined to have them share a spot, since it's all essentially one film anyway.

In no particular order:

Dragonslayer
Excalibur
Conan the Barbarian
Lord of the Rings
Clash of the Titans

Now, I could also make the case that Star Wars (and I mean just the first one) belongs on this list, which in my mind would bump one of these, probably Clash of the Titans, which was already in danger of being bumped by 7th Voyage of Sinbad. But that always gets into a debate about Star Wars not being fantasy just because it has lasers and spaceships. Of course, people who say that are wrong.

I wish that old thread would show up and kick this thread's ass.

DRAGONSLAYER rocks. Don't let anyone tell you different. Phil Tippett's go-motion creature is monumental, the score does everything it needs to and more, and there are PG boobies in it. Case closed.

No hate here. Granted, it might be a little different when I eventually get the DVD, but I saw the film two years ago on VHS and absolutely loved it.

Richardson's droll humor offsets the Obi-Wan rehashing, I'm hard-pressed to think of a better use of a dragon in any film and Alex North's score is great.

Some of you should check out Ridley Scott's Legend as well.

It's a nice underated Fantasy flick.

Avoid the American cut at all costs, and then we'd be talking.

I watched Legend 5 years ago on Cable. Mia Sara looked simply incredible in it. I especially liked her "Dark Transformation" scenes and Tim Curry's Demon Lord.

Legend , I feel has a very nice Grimms Fairy Tale quality to it, that I feel is missing in todays Fantasy flicks.

I've only watched the American cut so far. Not the Director's cut.

That she is, knew a girl in college who was a dead ringer for her...

I have no idea if the Director's Cut DVD is still in print, go seek it out. It's about a half hour longer, the music is different (and much, much better), there's a good commentary and documentary. Basically if you have any interest in the movie, buy the DVD.

Back to Dragonslayer: the only use of a dragon that comes close to Vermithrax is probably the beastie at the end of Beowulf.

Before you do that, maybe you should answer for this. Do you even like fantasy films?

Jefelee, I appologize for being so rude. The voices in my head told me too, but that's no excuse...

I think this might just be a guy movie... and I found the love story angle to be the weakest part of the writing.

Dragonslayer is not just a guy's movie. I saw it in 1981 and loved it. Seeing this thread reminded me that I need to see this again. The dragon kicked ass and having the princess get eaten was a pleasant surprise in that era. And it was my introduction to Peter McNicol. Has anyone done a thread on him?
There is no way that Clash of the Titans with that annoying robotic owl was better than Dragonslayer. Altho I usually like Burgess Meridith in most of his roles. And i do have a soft spot for Excalibur with Nicol Williamson.

I will admit that Bubo stood as the single worst cinematic creation of all time until Rob Schneider came along. But it's a testament to just how awesome Clash of the Titans is that Bubo doesn't sink it.

The Kraken from Clash of The Titans was particularly good.
It really stands the test of time.

Particularly good? That's faint praise for THE FUCKING KRAKEN. My favorite Harryhausen design. And that's saying something.

Apologies, chief, but I gotta check out here. Sorry, nothing personal.

Oh, and the top five sword and sorcery list has to include Jason and the Argonauts, unless you're one of those people with extra-fine-grained categories and keep a separate sword-and-sandal list.

As much as I love me some Greek mythology, Jason and the Argonauts has serious story issues that prevent me from placing it above 7th Voyage of Sinbad or Clash of the Titans.

I am sorry but 7th Voyage of Sinbad is way above Clash of the Titans. Jason and the Argonauts and Clash of the Titans are about on the same level. Now Thief of Bagdad (1940) and 7th Voyage of Sinbad pretty close to greatness.

Well, like I said, it's a close race for me. Ask me next month, and 7th Voyage may take the prize again. Maybe if 7th Voyage had boobies...

I remember the 1940 Thief of Baghdad. Ah has anyone done a thread on Sabu the star of Thief and Jungle Book. He lead an interesting life. By the way has anyone seen the 1924 Thief of Bagdad with Douglas Fairbanks? I think it works quite well on it's own even if you never see the remake.
Getting back to Clash of the Titans--I was not casting stones at the works of the great Ray Harryhausen. I was just admiring some of his work last month rewatching all those Sinbad movies he did.

Yes I Do. Sword and sandal and fantasy should be in separate genres.

