WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema Rewind: Dragonslayer 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:08.160 Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. Rewind, this is Rob Lamb. 0:00:08.800 --> 0:00:11.440 Today you were going to be airing an episode that 0:00:11.800 --> 0:00:15.920 originally came out four twelve, twenty twenty four. It is 0:00:16.160 --> 0:00:20.720 nineteen eighty one's Dragon Slayer. We referenced this one again 0:00:20.760 --> 0:00:24.720 recently when we're talking about the two thousand Dungeons and 0:00:24.800 --> 0:00:27.240 Dragons film and how you know, of course nothing can 0:00:27.280 --> 0:00:31.280 equal the majesty of the Dragons and Dragonslayer, So it 0:00:31.320 --> 0:00:33.840 seems like a good enough reason to dive right back 0:00:33.880 --> 0:00:34.960 into this episode. 0:00:35.000 --> 0:00:37.680 We hope you enjoy. 0:00:39.200 --> 0:00:46.600 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:49.360 --> 0:00:52.920 Hey you welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob Lamb. 0:00:52.920 --> 0:00:56.480 And this is Joe McCormick. And today on Weird House Cinema, 0:00:56.520 --> 0:00:59.480 we are going to be talking about the nineteen eighty 0:00:59.520 --> 0:01:03.920 one ant to see adventure Dragon Slayer. This was a 0:01:03.960 --> 0:01:07.280 first for me. I'd heard about this movie for years. 0:01:07.319 --> 0:01:10.800 In fact, a good friend of mine has long been recommending. 0:01:10.840 --> 0:01:13.080 It was the first time I ever got to see it, 0:01:13.319 --> 0:01:16.679 and I was mighty impressed. What an event this was. 0:01:17.319 --> 0:01:20.399 Oh absolutely, this is one too that I've heard about 0:01:20.480 --> 0:01:26.600 for ages, especially in reference to the titular dragon, so 0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:28.920 I knew it was gonna have great dragon effects. And 0:01:29.000 --> 0:01:30.840 so it's been on the to watch list for a 0:01:30.959 --> 0:01:33.920 very long time, probably since I was a kid, and 0:01:33.959 --> 0:01:38.760 I would see promos for it on cable for cable 0:01:38.959 --> 0:01:41.280 viewings of it that I never never got around to 0:01:41.319 --> 0:01:44.920 watching it, and ultimately, I think I'm glad that I waited. 0:01:45.440 --> 0:01:45.679 Now. 0:01:46.400 --> 0:01:50.120 The reason that we ended up selecting Dragon Slayer is because, 0:01:50.360 --> 0:01:53.560 as many of you might have noticed, on Monday, there 0:01:53.920 --> 0:01:56.120 a lot of people got to witness a total solar 0:01:56.160 --> 0:02:00.520 eclipse and that got us thinking, well, we should watch 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:04.320 an eclipse movie. And when you start looking around for 0:02:04.520 --> 0:02:08.760 films that feature a total solar eclipse in a meaningful way, 0:02:09.280 --> 0:02:11.880 there's really not a lot to choose from, And for 0:02:12.000 --> 0:02:14.440 my money, it basically comes down to two choices. You 0:02:14.480 --> 0:02:17.200 can do nineteen eighty one's Dragon Slayer or you can 0:02:17.240 --> 0:02:18.800 do nineteen eighty five's Lady Hawk. 0:02:19.160 --> 0:02:22.040 Now, Rob, as much as I can see why you 0:02:22.080 --> 0:02:25.160 would be drawn to Dragon Slayer, I am quite perplexed 0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:28.680 that you picked the non Rutger Hower option of the two. 0:02:29.760 --> 0:02:32.520 Well, yeah, I think Lady Hawk is a fine film too, 0:02:32.560 --> 0:02:35.040 and they're actually actually very interesting films to compare in 0:02:35.080 --> 0:02:37.960 a couple of different ways, because on one hand, both films 0:02:38.040 --> 0:02:43.360 cast organized religion in a suspicious or antagonistic light. Both 0:02:43.400 --> 0:02:46.359 films immersis in a setting that is supposed to feel 0:02:46.480 --> 0:02:50.680 realistically medieval or dark ages to some extent with it, 0:02:50.720 --> 0:02:53.359 but with at least some magic. In other words, we're 0:02:53.400 --> 0:02:57.240 not dealing with a high fantasy, non Earth world. We're 0:02:57.280 --> 0:03:00.160 not dealing with worlds where magic can just do anything. 0:03:00.600 --> 0:03:04.080 And both films center around a fresh faced protagonist. And 0:03:04.160 --> 0:03:07.519 of course both films prominently feature a total solar eclipse. 0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:10.200 Hmmm, that's interesting. Now it's been a while since I 0:03:10.200 --> 0:03:12.840 saw Lady Hawk. I don't even recall what role the 0:03:12.880 --> 0:03:15.480 eclipse plays in the plot, but I do like that 0:03:15.560 --> 0:03:18.440 you bring up the kind of interesting fact that they're 0:03:18.480 --> 0:03:22.919 fantasy movies that seem to be set roughly within real history, 0:03:23.160 --> 0:03:26.360 like I believe we're supposed to interpret the or Land, 0:03:26.560 --> 0:03:31.000 the setting of Dragon Slayer as somewhere within like post 0:03:31.080 --> 0:03:34.880 Roman Britain, like say Britain in the six hundred's ad 0:03:35.200 --> 0:03:35.680 or something. 0:03:36.480 --> 0:03:36.960 Yeah. 0:03:37.080 --> 0:03:40.320 Yeah, that's very much the sense that I got from it. 0:03:40.320 --> 0:03:44.400 It is a world in which magic and sort of 0:03:44.400 --> 0:03:48.360 traditional pagan if you will, beliefs are seeping away from 0:03:48.400 --> 0:03:51.200 the world, just as this new religion of Christianity is 0:03:51.240 --> 0:03:55.520 seeping in. And there's this idea that magic can still 0:03:55.560 --> 0:03:59.000 be potent, but it is uncertain, like magic is leaving 0:03:59.080 --> 0:04:02.760 the world. And this again, this is not an everything 0:04:02.800 --> 0:04:05.920 as possible world of high fantasy magic, and so legitimate 0:04:05.960 --> 0:04:12.120 magic in Dragon Slayer shares an uneasy space right alongside trickery, 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:17.240 right alongside superstition and the teachings of this new alien 0:04:17.279 --> 0:04:20.120 religion that's being brought in by outsiders. 