Dragonheart
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| Dragonheart | |
 Original film poster |
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| Directed by | Rob Cohen |
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| Produced by | Raffaella De Laurentiis |
| Written by | Charles Edward Pogue (story/script) Patrick Read Johnson (story) |
| Starring | Dennis Quaid David Thewlis Pete Postlethwaite Dina Meyer Jason Isaacs Brian Thompson with Julie Christie and Sean Connery as Draco (voice) |
| Music by | Randy Edelman |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
| Release date(s) | Australia: December 12, 1996 North America: May 31, 1996 United Kingdom: October 18, 1996 |
| Running time | 103 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $57,000,000 |
| Gross revenue | $104,385,000 |
| Followed by | Dragonheart: A New Beginning |
Dragonheart is a 1996 fantasy/adventure film directed by Rob Cohen. It stars Dennis Quaid, David Thewlis, Pete Postlethwaite, Dina Meyer, and the voice of Sean Connery.
The music for the film was composed by Randy Edelman, and the main theme song, "To The Stars," was used in the film Two Brothers as well as several movie trailers, such as Mulan and Seven Years in Tibet and also used in clip montages at the Academy Awards, making it a very common film score.
Dragonheart was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects as well as various other awards in 1996 and '97. The film also inspired a direct-to-video sequel, Dragonheart: A New Beginning.
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[edit] Synopsis
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The plot summary in this article is too long or detailed compared to the rest of the content. Please edit the article to focus on discussing the work rather than merely reiterating the plot. (June 2009) |
England, A.D. 984: The cruel and tyrannical Saxon King Freyne summons his young son Einon (Lee Oakes) and Einon's mentor Bowen (Dennis Quaid) to witness the suppression of a peasant rebellion. Though the king’s troops are ultimately victorious, Freyne is killed when the rebels stage an ambush. Einon rushes into the fray to claim his crown and is accidentally stabbed through the heart before Bowen can reach him.
Though the wound should have been fatal, the young king’s mother hopes for a miracle. Queen Aislinn (Julie Christie) has her son taken to a cave in the mountains where she pleads with a shadowy figure to save the young man's life. The creature, a dragon, recognizes Aislinn as "the daughter of the Celts," whose people had revered his kind as their friends. For her sake, the dragon removes a part of its own heart and bestows it upon the boy, cauterizing the wound with a blast of fire. Einon revives and is carried home to recover. Grateful for the dragon's sacrifice, Bowen pledges to repay his debt at a future time.
Shortly thereafter, Einon reveals himself to be as brutal and pitiless as his father, enslaving the former rebels and forcing them to begin work rebuilding the nearby ruins of a Roman castle. As the young king gives the order to have the rebel leader blinded, Bowen intervenes and allows the man to escape. Believing that the dragon's heart is responsible for Einon’s wickedness, Bowen returns to the cave and vows to seek vengeance for the ruin of his protégé.
Twelve years later, Einon's (David Thewlis) castle is rebuilt and Bowen becomes a formidable dragon-slayer. During one dragon-hunt, the knight meets Brother Gilbert (Pete Postlethwaite), a monk and aspiring poet. Impressed by Bowen's prowess, the priest is determined to follow him and record his heroic exploits in epic verse. The knight stalks another dragon to its cave and engages it in battle, resulting in a stalemate. The dragon (voiced by Sean Connery) shrewdly informs Bowen that he is the last of his kind, and that the dragon-slayer will have difficulty finding work if the two "pursue this fracas to its final stupidity." Since their options are either Bowen kills the dragon and is out of work, or the dragon kills Bowen and has to deal with the next knight out to make a name for himself, the dragon proposes a partnership, and the two begin defrauding local villages with staged dragon-slayings; the dragon attacks a village, Bowen offers to kill him for a fee, and pretends to spear the dragon, who then falls into a nearby lake and swims out of sight underwater. Since the dragon’s name is difficult for the human tongue to pronounce, Bowen calls him "Draco", after a constellation of stars that resembles a dragon.
Meanwhile, Einon encounters Kara (Dina Meyer), the rebel leader's daughter, and realizes that she was responsible for his injury years before. He has her imprisoned and attempts to seduce her, but she stabs him in the shoulder with surprisingly little effect. He leaves Kara alone to consider his offer, and Queen Aislinn helps her escape. Draco feels the pain of the wound, but continues to hide the connection between himself and Einon from Bowen.
In her home village, Kara attempts to instigate a new uprising. When Bowen and Draco arrive the villagers offer the girl as a virgin sacrifice to appease the dragon. At Draco's lair, the dragon and knight argue about what to do with Kara as Einon approaches and demands that she be returned to him. Bowen and Einon duel, with the older man at a disadvantage because he is not truly willing to harm his former student. In the course of the fight, Bowen is heartbroken to realize that Einon never changed: he was always an evil man, and he only pretended to agree with Bowen's idealism to learn the sword. When Einon gains the upper hand, Draco intervenes and Einon flees in terror. Kara attempts to persuade Bowen to help her overthrow the oppressive king, but the disillusioned knight refuses.
