Dragonheart (1996) – Review

Before Peter Jackson’s adaptation of The Lord of the Rings proved that fantasy films could be legit blockbuster entertainment, a trilogy that not only brought in huge box office but Academy Awards as well, there was very little in the way of “big-budget offerings” in the fantasy genre.  The best examples I had while growing up were the films by legendary stop-motion artist Ray Harryhausen but with the advent of computer animation certain fantasy elements that were once hard to pull off now took a major leap forward, enter Dragonheart.

The movie deals with an English knight named Sir Bowen (Dennis Quaid) who has spent his last few years training and mentoring the Saxon prince Einon (Lee Oakes), in the ways of  The Old Code, but when Einon’s tyrant king father is killed during a peasant uprising, and Einon himself is mortally wounded. Einon’s Celtic mother Aislinn (Julie Christie) has her mortally wounded son taken before a dragon and asks him to save the boy’s life. The dragon (Sean Connery) makes Einon promise to rule “justly and with honour” and replaces Einon’s wounded heart with half his own. Sadly, we don’t see much in the way of “ruling with honour” as Einon quickly proves to be even more oppressive of a ruler than his late father was He forces the former rebels into slavery and makes them rebuild an old Roman castle, which greatly distresses Bowen who now believes that the dragon’s heart has somehow corrupted Einon. With anger and revenge in his heart he vows to hunt all of these creatures down, of course, he’s wrong and Bowen was just blind to the fact that Einon was an evil little shit right from the start.

Our hero, the not-too-observant Sir Bowen.

We then jump ahead twelves years and Bowen has become a renowned dragon slayer, having hunted them to the brink of extinction, but when he encounters Draco, who he doesn’t know is the very creature who shared his heart with Einon, they get into a knock-down drag-out fight that ends in a stalemate – with Bowen in the dragon’s mouth but with his sword poised to strike up into the brain – and it’s here where the film starts to get a little wonky, with Draco pointing out that with him being the last of the dragons if Bowen kills him he will be out of a job.  Draco suggests a partnership and they agree not to kill each other, instead, they form a partnership to defraud local villagers with staged dragon “slayings.”  This is a take on the 1971 comedy The Skin Game where James Garner repeatedly sold Louis Gossett Jr. to various idiot slave owners, and while this leads to some fun moments plot-wise it doesn’t really go anywhere.  Worse is the fact that this change of heart makes no sense. Bowen blames the dragons for corrupting his Prince and thus vowing for vengeance, while Draco is the last of his kind due to the actions of Bowen the Dragon Slayer. How could either of these guys get past that hostile dichotomy?

Why doesn’t Draco think of using his ability to breathe fire to end this stalemate?

This buddy adventure aspect is only one element of Dragonheart as we also have Kara (Dina Meyer), daughter of the leader of the previous peasant revolt, who witnessed the now older Einon (David Thewlis) murder her father in cold blood, she now runs around trying to get the local peasants to give revolution another try. She gets less than stellar results. That is until she crosses paths with Bowen and Draco and they eventually go all Braveheart and somehow rally the people to march on Einon’s castle.  This all so we can have your standard medieval battle, a final confrontation between the hero and the villain, not to mention a noble sacrifice tossed in for good measure.  While some of this works a lot of it doesn’t and I’ll never buy Draco forgiving Bowen for hunting down and murdering all of his kind without even an “Oops, my bad” from this clueless knight.

“I’m too old for this shit.”

That all said, Quaid and Connery have excellent chemistry as the knight and dragon, despite the fact that their relationship makes no logical sense, and their banter is a highlight of the movie. This fantasy film also features some impressive special effects, and sure, they may be a bit dated by today’s standards but back in 1996, they were cutting-edge. The dragon’s design looks a little like a cross between a dinosaur and a dog but somehow it all works.  However, Dragonheart does have its flaws, the plot is fairly predictable and the supporting characters are poorly developed, not to mention the film’s constant struggle to balance its darker themes with its lighthearted moments.  It is in the addressing these themes of loss, betrayal and sacrifice, while injecting buddy comedy, where the film fails to strike a tonal imbalance.

Draco is really good at posing and looking cool.

Stray Observations:

• This was originally to be done with traditional stop-motion or go-motion effects but with the success of Jurassic Park it was decided to go the CGI route, so once again stop motion artist Phil Tippet was left in a supporting role to the computer animators. This time out he was relegated to the design department.
• At one point Bowen pours a mug of water and casually drinks while fencing with the young Prince, which was a clear nod to the sword fight between Danny Kaye and Basil Rathbone in The Court Jester.
• We get a “The peasants are revolting” joke, because why not rip off Mel Brooks while you’re at it?
• Bowen tries to free the peasant who had killed the King, and sure, Einon was being a cruel dick but the man was guilty of regicide. That Bowen isn’t then held accountable for trying to free him is also a bit daft.
• After slaying a dragon Bowen asks for a bag of gold for his services, from a group of Einon’s knights, but he is refused and this begs the question “If he wasn’t paid for this dragon slaying who exactly was paying him?”
• I know Einon is a bit crazy as well as evil but his trying to seduce Kara, who had just tried to assassinate him, moves well beyond crazy and into the realm of sheer stupidity.
• When an attempt to extort money out of the neighbouring peasants goes badly they decide to sacrifice Kara to the dragon instead of paying Bowen, and Bowen tells Draco to get rid of her, even suggesting that he eat the girl. Is this actually supposed to be our hero?
• The dragon slayers chain up the fallen dragon, but why? They were hired to kill the dragon and at this point in the film no one knew that Einon’s life was tied to that of Draco, so their chaining him up makes no sense.

I don’t even see Peter MacNicol among these dragon slayers.

The plot of the film hinges on the idea of a man struggling to recapture his idealism, which is a powerful theme that could have led to a very interesting movie, but the tone of the final script is a mess because any darker undercurrent is undercut by this “buddy-cop” banter.  Then there is the complete lack of chemistry between Quaid and Dina Meyer, who I think the film suggests are going to become romantically involved but don’t by that for a second. It should also be noted that there are some actors who can easily slip into any time period and accent, sadly, Dennis Quaid is not one of them. I’d put his portrayal of Sir Bowen up there with Kevin Costner’s casting in the title role of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves as both of them should stay clear of anything prior to the 20th Century. This issue was not helped by the casting of such talented character actors as David Thewlis as Einon and Jason Isaacs and Brain Thompson as two of his more ruthless knights, because they work this era quite well and completely sell their parts.

“Who wants to apply for a job at Hogwarts?”

Overall, Dragonheart is your standard classic fantasy tale, with all the appropriate trappings, and if it’s mired in some dodgy storytelling and even dodgier attempts at humour it still holds up as a somewhat fun adventure and can be enjoyed as such. That is if you don’t take it seriously, which is the best way because it doesn’t take itself all that seriously either. So grab some popcorn, sit back, and enjoy the ride. And don’t forget to appreciate the fact that Sean Connery once voiced a dragon.