0:04:20.720 --> 0:04:23.320 And in the end getting all the credit for what 0:04:23.400 --> 0:04:25.440 our good, virtuous pagan magicians do. 0:04:26.000 --> 0:04:29.520 That's right. So anyway, Yeah, no shade on Lady Hawk. 0:04:29.600 --> 0:04:30.720 Lady Hawk is a lot of fun. 0:04:30.839 --> 0:04:31.400 That one is a. 0:04:33.200 --> 0:04:35.839 Fun adventure film with a compelling romantic curse at the 0:04:35.839 --> 0:04:39.600 center of it. But Dragon Slayer is its own spectacle. 0:04:39.680 --> 0:04:44.200 I mean is it's certainly a creature lover's favorite, dazzling 0:04:44.240 --> 0:04:47.400 cinematography and effects, but also I feel like there is 0:04:47.440 --> 0:04:50.480 a lot more to Dragon Slayer than just the creature. 0:04:50.760 --> 0:04:52.799 I think I maybe just had the little wrong opinion 0:04:52.839 --> 0:04:54.880 of it for all these years, where I thought that 0:04:54.960 --> 0:04:57.240 maybe it was kind of a creature only flick, like, 0:04:57.279 --> 0:04:59.080 all right, you're going to be bored the rest of 0:04:59.120 --> 0:05:01.760 the time, but the impressive And there are plenty of 0:05:01.760 --> 0:05:04.560 movies like that, and we've probably watched films like that 0:05:04.600 --> 0:05:05.599 for Weird House before. 0:05:06.040 --> 0:05:09.280 Yeah, as far as the human drama goes in Dragon Slayer, 0:05:09.400 --> 0:05:11.760 I would say I have some mixed thoughts, but they're 0:05:11.760 --> 0:05:16.000 mostly positive. On the downside, I will admit that most 0:05:16.040 --> 0:05:19.600 of the characterizations in this movie are not very deep. Like, 0:05:19.839 --> 0:05:23.920 you know, you're not getting deeply drawn characters. The characters 0:05:23.920 --> 0:05:28.400 are closer to archetypes, but in the immediate scenes they're in, 0:05:29.080 --> 0:05:32.680 I would say often the characters behave in rather interesting 0:05:32.760 --> 0:05:37.000 and unexpected and nuanced ways, Like the villains aren't as 0:05:37.200 --> 0:05:39.719 villainous as you might expect, and you can kind of 0:05:39.760 --> 0:05:42.960 see things from their point of view, and the heroes 0:05:43.000 --> 0:05:45.960 sometimes do things that you wouldn't quite expect from a 0:05:46.000 --> 0:05:46.599 story like this. 0:05:47.160 --> 0:05:50.440 Yeah, when when the characters feel not so deep, it 0:05:50.520 --> 0:05:52.520 is often in a way where you're like, I would 0:05:52.560 --> 0:05:54.359 like to know more about this character. I feel like 0:05:54.360 --> 0:05:57.040 there's more depth here that the movie. You know, it's 0:05:57.120 --> 0:05:58.960 just it's just not a film that's going to explore 0:05:58.960 --> 0:06:01.800 those additional depths, but like this feeling that those depths 0:06:01.960 --> 0:06:04.960 are present in this character, Like the characters feel real 0:06:05.000 --> 0:06:08.240 and nuanced enough that it may be there, which is 0:06:08.279 --> 0:06:09.279 not the case with other. 0:06:09.160 --> 0:06:11.159 Films that we've talked about. 0:06:11.520 --> 0:06:14.159 Yes, I do want to mention just a few reviews 0:06:14.200 --> 0:06:17.080 of note, because this film does has long had its 0:06:18.120 --> 0:06:23.640 supporters and its fans. I looked in Weldon's Psychotronic Encyclopedia 0:06:23.720 --> 0:06:27.480 film and this particular write up is by Bob Martin 0:06:27.560 --> 0:06:30.640 and not Welden, but he urges readers and I think 0:06:30.640 --> 0:06:32.680 this is written around the time of its release not 0:06:32.760 --> 0:06:34.839 to dismiss it as kid stuff just because it's a 0:06:34.880 --> 0:06:38.560 Disney co production and says, quote, it's got true medieval grit. 0:06:39.520 --> 0:06:42.800 I mean, this is a rather dark and grimy film. Yeah. 0:06:42.880 --> 0:06:46.479 Yeah, that maybe doesn't sound as impressive now because we 0:06:46.560 --> 0:06:48.720 had you know, however, many seasons of Game of Thrones. 0:06:48.760 --> 0:06:52.320 Everybody's seen a lot of gritty medieval fantasy at this point, 0:06:53.000 --> 0:06:55.760 but at the time it was certainly like a breath 0:06:55.839 --> 0:06:56.920 of fresh, gritty air. 0:06:57.000 --> 0:06:59.720 I suppose I would say it's not as dark as 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:03.719 Game of Thrones, Like there is not the violence in 0:07:03.760 --> 0:07:06.839 it is not as cold as that, but it's a 0:07:06.880 --> 0:07:10.240 good bit darker than your standard fantasy fair certainly in 0:07:10.320 --> 0:07:11.200 nineteen eighty one. 0:07:11.480 --> 0:07:14.239 Yeah, it's still PG, I have to stress now. Roger 0:07:14.240 --> 0:07:16.960 Ebert gave it three stars and raved over the Dragon 0:07:17.080 --> 0:07:20.200 over and also over the old Wizard, and it's overall dark, 0:07:20.240 --> 0:07:23.720 grimy tone and look, and he said, here is a 0:07:23.720 --> 0:07:25.880 movie with the courage to be grungy. 0:07:28.160 --> 0:07:31.160 Now, I wonder if this is at all a reaction to, 0:07:31.960 --> 0:07:33.640 or maybe not a reaction to, because I think it 0:07:33.680 --> 0:07:36.920 was the same year. The movie Excalibur is from nineteen 0:07:37.000 --> 0:07:39.200 eighty one, which this has come up on the show before. 