The next scam attempt goes poorly when Draco lands in shallow water, preventing him from sinking to the bottom and forcing him to fly away to avoid being eaten, leaving Bowen, Kara and Brother Gilbert in danger from angry villagers. Draco rescues the three and carries them to the island of Avalon. Taking shelter from a rainstorm amongst the tombs of the fallen Knights of the Round Table, Draco reveals that the constellation he was named after is, essentially, a dragon heaven, where dragons may go to upon death if they earn a place. He attempted to gain a place there by saving Einon, hoping his heart would change the prince's nature and once again unite the races of Man and Dragon, but, although depressed by his failure, agrees to help Gilbert and Kara in the rebellion. Bowen initially remains behind, but when he experiences a vision of Arthur, he remembers the high ideals he once tried to instill in Einon, and agrees to join the rebellion.
During the battle between the peasants and Einon’s forces, which goes far better than the last rebellion due to Draco's firepower and Bowen's tactical expertise, the king is shot with an arrow. The resulting pain causes Draco to fall from the sky over Einon’s castle and the dragon is captured. Einon realizes that sharing the dragon’s heart renders him virtually immortal so long as no harm befalls the dragon, and determines to keep Draco alive and imprisoned indefinitely. Wanting to end her son's evil, Queen Aislinn tries to kill Draco, wanting to redeem herself for saving 'a creature not worth saving', but is stopped and killed by Einon.
When the rebels invade the castle, Bowen intends to release his friend, but Draco tells Bowen that in order for Einon’s reign to end he himself must die, and begs the knight to kill him. At first, Bowen does not want to but as Einon rushes towards him, Bowen reluctantly does so. This releases Draco's soul to the dragons' heaven – where he becomes a new star in the constellation – and killing Einon in the process. The film concludes with an epilogue by Brother Gilbert stating that Bowen and Kara went on to lead the people in an era of peace and prosperity, and that, whenever things were particularly difficult, Draco's star shone all the more brightly, for those who knew where to look.
[edit] Cast
- Dennis Quaid as Bowen, a knight who follows the Old Code (the code of King Arthur's knights). He taught Einon, and when his pupil turned to evil after being saved by a dragon, he thought it to be the dragon's doing, and vowed to hunt down every dragon until he found him. Twelve years later, Bowen is still doing so, until he encounters Draco, who informs him that he is the last of his kind, and the two make a deal to continue faking Draco's death. Through Draco, Bowen comes to know Kara, a rebel, and befriends Draco. Though reluctant at first, disillusioned into believing the Old Code no longer matters, Draco reminds him of his oath while on Avalon. He eventually agrees to help Kara in her fight against Einon. At the climax of the film, Bowen is forced to an ultimatum: to let his friend live and so also Einon, or to kill Draco and so end Einon's evil.
- Sean Connery as Draco (voice), the last of the dragons, who makes a deal with Bowen to continue faking his death. He befriends the knight and even helps him escape on two separate occasions, the latter at Avalon, where he reminds a reluctant Bowen of his oath to the Old Code. Draco only has half a heart, as he gave his other half to Einon so that he would live, but Einon broke his oath and continued being evil. After deciding to help the rebels so that he will not lose his soul and perhaps earn a place in the Dragon Heaven, Draco is captured, and when Bowen finds him, he forces him to kill him, to end Einon's evil. However, Draco is allowed into the Dragon Heaven, and Bowen's people afterward looked to the stars in time of need, when his star would shine the brightest.
- David Thewlis as King Einon, Bowen's former pupil, he was mortally wounded when trying to retrieve his father's crown. Saved by Draco after falsely swearing an oath of the Old Code, he continued in his father's tyranny. He takes Kara captive and tries to seduce her; when she escapes, he meets Bowen again, and in the heat of battle, tells him he and only pretended to agree with Bowen's idealism to learn the sword; he leaves, terrified, when Draco shows him their connection. During the battle later on, Einon and Draco are both hit in the shoulder, and Einon uses this opportunity to lock Draco away safely. After battling his old teacher, he unsuccessfully attempts to stop Bowen from killing Draco, ending his own life and evil in the process.
- Dina Meyer as Kara, a rebel whose father was a rebel who had his eyes taken out, and was later killed by Einon. She is also the woman responsible for Einon's near death years ago, and attempts to avenge her father by killing him; when she fails, Einon tries to seduce her, but Queen Aislinn later helps her escape via a secret passage. She returns to her village, and tries to convince the villagers to fight back against Einon, appealing to Bowen for help after she is taken by Draco and learns of their alliance. He is at first reluctant, but later agrees, and Kara leads them to the secret passage in the castle after Draco is taken captive. It is revealed through narrative that she and Bowen later lead the people after Einon is dead.
- Pete Postlethwaite as Brother Gilbert of Glockenspur, a monk and aspiring poet who is inspired to write of Bowen's deed after seeing him slay a dragon. He falls asleep after the stalemate between Bowen and Draco, but later catches up to them, going with them to Avalon, where he agrees to help Kara in the rebellion. Bowen later teaches him to use the bow, which he becomes an expert at, and it is Gilbert who fires the shot which accidentally causes Draco to be taken captive. Gilbert explains at the end of the film that Bowen and Kara led the people of England and looked to Draco's star in time of need, which shone all the more brightly.