Yes, but Jason and the Argonauts actually is fantasy, as opposed to Spartacus or Ben Hur or Gladiator. So even if you are one of those people, it's a moot point.

Dragonslayer was fantastic then, and now. Vermithrax Pejorative (the worm from Thrace that makes things worse) was an amazingly creative take on dragon-hood ... kind of like a lizard crossed with a crow.

Hopefully another CHUD revamp will oblivion-ate this thread.

I'll give you Jason and the Argonauts but any Hercules film goes to to the S&S Genre.

You don't think that the Greek gods are fantasy? Holidays at your house must be interesting.

Athena is an old party friend of mine. So, I've got nothing to complain about.

I always preferred Aphrodite, myself. Get one drink in that woman, and she's counting ceiling tiles.

Saw Dragonslayer when I was in high school. Me and the other geeks were going to make a Friday night of it. Movie and bowling. Except that the movie
fired us up so much we went and got beer and hung out at the park speaking geek and dragon and magician shit.

I can't speak for anyone else, but at the time I was blown away by the Vermithrax Perjorative scenes. I'd read about the go-motion stuff in Starlog before the movie came out, but seeing it on the screen I didn't think "nice effects" I thought "JESUS...that dragon's gonna eat someone's HEAD here in a moment".

Also, there were underwater boobs. That was included in a lot of the conversation after the movie, too.

I know it's come up here in the past, but honestly there's something to be said for NOT knowing everything about a flick and just buying into what's on the screen. It's like when I worked in recording studios; I learned how the stuff on records was made, and after that I listened more for the techniques and less for the music. I'm sorry about that now, as it makes it really hard for me to truly enjoy music a lot of times.

There were underwater boob? I think I missed that.

Caitlin Clarke. The girl who played Valerian died a few years ago. A great pity.

My favourite scene however was the Climatic Wizard/Dragon fight between Sir Ralph Richardson and Vermithrax. Magnificant and awe inspiring.

The way Sir Ralph intones his Latin incantations and strikes his Wizard staff makes him almost as good as Sir Ian's Gandalf.

I have honestly not seen this film since I was a little kid - probably around 83, 84.

This thread really makes me want to revisit it as all I remember is a 'boy' swimming and our protagonist finding out 'he' was a 'she' and the princess in the pic not being saved but being eaten by dragon babies.

Those memories may be way off though cause as I said its been about a quarter of a century...

Nope, you're dead-on. And those are truly memorable moments. Great little twists there.

Caitlin Clarke was a great bit of casting for that role. She actually managed to pull off the boy disguise.

Incidentally, I love the fact that every thread started to express dislike for something winds up becoming an appreciation thread for that thing.

Feel free to argue. That's your Vermithrax Prerogative.

The same thing happened to Ripoll's Bill Hicks thread, though, and he argues just fine. It's just the nature of things. You force people to defend something they like, and they'll start talking to each other instead of you. It's why I don't generally start threads about things I don't like. Unless I'm looking for more people who don't like it. I knew I couldn't be the only person who didn't like Rocky IV.

You hated ROCKY IV? Perish the thought!

Don't get me started.

I gotta admit, I'm not the biggest fan of Dragonslayer. It's not the effects--those are fucking incredible, especially for '81, and I like the acting from all the principles, and the story ain't half-bad...

But every time I've watched it (about four times now, first time being when I was 13, most recent about a year ago) I end up feeling disconnected from the story. I don't know if the pacing just doesn't work for me, or it's the (possibly the tranfer's fault) muggy cinematography that plagued a majority of fantasy movies in the 80's--y'know, where they all seemed to be filmed in the woods behind someone's house or a very obvious soundstage--but I find my mind wandering and my seat shifted up until the dragon shows up. Even then, while objectively I can see its merit, it doesn't click for me. Can't explain why--I love dragon movies, and even enjoyed 3/4ths of DragonHeart--but every time I've taken a stab at getting into this I end up feeling, well, bored. I can see why others enjoy it, and why it frequently gets namechecked when discussing the best of the genre (the dragon is amazing), it just doesn't do it for me for whatever reason.

Fun tidbit, though--the old guy who plays Hodge is Engywook the gnome from The NeverEnding Story.

Another fun tidbit: Ralph Richardson played The Crypt Keeper in the 1975 TALES FROM THE CRYPT anthology flick.