0:07:39.200 --> 0:07:42.080 I've still never seen it, but my impression of it 0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:47.440 is that it is just an almost offensively gleaming film 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:53.160 or everything is just very polished and shiny and high 0:07:53.240 --> 0:07:58.160 fantasy veneer, whereas, yeah, this movie is gross and slimy, 0:07:58.240 --> 0:08:01.960 and a lot of the locations are cramped, dark, dank 0:08:02.240 --> 0:08:06.200 caves and rooms with like weird liquids bubbling in them, 0:08:06.920 --> 0:08:09.520 and it's just like it's just a movie where everybody 0:08:09.520 --> 0:08:10.800 looks like they smell bad. 0:08:11.240 --> 0:08:11.440 Yeah. 0:08:11.520 --> 0:08:15.760 Ebert specifically mentioned ex Caliber in that review, because yeah, 0:08:15.760 --> 0:08:20.920 ex Caliber is shiny, super gleaming, blinding armor. But also 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:23.040 we have to keep in mind that ex Caliber, which 0:08:23.200 --> 0:08:25.800 which I have a lot of fond memories off is all, 0:08:25.960 --> 0:08:28.200 is not quite set in the real world. It's set 0:08:28.240 --> 0:08:30.280 in kind of It's set in a mythic world. Is 0:08:30.280 --> 0:08:33.920 the mythic world of authorian legend, you know. So it's 0:08:33.520 --> 0:08:37.280 it's a maybe just a step or two removed from 0:08:37.679 --> 0:08:42.040 any kind of realistic real world, you know, magical setting. 0:08:43.280 --> 0:08:45.319 Now. I mentioned Game of Thrones earlier. George R. R. 0:08:45.360 --> 0:08:48.840 Martin ranked it number five on his top ten fantasy 0:08:48.920 --> 0:08:53.120 movies of all time, just below Lady Hawk, The Wizard 0:08:53.120 --> 0:08:55.640 of Oz, The Princess Bride, and The Lord. 0:08:55.440 --> 0:08:56.320 Of the Rings trilogy. 0:08:56.720 --> 0:08:59.360 Okay, you mean he raked Dragonslay or not. 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:01.480 Ex Dragon Slayer. 0:09:01.720 --> 0:09:04.240 I don't think ex Caliber made this particular list. 0:09:05.640 --> 0:09:07.000 I mean not that. 0:09:07.240 --> 0:09:09.600 I mean I could also see him being of an 0:09:09.600 --> 0:09:12.800 ex Caliber fan, because I do remember in the books 0:09:12.840 --> 0:09:16.240 a lot of descriptions of very brightly colored armor. It 0:09:16.360 --> 0:09:18.320 seemed to be very important to him to make sure 0:09:18.360 --> 0:09:21.160 that armor wasn't boring looking. And it's not boring looking 0:09:21.240 --> 0:09:22.640 at EXCaliber. 0:09:23.640 --> 0:09:27.360 That's interesting. So he placed it behind Lady Hawk. But 0:09:27.720 --> 0:09:29.480 you know, I can see these other entries. Yeah, the 0:09:29.520 --> 0:09:32.920 Wizard of Oz, Yeah, Lord of the Rings, that makes sense. 0:09:33.080 --> 0:09:36.680 Yeah, Princess Bride. Everybody loves the Princess Pride. So yeah, 0:09:36.800 --> 0:09:38.720 under understandable. You can find that and just do a 0:09:38.800 --> 0:09:41.760 search for George R. Martin top ten fantasy films and 0:09:41.800 --> 0:09:45.400 you'll easily find the list we're referring to. And then finally, 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:47.960 I'll say, you'd be hard pressed to find a bigger 0:09:48.000 --> 0:09:53.640 fan of this film than director Guiermean del Toro. I'll 0:09:53.640 --> 0:09:56.160 be mentioning several things that he had to say about 0:09:56.200 --> 0:09:59.680 this film and his connections to it as we proceed. 0:10:00.160 --> 0:10:03.240 Yeah, well, certainly I can imagine that del Toro is 0:10:03.280 --> 0:10:05.480 here for the dragon. He's like, when do we get 0:10:05.520 --> 0:10:09.600 to the dragon? And this movie really does have an 0:10:09.640 --> 0:10:13.600 amazing dragon, especially for the time it was created. But 0:10:13.679 --> 0:10:16.840 this is an awesome looking dragon, but not just looking. 0:10:16.960 --> 0:10:20.240 I want to stress that what's so great about the 0:10:20.320 --> 0:10:24.040 dragon in this movie is that even before you see it, 0:10:24.040 --> 0:10:28.160 its presence is signaled through you know, different kinds of 0:10:28.240 --> 0:10:30.880 like point of view shots and sound effects and the 0:10:30.960 --> 0:10:34.480 suggestion of it looming out of view in certain scenes 0:10:34.840 --> 0:10:39.959 in a really powerful, ominous way. That is just one 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:43.520 of the great monster presences in any movie I've ever seen. 0:10:43.640 --> 0:10:46.280 And I really like that the dragon in this movie 0:10:46.920 --> 0:10:50.760 is a monster, is not just a I don't want 0:10:50.760 --> 0:10:52.719 to say just a lot of the dragons were used 0:10:52.760 --> 0:10:58.520 to lately, see more of the elegant, intelligent fantasy dragon variety, 0:10:58.559 --> 0:11:02.240 you know, like almost kind of a higher being. This dragon, 0:11:02.640 --> 0:11:06.080 it might be cunning, but it is. It's not like 0:11:06.120 --> 0:11:09.720 a talking dragon. It's not a nice dragon. It's not 0:11:09.800 --> 0:11:13.960 a noble dragon. This is a nasty, disgusting monster that 0:11:14.080 --> 0:11:15.160 wants human blood. 0:11:15.600 --> 0:11:16.120 That's right. 0:11:16.240 --> 0:11:19.040 Yeah, yeah, the dragon is amazing. The presentation of the 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:21.760 dragon is amazing, and I mean not just the full 0:11:21.800 --> 0:11:25.079 blown effects, but like the fine art of presenting a 0:11:25.120 --> 0:11:28.439 monster in a film, of teasing it out of you know, 0:11:28.480 --> 0:11:30.320 early on in the film we don't even see it yet. 0:11:30.360 --> 0:11:35.080 We see instead, like carved representations of the dragon in 0:11:35.120 --> 0:11:39.360 these dank, you know, desolate settings that set the tone 0:11:39.800 --> 0:11:41.960 and prepare the imagination. 0:11:41.440 --> 0:11:43.640 For the monstrosity to come. All right. 