Review: Dragonheart

Dennis Quaid is Bowen, a once valiant knight ‘of the old code’ now an embittered rogue. Why embittered? Some time ago, he took a wounded Prince Einon to a dragon who saved the boy’s life. However, he became a thoroughly rotten, evil king (now played by David Thewlis), and Bowen blames the dragon. We the audience know that Bowen’s young pupil was an evil little shit all along. Years later the angry and disillusioned Bowen is now a mercenary who slays every dragon he comes across and is paid handsomely for it. That is until he meets a dragon who has a counter plan for profit: The dragon, whom Bowen names ‘Draco’ (voiced by Sean Connery) suggests a deal whereby he starts terrorising local villages only for Bowen to come along and agree to ‘save’ the town for some gold. They then engage in pretend battle, Draco (now supposedly the only living dragon) takes a mock fall, Bowen collects. Eventually the plot dictates that Bowen and Draco will need to team up to end Einon’s reign of terror, but not before a secret is exposed that might fracture the up-until-now lucrative partnership. Pete Postlethwaite plays a donkey-riding displaced monk who travels with Bowen to serialise his exploits. Dina Meyer plays a young woman from a village that Einon’s men have terrorised, with Brian Thompson playing one such disciple of Einon, Jason Isaacs another. Julie Christie plays Einon’s devoted but conflicted mother.

 

Basically a Medieval fantasy version of “Skin Game” or “The Scalphunters”, this slightly offbeat 1996 film from director Rob Cohen (“Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story”, “Daylight”, “The Fast and the Furious”) was a favourite of my then 16 year-old fantasy-loving self. Genre-wise, I ate this sort of stuff up from childhood through my teen years, and I still have a soft spot for a lot of the genre. Scripted by Charles Edward Pogue (Cronenberg’s “The Fly”), 41 year-old me still has some affection for it, though Dennis Quaid’s miscasting is even more annoying to me than it was at the time. Also bothersome is a character not recognise a dragon with the very distinct voice of Sean Connery when he hears one. That’s too tough to swallow. Overall though, I reckon this is at least better than “Willow” and maybe “Dragonslayer” if not on the level of “The Beastmaster”, “Ladyhawke”, “The NeverEnding Story” or the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.

 

It’s a damn good classic fantasy story but with that offbeat “Skin Game” twist and some hilarious comic relief coming from a scene-stealing Pete Postlethwaite as a daffy monk. David Thewlis is terrific as a thoroughly mean-spirited, selfish villain (the kid playing his youthful incarnation is perfectly snotty, too), who has absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Julie Christie is well-cast as Thewlis’ somewhat conflicted mother. Sean Connery’s iconic voice is an inspired choice for Draco the dragon, though as I said, it’s so iconic that it’s tough to believe that Quaid’s character wouldn’t remember having heard it years ago. Listen out for the voice of another cinematic icon, Sir John Gielgud in a cameo as the voice of King Arthur.

 

Aside from Thewlis and the sense of humour, the other major highlight here is the majestic music score by Randy Edelman (“The Last of the Mohicans”, “Daylight”), one of the man’s best. On the downside, Dennis Quaid is all kinds of awkward here as a knight. He doesn’t give an awful performance or anything, but he’s quite clearly not the right choice for this role. He and fellow Americans Brian Thompson and Dina Meyer stand out like sore thumbs, with Thompson having the added unintentional hilarity of attempting a really bad Scottish (English? Pirate?) accent. There are actors who can really sell this Medieval fantasy stuff, and generally they’re not Americans. I’ll cut them a slight bit of slack in pointing out that Pogue’s ear for fantasy-speak is…uninspired and clunky. Honestly, even Connery can’t quite sell all this corny ‘old code’ and ‘my king’ nonsense. It sounds like fantasy-speak written by someone who rolls their eyes at the genre a bit. It’s clichéd almost to a point of condescension. I also don’t think Quaid’s much of an action hero guy either. Westerns, sure. Sports movies, fair enough. Action-adventures…not so much. The FX meanwhile have aged pretty much as you’d expect for a 1996 film, possibly slightly better. The dragon looks fine. However, the blue/green screen work integrating the dragon with other people and the surrounds dates things a fair bit.

 

Sean Connery and dragons. That’s surely enough to sell this thing, right? Oh well, it’s also got a good fantasy story with a sense of humour and a terrific, rousing music score. Some of the casting isn’t quite on-point, notably Dennis Quaid, and the FX aren’t as impressive as they were at the time. However on the whole this is good classic Medieval fantasy stuff that should entertain the target audience. It was underrated back in 1996 and it’s still a bit underrated now.

 

Rating: B-