Dragonheart
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| Dragonheart | |
|---|---|
 Original film poster |
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| Directed by | Rob Cohen |
| 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 Sean Connery (voice) |
| Music by | Randy Edelman |
| Running time | 103 min. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Dragonheart is a 1996 fantasy/adventure film directed by Rob Cohen, and starring 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 many other movie trailers, such as Mulan and Seven Years in Tibet, making it a very common film score.
Dragonheart inspired a direct-to-video sequel, Dragonheart II: A New Beginning.
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[edit] Plot
A brave but disillusioned knight, Sir Bowen, joins forces with Draco, the last surviving dragon, to defeat the tyrannical King Einon, with whom both dragon and knight are linked by fate. Also tagging along for Bowen's quest is Brother Gilbert of Glockenspur, a monk who takes to chronicling Bowen's adventures, and a young village girl Kara, whose father falls victim to Einon's tyranny.
In the story, Einon is gravely wounded, and his mother takes his body to Draco, who splits his own heart so the prince can live. However, after his resurrection, the prince becomes a cruel tyrant. Bowen, Einon's former mentor, decides that the dragon's heart made Einon evil, and sets out to destroy Draco. The heart is connected; if Draco's half is destroyed, Einon will die as well. However, difficulties arrive when Bowen happens to befriend Draco, not knowing who he is. Draco is the last dragon, and, for a time, he and Bowen attempt to scam villagers by having Draco pretend to attack the villages and then get 'killed' by Bowen, in actuality just diving into a nearby lake to escape.
Eventually, they are encouraged by various acquaintances to fight against Einon's dictatorship, but things are further complicated when Draco is captured and Einon realizes the nature of their link. Despite the odds, Bowen and a group of allies break into the castle, only to learn that Draco must die in order for Einon to fall. Despite his initial refusal to kill his friend, Bowen is forced to do so in the end. However, as he stands by Draco's lifeless body, Draco's spirit ascends into the constellation of Draco, the dragon-heaven, his 'mistake' in allowing Einon to live redeemed by his noble sacrifice to save his friends.
[edit] Background
Dragonheart is set in the later half of the 10th century in Britain. 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. In this, the movie seems to center around the disillusionment of Bowen from his knightly ideals after Einon became a tyrant when his father died, and his eventual revival of the chivalric spirit, as it were, when confronted by the spirits of King Arthur and his knights. The movie displays the classic theme of good triumphing over evil when Einon is felled, alas at the expense of Draco's life.
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....
[edit] Trivia
- During the making of the film, over 200 images of Sean Connery's facial expressions were taken along with voice clips to make Draco more like him.
- It is said in the film that the dragon's heaven is a field of stars in a dragon's shape and that each star is a dragon's soul. The Draco constellation is a real constellation.
- Many scenes were filmed in the ruins of a real medieval Spiš Castle in Slovakia.
- Draco has become revered by fans of dragons since the movie's debut and thus has become the theme of many fan art works and fan clubs.
[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] External links