0:11:43.720 --> 0:11:46.079 In terms of elevator pitches for this one, mine is 0:11:47.040 --> 0:11:49.719 pretty simple. It's look, no one likes having to make 0:11:49.720 --> 0:11:51.720 a yearly blood sacrifice. To a dragon. 0:11:52.440 --> 0:11:57.040 However, however, what if we did it twice a year. 0:11:59.800 --> 0:12:02.360 Yeah, Like I said, if you come into this just 0:12:02.360 --> 0:12:05.120 for the dragon, you won't be disappointed. But there's a 0:12:05.160 --> 0:12:08.200 lot of other stuff I think to keep your mind busy, 0:12:08.840 --> 0:12:11.600 and we'll get into that as we proceed. Well, let's 0:12:11.600 --> 0:12:13.720 go ahead and listen to some trailer audio here to 0:12:13.760 --> 0:12:16.960 give you a sonic taste of Dragon Slayer. 0:12:21.000 --> 0:12:30.560 He quote all them omnia, I have been witnessed to something, 0:12:31.760 --> 0:12:33.480 something of consequence to you. 0:12:34.320 --> 0:12:36.880 To me, there's a. 0:12:36.840 --> 0:12:41.959 Great task eating to be dumny, No doubt you've heard 0:12:41.960 --> 0:12:43.160 about trouble at home. 0:12:44.160 --> 0:12:47.000 A dragon, fire and stench. 0:12:47.840 --> 0:12:52.480 It is evil, pure and simple. Want me to do 0:12:52.640 --> 0:12:57.319 battle with that? Behold by I'm a chosen I shall 0:12:57.480 --> 0:12:59.720 die that cy bay twice. 0:13:00.840 --> 0:13:07.239 The king selects a new victim, chosen by lot girls, virgins. 0:13:07.480 --> 0:13:10.200 Your kittens made a pagnant for the mobster. 0:13:10.720 --> 0:13:12.120 What your children or nine? 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:28.680 Only a few? Because that's how cool Dragon Slayer coming 0:13:28.880 --> 0:13:31.800 from Paramount Pictures. 0:13:34.840 --> 0:13:36.960 All right, now, if you want to go out and 0:13:36.960 --> 0:13:41.080 watch Dragonslayer yourself or rewatch it, however you approach it 0:13:41.120 --> 0:13:43.719 before getting into the rest of this episode, Well, let 0:13:43.720 --> 0:13:46.040 me tell you this one is widely available. You can 0:13:46.080 --> 0:13:49.160 easily rent or buy it digitally, but I would say 0:13:49.200 --> 0:13:53.160 pay attention to what version you're you're watching. Get this 0:13:53.240 --> 0:13:57.480 in the highest visual quality possible. We watched it on 0:13:57.520 --> 0:14:02.160 the excellent twenty twenty three pairmont Blu ray, which provides 0:14:02.240 --> 0:14:05.400 us with a four K remastered version with Dolby Atmos 0:14:05.400 --> 0:14:08.400 sound mix, original screen tests if you're into that. A 0:14:08.480 --> 0:14:11.760 six part documentary that is quite good. I watched a 0:14:11.800 --> 0:14:14.360 couple of installments of this, dealing with the dragon effects 0:14:14.400 --> 0:14:18.040 and another aspect of the production, and then also a 0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:23.520 commentary track by director Matthew Robbins and dragonslay Or Megafan 0:14:23.840 --> 0:14:24.640 Ghierramel del Tour. 0:14:24.960 --> 0:14:27.800 I want to hear more about this commentary track because 0:14:27.880 --> 0:14:31.080 I've heard good things about other Del Toro commentary tracks. 0:14:31.360 --> 0:14:34.160 A friend of mine has brought up before that his 0:14:34.360 --> 0:14:37.280 Blade two commentary is a pretty great listen. 0:14:37.680 --> 0:14:40.480 Oh yeah, I definitely did the Blade too commentary track 0:14:40.560 --> 0:14:43.560 back in the day. I think I also did a 0:14:43.680 --> 0:14:47.320 hell Boy commentary track, and I don't do a lot 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:49.760 of commentary tracks these days. It's just a little harder 0:14:49.800 --> 0:14:50.880 to find time for them. 0:14:50.920 --> 0:14:51.479 Sometimes. 0:14:51.560 --> 0:14:54.320 I also think it's maybe not as constructive for the 0:14:54.360 --> 0:14:57.440 weird house cinema treatment to get like really into the 0:14:57.440 --> 0:15:00.280 weeds on the director's commentary. And not all commentar areas 0:15:00.280 --> 0:15:03.280 from directors or stars and other people involved in the 0:15:03.320 --> 0:15:07.320 production are necessarily that great, but del Toro is always 0:15:07.320 --> 0:15:10.160 worth listening to. But because I mean, he has just 0:15:10.160 --> 0:15:14.240 such you know, expertise, He has such love for cinema 0:15:14.320 --> 0:15:18.600 and especially horror cinema and monster cinema. And this one 0:15:19.000 --> 0:15:21.040 is this, this is really special because I have to 0:15:21.080 --> 0:15:23.320 stress this is a film that del Toro had nothing 0:15:23.320 --> 0:15:26.720 to do with. Del Toro was a boy when this 0:15:26.760 --> 0:15:30.520 came out, He was a fan, and he ends up 0:15:30.520 --> 0:15:34.120 having you know, meaningful connections to director Matthew Robbins later on. 0:15:35.280 --> 0:15:38.240 But yeah, he's he's on this commentary track with the director, 0:15:39.000 --> 0:15:41.520 you know, out of love for the film, out of 0:15:41.640 --> 0:15:45.040 you know, and I'm also friendship with the director, and 0:15:45.200 --> 0:15:47.760 you know, he's he's asking a lot of really insightful 0:15:47.800 --> 0:15:51.200 questions about the production and also commenting on the things 0:15:51.200 --> 0:15:53.520 that he really loves in it and pointing out some 0:15:53.520 --> 0:15:57.200 some nuances that either might be lost on a first 0:15:57.240 --> 0:16:00.360 time viewer or a casual viewer. But also and maybe 0:16:00.680 --> 0:16:04.200 or more apparent to a filmmaker as opposed to and 0:16:04.360 --> 0:16:16.000 to know someone who's just a pure viewer of cinema. 