- Julie Christie as Queen Aislinn, Einon's mother, who appealed to Draco to save him after he became mortally injured, and swore alongside Bowen to instill in him the virtues of good. Twelve years later, Einon is a tyrant and despot much like his father, to her disgust, and after he takes Kara captive (who reveals he killed her father), Aislinn helps her escape via a secret passage. She also gives Einon five dragonslayers, in an attempt to kill Draco, and so also her son. When this fails, she herself tries to kill Draco, who agrees, but she is stopped and killed by Einon.
- Jason Isaacs as Lord Felton, Einon's political adviser, first seen when he refuses to pay Bowen for his work, and is later forced to. When the rebels attack, he is confident that they cannot win, but Einon will not take any chances. While trying to escape after the castle is invaded, he catches Kara from behind, but is killed by Hewe.
- Brian Thompson as Brok, Einon's general, who notices the rebels gathering and also Draco. He is cocky in battle against Kara since she is a woman, but is killed by a swift two-handed blow with a battle-axe.
- Wolf Christian as Hewe, a veteran of the rebellion against King Freyne, he is reluctant to follow Kara until Bowen reveals that they have Draco. He goes with them to invade the castle, saving Kara from Felton.
- Terry O'Neill as Redbeard, the leader of the rebellion against King Freyne, and Kara's father. He has his eyes taken out, and is later killed by King Einon.
- Lee Oakes as Young Einon
- Sandra Kovacicova as Young Kara
- Thom Baker as Aislinn's chess partner
[edit] Possible influences
The concept of a dragon and a knight forming a partnership for mutual gain bears a striking resemblance to the plot of "The George Business", a 1980 story by Roger Zelazny[1]. This story appears in Zelazny's collection Unicorn Variations, and was originally published in Dragons of Light.
[edit] Background
Dragonheart is set in the later half of the 10th century in Britain, after the conquest of that country by the Saxons. In the novelization, which was also completed by Charles Edward Pogue, the film's screenwriter, it is revealed that Queen Aislinn was born into one of the native Celtic tribes; Freyne wiped out her people, but took Aislinn for his wife by force. Thus, Aislinn reveres dragons, while Freyne has made his name by killing them (his shield bears the device of a sword severing a dragon's neck).
The novel differs from the movie on a few points, usually in an instance of making the movie less violent or graphic than the original story; one example of this is the attempted seduction of Kara by Einon. The movie allows Kara to escape unharmed, but in the novel it is later revealed that she was raped by the king. At the same time, the novel is more of a love story than the movie, with Bowen confessing his love for Kara.
There are references to King Arthur and the "old code" of Camelot throughout, with Draco taking Bowen, Kara, and Brother Gilbert to the fabled island of Avalon at one point in the film. One of the film's central themes is Bowen's devotion to knightly ideals, and his disillusionment when his pupil becomes a tyrant, followed by his revival of the chivalric spirit when confronted by the spirits of Arthur and his knights.
The said "Old Code" is recited during the story by the Shades or animated memories of the Knights of the Round Table; it is written below.
...inside the circle of the table, under the holy sword, a knight must swear he will obey to the eternal code, eternal as the table, a ring bound to honour.
A knight is sworn to valor, his heart knows only virtue, his blade defends the helpless, his might upholds the weak, his word speaks only truth, his wrath undoes the wicked.
The right can never die, if a man still remembers him. Words are not forgotten, if a voice pronounce them clearly, The Code always shines, if a heart preserves it brightly...
The Old Code....
In the film's commentary, Director Rob Cohen said he tried to make a movie about what he himself believes in: living your life according to a set of ideals.
[edit] Awards and nominations
| Award | Category | Winner/Nominee | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Academy Awards | Best Effects, Visual Effects | Scott Squires, Phil Tippett, James Straus, and Kit West | Nominated |
| Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films | Best Fantasy Film | Universal Pictures | Won |
| Best Costumes | Thomas Casterline and Anna B. Sheppard | Nominated | |
| Best Music | Randy Edelman | Nominated | |
| Best Special Effects | Scott Squires, Phil Tippett, James Straus, and Kit West | Nominated | |
| Hollywood Film Festival | Hollywood Digital Award | Scott Squires | Won |
| Satellite Awards | Outstanding Visual Effects | Scott Squires | Nominated |
| Sitges - Catalonian International Film Festival | Best Film | Rob Cohen | Nominated |
[edit] Other media
After its release, Dragonheart spawned a spin-off 2-D hack and slash game for the Sony PlayStation called Dragonheart: Fire & Steel, made by Acclaim Entertainment, which was met with mostly negative reviews due to bad gameplay, poor quality graphics, and a generally unimaginative design. In late 1996, Acclaim ported a PC version of the game, which received similar criticism. There was also an original Game Boy game based on this film. [1]
[edit] References
- ^ noted on the page literature for Dragonheart on IMDb, accessed July 17 2007.
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Dragonheart |
[edit] External links
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