0:16:16.600 --> 0:16:19.120 Let's go ahead and start talking about the connections here. 0:16:19.480 --> 0:16:21.920 So yeah, I just mentioned him. Matthew Robbins was the 0:16:21.960 --> 0:16:25.000 director and one of the writers on this born nineteen 0:16:25.080 --> 0:16:28.280 forty five American writer and director, who at this point 0:16:28.320 --> 0:16:31.120 was coming off of a nineteen seventy eight comedy titled 0:16:31.120 --> 0:16:35.360 Corvette Summer starring Mark Hamill and Annie Potts. He was 0:16:35.400 --> 0:16:38.280 part of the so called American New Way film movement 0:16:38.280 --> 0:16:41.720 alongside the likes of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, and 0:16:41.920 --> 0:16:45.400 worked early on often in uncredited capacities, with both directors, 0:16:45.960 --> 0:16:50.480 contributing writing and or ideas for such projects as nineteen 0:16:50.560 --> 0:16:54.720 sixty seven's Electronic Labyrinth THHX eleven thirty eight. For eb 0:16:55.360 --> 0:16:59.000 that's the short film that would become the THCHX eleven 0:16:59.040 --> 0:17:05.880 thirty eight. He had something to do uncredited with seventy 0:17:05.880 --> 0:17:09.359 five Jaws, seventy seven's Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 0:17:09.400 --> 0:17:12.760 and then additionally, as a credited screenwriter, he'd written on 0:17:12.800 --> 0:17:15.960 scripts for Spielberg's nineteen seventy four film the Sugarland Express 0:17:16.359 --> 0:17:19.560 and the Baseball movie, the Bingo Long Traveling All Stars 0:17:19.560 --> 0:17:20.479 and Motor Kinks. 0:17:21.640 --> 0:17:26.120 That's not exactly the background you would expect coming into Dragonslayer. 0:17:25.680 --> 0:17:30.679 That's right, But you know, dragonslaall to Dragons. Dragonslayer is 0:17:30.680 --> 0:17:33.199 another one of these films though, that comes in the 0:17:33.240 --> 0:17:37.280 aftermath of Star Wars, right, so you know, the studios 0:17:37.320 --> 0:17:39.960 are all hungry for the next Star Wars and a 0:17:40.000 --> 0:17:41.800 lot of you know, directors and writers come along and 0:17:41.840 --> 0:17:43.840 they're like, well, you know, you're looking for the next 0:17:43.840 --> 0:17:45.320 Star Wars, and it just so happens. 0:17:45.680 --> 0:17:47.200 I have the script ready to go. 0:17:49.440 --> 0:17:54.000 Big epic adventure with a young hero who yearns, yearns 0:17:54.040 --> 0:17:55.520 for greatness. Here we go. 0:17:55.880 --> 0:17:57.080 Yeah. 0:17:57.160 --> 0:18:01.920 Unfortunately, Dragonslayer was not a commercial success, and afterwards Robin's 0:18:02.520 --> 0:18:04.800 directive I'll see nineteen eighty five's the Legend of Billy 0:18:04.880 --> 0:18:08.240 Jean eighty seven's Batteries not included, which he also wrote, 0:18:08.359 --> 0:18:10.560 I have seen that one when I was a kid. 0:18:10.600 --> 0:18:13.960 That that's like little flying robots in it. He also 0:18:14.119 --> 0:18:17.560 did a rad dog movie called Bingo in nineteen ninety one. 0:18:18.119 --> 0:18:19.600 He did not write that, he just directed. 0:18:19.640 --> 0:18:23.080 It is a rat dog movie like Beethoven. 0:18:23.640 --> 0:18:26.240 Yeah, the dog. I think the dog is wearing sunglasses 0:18:26.280 --> 0:18:28.040 on the cover. Like you just look at the poster, 0:18:28.400 --> 0:18:30.040 the box out for this movie. It's like, that's a 0:18:30.119 --> 0:18:31.440 rat dog movie. That dog's rat. 0:18:31.600 --> 0:18:34.160 He's gonna wear sunglasses in the movie. Might do some 0:18:34.359 --> 0:18:38.280 dancing to some rock music, maybe Robert Palmer's on. 0:18:38.520 --> 0:18:41.359 I'd say thirty five percent chance this dog rides a skateboard. 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:43.159 That kind of movie, yeah, h okay. 0:18:44.480 --> 0:18:47.160 And on the screenwriting front, he co wrote nineteen eighty 0:18:47.160 --> 0:18:50.159 five's Warning Sign, but then in nineteen ninety seven, he 0:18:50.200 --> 0:18:53.600 worked on a script for del Toro's first and nearly 0:18:53.600 --> 0:18:56.800 his last American picture. According to del Toro, it's the 0:18:56.800 --> 0:19:00.879 film mimic on this film, and the filmmaking experience was 0:19:01.760 --> 0:19:06.360 somewhat compromised by studio interference. It led to a very 0:19:06.440 --> 0:19:09.840 long and ongoing collaborative relationship between del Toro and Robbins. 0:19:10.200 --> 0:19:13.560 To date, they've pinned four produced scripts together, so Mimic 0:19:13.920 --> 0:19:16.960 twenty tens Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, twenty fifteen's 0:19:16.960 --> 0:19:23.080 Crimson Peak, and twenty twenty two's Pinocchio. He's also worked 0:19:23.080 --> 0:19:25.520 on screenplays for a couple of Bollywood films, I believe, 0:19:25.520 --> 0:19:29.080 and he's still very much an active screenwriter to this day. 0:19:29.440 --> 0:19:32.520 But he had a co writer on Dragonslayer, Right. 0:19:32.800 --> 0:19:36.800 That's right, That's how Barwood born nineteen forty screenwriter and 0:19:36.840 --> 0:19:39.760 director who came up alongside Robins, co wrote a number 0:19:39.760 --> 0:19:43.159 of scripts with him, including The Sugarland Express, Corvette Summer, 0:19:43.200 --> 0:19:47.600 and Warning Signs. Barwood also directed Warning Signs. That was 0:19:47.640 --> 0:19:50.080 his only feature length film, but he went on to 0:19:50.119 --> 0:19:53.440 direct and design several video game projects for Lucas Arts 0:19:53.680 --> 0:19:57.000 and also wrote for them. All Right, now getting into 0:19:57.040 --> 0:19:59.560 the cast here, this is a dragon movie, but this 0:19:59.640 --> 0:20:04.399 is also a wizard movie, and you have we have 0:20:04.440 --> 0:20:07.240 a pretty great wizard in this the Wizard Ulric and 0:20:07.920 --> 0:20:11.040 a great wizard requires a great actor, and boy, they 0:20:11.119 --> 0:20:13.960 landed one for this film with Sir Ralph Richardson. 0:20:14.720 --> 0:20:18.920 He really does well because he can capture the kind 0:20:18.960 --> 0:20:24.080 of humble, befuddled, quaint version of the wizard as just 0:20:24.119 --> 0:20:27.720 an unassuming old man, but he can also come to 0:20:27.800 --> 0:20:30.919 seem quite powerful when the when the need arises. 0:20:31.600 --> 0:20:34.399 Yeah, and I love how he's able to capture what 0:20:34.480 --> 0:20:36.679 I think of as the weirdness of wizards, you know, 0:20:36.760 --> 0:20:39.000 like I feel like there should be something about a 0:20:39.040 --> 0:20:42.919 wizard that is, you know, just just utterly mysterious and dangerous, 0:20:43.000 --> 0:20:46.919 like this is an individual with with knowledge beyond the 0:20:46.960 --> 0:20:49.880 common man, and therefore, you know, who knows what's going 0:20:49.920 --> 0:20:52.200 on in that mind of his. 0:20:52.760 --> 0:20:55.359 Part of any great wizard is that it's not just 0:20:55.440 --> 0:20:58.280 that they're powerful, but that you are not permitted to 0:20:58.440 --> 0:21:00.160 know how powerful they are. 0:21:00.640 --> 0:21:03.679 Right right, So Richardson does a great job with that. 0:21:03.800 --> 0:21:05.800 He's also to convey able to convey this kind of 0:21:05.880 --> 0:21:13.320 melancholy almost sadness of this aging master, you know, who 0:21:13.440 --> 0:21:16.679 still has his powers at his disposable, but he's very 0:21:16.760 --> 0:21:19.760 much in decline, just as magic is leaving the world, 0:21:19.840 --> 0:21:22.320 like this is a very old man who is not 0:21:22.440 --> 0:21:23.600 long for this world either. 0:21:24.200 --> 0:21:27.600 I mean quite explicitly portrayed as someone who, you know, 0:21:27.640 --> 0:21:29.720 if he'd stuck around a few more years, might have 0:21:29.800 --> 0:21:32.920 been burned at the stake by the newly converted Christians 0:21:32.920 --> 0:21:33.520 in the village. 0:21:33.960 --> 0:21:38.760 Right now, I should point out that on the commentary track, 0:21:38.880 --> 0:21:43.640 Robinson del Toro point out, you know, they certainly talk 0:21:43.680 --> 0:21:45.600 about his craft and how good he is at like 0:21:45.680 --> 0:21:48.080 utilizing props such as the knife. 0:21:48.160 --> 0:21:49.679 We'll talk about the knife in a bit. They talk 0:21:49.720 --> 0:21:50.200 about it. 0:21:50.400 --> 0:21:53.359 How utterly piercing his eyes are in any of these scenes. 0:21:53.359 --> 0:21:56.560 He's quite a screen presence. But they say, like a 0:21:56.560 --> 0:22:00.000 lot of that weird energy has is also legitimate, Like 0:22:00.400 --> 0:22:05.159 he's like a delightfully weird person. He apparently kept a 0:22:05.200 --> 0:22:07.679 pet rat in his pocket the whole time on set, 0:22:08.080 --> 0:22:11.040 a pet rat named Gratty, and he would take him 0:22:11.080 --> 0:22:14.480 out between takes, solid wizard move. 0:22:14.840 --> 0:22:17.760 How did he not talk the rat into getting screen time? 0:22:18.440 --> 0:22:23.280 He's a consummate professional. Yeah, consummate professional knows that the 0:22:23.400 --> 0:22:27.000 rat is here for emotional support and friendship. But you're 0:22:27.040 --> 0:22:29.120 not gonna like shoehorn him into the scene. 0:22:29.480 --> 0:22:32.040 The rat provides rat magic, whether you see it or not. 0:22:32.440 --> 0:22:36.960 Right right, so yes, Sir, Sir Ralph Richardson lived nineteen 0:22:36.960 --> 0:22:39.960 oh two through nineteen eighty three. Legendary English actor of 0:22:40.000 --> 0:22:43.679 stage and screen, two time Oscar nominee. His dramatic credits 0:22:43.680 --> 0:22:46.879 include such films as nineteen forty nine's The Heiress, nineteen 0:22:46.960 --> 0:22:50.240 fifty five's Richard the Third, sixty five's Doctor Chivago in 0:22:50.320 --> 0:22:54.080 nineteen seventy sevens Jesus of Nazareth. But he's equally celebrated 0:22:54.080 --> 0:22:57.200 for his late career fantasy and sci fi work, appearing 0:22:57.280 --> 0:23:01.160 in nineteen seventy three It's Frankenstein The True Story, seventy 0:23:01.200 --> 0:23:05.480 five's Rollerball, nineteen eighty one's Time Bandits, and nineteen eighty 0:23:05.480 --> 0:23:08.240 four's I Always Forget that. This film's title is so long, 0:23:08.320 --> 0:23:11.520 but Gray Stroke. The legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes. 0:23:11.760 --> 0:23:14.480 Wait, is that the Christoph Lambert Tarzan? 0:23:15.000 --> 0:23:16.480 It is? Yeah? 0:23:16.520 --> 0:23:19.600 And in Time band it's this Ralph Richardson play God. 0:23:20.000 --> 0:23:20.880 I believe he does. 0:23:20.960 --> 0:23:25.080 Yeah, My memory of Time Bandits is a little afraid. 0:23:25.480 --> 0:23:26.719 I really need to revisit it. 0:23:27.119 --> 0:23:30.120 I believe it's David Warner as the Devil and Ralph 0:23:30.200 --> 0:23:34.760 Richardson is God. Let's look it up. Well, his character 0:23:34.840 --> 0:23:38.000 is called Supreme Being, but yes, I think he's supposed 0:23:38.040 --> 0:23:41.320 to be God. He arrives at the end of the 0:23:41.320 --> 0:23:44.080 movie after Evil has been defeated, and he's just sort 0:23:44.119 --> 0:23:48.840 of this tidy business like a British man with a 0:23:48.920 --> 0:23:49.879 dry sense of humor. 0:23:51.119 --> 0:23:53.399 All right, So that's our wizard, and more on the 0:23:53.440 --> 0:23:56.639 Wizard as we proceed here. But we also have an apprentice. 0:23:56.680 --> 0:23:59.560 The Sorcerer's apprentice in this film is the character Galen 0:24:00.240 --> 0:24:02.520 by Peter McNichol born nineteen fifty four. 0:24:03.160 --> 0:24:06.040 You know, I think before this I mainly knew him 0:24:06.119 --> 0:24:08.640 as as Janosh from Ghostbusters Too. 0:24:09.040 --> 0:24:09.639 Yeah. 0:24:09.800 --> 0:24:11.679 I think if you know him from nothing else, it 0:24:11.760 --> 0:24:14.600 is from Ghostbusters Too, where he's he's the guy constantly 0:24:14.640 --> 0:24:16.840 singing the praises of Vigo, the Karpathian. 0:24:17.080 --> 0:24:18.480 Yeah he is Vegoh. 0:24:18.680 --> 0:24:21.840 Yeah, which is you know, a wonderful, you know, comedic 0:24:21.960 --> 0:24:25.080 performance in that. And I think he's had a number 0:24:25.080 --> 0:24:29.200 of really sort of out there comedic performances throughout his career. 0:24:29.800 --> 0:24:30.720 He's had a very rich. 0:24:30.600 --> 0:24:33.720 Career on stage, screen and TV. This was his first 0:24:33.760 --> 0:24:36.880 film role, coming off of theater work, but he debuted 0:24:36.920 --> 0:24:39.359 on Broadway the same year in Crimes of the Heart. 0:24:39.840 --> 0:24:42.119 He followed up Dragon Slayer with a role in nineteen 0:24:42.119 --> 0:24:46.000 eighty two Sophie's Choice, and subsequent films include nineteen ninety 0:24:46.000 --> 0:24:50.120 three's Adams Family Values and nineteen ninety five's Dracula Dead 0:24:50.160 --> 0:24:52.399 and Loving It. That Is, of Course Is That of 0:24:52.440 --> 0:24:55.320 Course is a comedy starring what Leslie Nielsen is Dracula 0:24:55.640 --> 0:24:58.239 and McNichol plays the Wrenfield character in that. 0:24:58.800 --> 0:25:01.840 Oh It's got a rin Field. I don't think I've 0:25:01.880 --> 0:25:04.240 ever seen that one, But why do I Why do 0:25:04.280 --> 0:25:07.639 I think of it as a comedy adaptation of Dracula 0:25:07.720 --> 0:25:10.679 that hughes way closer to the original story than it 0:25:10.760 --> 0:25:11.159 needs to. 0:25:12.080 --> 0:25:14.280 That may be great. I believe I saw this when 0:25:14.280 --> 0:25:17.840 I was younger, but I just vaguely remember a few 0:25:17.920 --> 0:25:20.880 gags from it. A lot of people will also recognize 0:25:20.960 --> 0:25:24.360 McNichol from TV. He was a cast member on Ali McBeal, 0:25:24.920 --> 0:25:27.479 and his other TV credits include Tales from the Crypt, 0:25:27.920 --> 0:25:31.320 he was in one of Russell McKay's episodes, he was 0:25:31.320 --> 0:25:33.600 on twenty four, he was on Veep, and he's also 0:25:33.600 --> 0:25:36.439 done a fair amount of voice acting, including voicing the 0:25:36.480 --> 0:25:38.960 Mad Hatter in the Arkham Asylum games. 0:25:39.240 --> 0:25:42.240 Now, I think McNichol does quite well with the young 0:25:42.320 --> 0:25:44.880 hero role in this movie. But when I mentioned earlier 0:25:44.920 --> 0:25:49.000 that a lot of the major characters don't seem especially deep, 0:25:49.359 --> 0:25:52.800 he's I sort of had the main character here in mind, 0:25:53.119 --> 0:25:58.040 like he we don't ever really know why he wants 0:25:58.080 --> 0:26:00.640 anything that he wants. And I'm not complaining too much 0:26:00.680 --> 0:26:02.919 because I still love dragons Layer. You know, It's not 0:26:03.040 --> 0:26:07.560 something that prevented me from enjoying the film. But he's 0:26:07.960 --> 0:26:11.040 to be generous, as you said earlier, maybe a character 0:26:11.080 --> 0:26:13.600 who generates more questions than he answers. 0:26:14.640 --> 0:26:14.880 Yeah. 0:26:14.920 --> 0:26:17.959 Absolutely, there are times where I find myself wondering, well, 0:26:17.960 --> 0:26:19.920 why is he making this choice? Why does he want 0:26:19.960 --> 0:26:24.600 this thing that he seems to want? And yeah, and 0:26:24.600 --> 0:26:27.320 and this seems to be a common analysis of the 0:26:27.359 --> 0:26:29.440 film based on some of the reviews I was looking at. 0:26:30.480 --> 0:26:32.920 But but like you, I do like mcnickel in the role. 0:26:33.000 --> 0:26:36.000 He has this kind of weird cherubic quality. He feels 0:26:36.000 --> 0:26:39.320 more like a nerd hero as opposed to like a 0:26:39.440 --> 0:26:44.199 sort of you know, sex appeal teen heart throb kind 0:26:44.240 --> 0:26:46.639 of a character. Though I do love the idea of 0:26:46.720 --> 0:26:50.320 eighties teens with like heart dotted Peter McNichol posters on 0:26:50.359 --> 0:26:51.160 their walls. 0:26:51.640 --> 0:26:54.200 I feel like he's he's decently handsome in this film. 0:26:55.240 --> 0:26:57.840 Yeah, I mean it's it's a major motion picture. He's 0:26:57.880 --> 0:26:58.960 he's plenty handsome. 0:26:59.280 --> 0:27:01.280 But but yes, i'd see what you're saying. I mean, 0:27:01.320 --> 0:27:03.680 he's not like a like a muscle bound go get 0:27:03.680 --> 0:27:06.119 her hero. He's you know, he's a little bit apprehensive, 0:27:06.160 --> 0:27:09.639 though he's also brave. But he's Yeah, he's closer to 0:27:09.760 --> 0:27:11.080 Nerd than Jock, definitely. 0:27:11.160 --> 0:27:14.080 Yeah, and I think that that does make him more endearing. Like, 0:27:14.160 --> 0:27:16.720 I don't think this character would have worked as well, 0:27:17.119 --> 0:27:19.600 especially given maybe some of the limitations we were talking about, 0:27:19.920 --> 0:27:22.760 if some one of the other sort of flavors of 0:27:22.760 --> 0:27:25.080 the day or hot up and coming talents had played him, Like, 0:27:25.119 --> 0:27:27.520 for instance, I read that Eric Roberts was considered for 0:27:27.560 --> 0:27:30.000 the part. Oh, and I think Eric Roberts is quite 0:27:30.040 --> 0:27:33.640 excellent in some of the millions of films that he's done, 0:27:34.080 --> 0:27:35.640 But that would have been. 0:27:35.520 --> 0:27:37.840 An entirely different Dragonslayer. 0:27:37.119 --> 0:27:40.840 Even like nineteen eighty nineteen eighty one Eric Roberts, It 0:27:40.840 --> 0:27:41.959 would have been a different flavor. 0:27:42.200 --> 0:27:44.760 Sorry, I got sidetracked just because I started thinking about 0:27:44.760 --> 0:27:47.040 actors that have been in too many movies, and I 0:27:47.119 --> 0:27:51.440 was like, what if it had been Udo Kierre or 0:27:51.560 --> 0:27:52.400 John Krodine. 0:27:52.640 --> 0:27:54.320 Yeah, yeah, I was saying. I was thinking that Eric 0:27:54.359 --> 0:27:56.280 Roberts is kind of the John Kerrodine of our time. 0:27:56.800 --> 0:27:58.960 All right, So here we're still on Team Wizard here, 0:27:58.960 --> 0:28:00.920 and the old Wizard has a grot hainer by the 0:28:01.000 --> 0:28:04.600 name of Hodge, and he's a familiar face because he 0:28:04.680 --> 0:28:07.280 is played by Sidney Bromley, who lived nineteen oh nine 0:28:07.320 --> 0:28:11.000 through nineteen eighty seven, a British character actor who we've 0:28:11.000 --> 0:28:12.960 talked about on the show before because he was in 0:28:13.040 --> 0:28:15.480 nineteen eighty four is The Never Ending Story, in which 0:28:15.480 --> 0:28:18.919 he played the Nome scientist Inky Walk in that. 0:28:19.080 --> 0:28:22.440 Does he basically use the same voice in both movies? 0:28:22.840 --> 0:28:25.800 Yeah, yeah, I think so, you know That's what I say. Voice, 0:28:25.840 --> 0:28:29.199 same beard, same kind of like general. Well, I mean 0:28:29.240 --> 0:28:31.760 he's ratcheting up that demeanor and never Ending story because 0:28:31.800 --> 0:28:35.480 he's playing this kind of outrageous gnome character. But still, 0:28:35.480 --> 0:28:37.439 I mean he's he's very much a character actor. I 0:28:37.440 --> 0:28:39.960 get the impression, like you hire Sidney Bromley like you 0:28:40.000 --> 0:28:40.959 want certain things. 0:28:41.560 --> 0:28:44.520 Yes, but in both cases he's very much like yo, 0:28:44.520 --> 0:28:46.720 see surely enough exactly. 0:28:47.600 --> 0:28:48.120 Yeah. 0:28:48.280 --> 0:28:51.360 His other credits include sixty two's Night Creatures, sixty seven 0:28:51.400 --> 0:28:54.520 is The Fearless Vampire Killers, the excellent nineteen seventy one 0:28:54.560 --> 0:28:58.080 adaptation of Macbeth, nineteen eighty one's An American Werewolf in London, 0:28:58.120 --> 0:29:00.680 and nineteen eighty six as Pirates, Oh What is He? 0:29:00.760 --> 0:29:02.640 And Werewolf in London. This is just one of the 0:29:02.680 --> 0:29:03.440 guys in the pub. 0:29:03.640 --> 0:29:06.160 I think he's one of the pub guys. Yeah, I 0:29:06.160 --> 0:29:09.800 don't specifically remember him, but I mean that's that's where 0:29:09.840 --> 0:29:12.360 he has to be. That makes the most sense. Or 0:29:12.440 --> 0:29:16.080 he's like a street person that the werewolf kills in London, 0:29:16.160 --> 0:29:18.560 like that would be the two main candidates here, but 0:29:18.600 --> 0:29:19.360 I don't remember. 0:29:19.760 --> 0:29:22.440 But Hodge is a lovable old grump like hepent. He 0:29:22.480 --> 0:29:25.800 spends most of his screen time complaining, but he's it's 0:29:25.880 --> 0:29:27.560 quite sad when he is killed. 0:29:27.560 --> 0:29:28.720 Right, all right. 0:29:28.920 --> 0:29:31.280 We also have a heroine in this picture, and that 0:29:31.440 --> 0:29:35.400 is the character of Valerian played by Caitlin Clark. Not 0:29:35.480 --> 0:29:37.600 to be confused with the basketball star of the same 0:29:37.680 --> 0:29:40.520 name whose name is all over the news right now 0:29:41.560 --> 0:29:45.120 for basketball reasons. But this is the actor Caitlin Clark, 0:29:45.120 --> 0:29:47.600 who lived nineteen fifty two through two thousand and four. 0:29:48.360 --> 0:29:50.480 Right, So she plays the character who kind of sets 0:29:50.520 --> 0:29:53.360 the whole plot in motion, right by seeking out the 0:29:53.440 --> 0:29:56.440 advice and counsel of a wizard in defeating the dragon. 0:29:56.800 --> 0:29:57.320 That's right. 0:29:57.400 --> 0:30:01.560 Yeah, she's the one who ad on the scene and 0:30:01.760 --> 0:30:04.760 it's like, hey, we need help with our dragon. And 0:30:06.000 --> 0:30:09.240 it's a really interesting character because and this is I 0:30:09.280 --> 0:30:11.560 think a prime example of a character that I ultimately 0:30:12.200 --> 0:30:14.120 wanted to know more about. Like, I feel like there 0:30:14.240 --> 0:30:17.360 there's ultimately unexplored depth here that, you know, depth that 0:30:17.360 --> 0:30:20.600 we just got to get a hint of in many scenes, 0:30:20.640 --> 0:30:22.480 but you want to know more about. 0:30:22.880 --> 0:30:25.200 Yeah, I think when I said that the characters could 0:30:25.200 --> 0:30:27.480 have been deeper, I mainly had these two main roles 0:30:27.840 --> 0:30:31.800 in mind, Peter Michichol's character in Caitlin Clark's character. But yeah, 0:30:31.840 --> 0:30:35.520 she's interesting because she when we first meet her in 0:30:35.560 --> 0:30:39.280 the movie, she her character is disguised as a boy, 0:30:39.800 --> 0:30:42.600 and we learn that she has had to spend her 0:30:42.640 --> 0:30:45.760 whole life whenever she was in public so far disguised 0:30:45.800 --> 0:30:49.840 as a boy in order to avoid being drafted into 0:30:49.920 --> 0:30:53.760 the potential lottery to become dragon food, which all the 0:30:53.760 --> 0:30:55.080 girls of her village. 0:30:54.720 --> 0:30:58.720 Were yeah, yeah, And then ultimately we see her you know, 0:30:58.920 --> 0:31:01.520 it seems like she has the opportunity to live openly 0:31:01.560 --> 0:31:06.480 again as herself, but then plans change, and so yeah, 0:31:06.520 --> 0:31:10.680 it just left me wanting more exploration of this character. 0:31:12.280 --> 0:31:15.160 But anyway, Clark came out of the theater scene and 0:31:15.200 --> 0:31:18.560 this was her first feature film as well, followed by 0:31:18.920 --> 0:31:22.479 sporadic TV work, occasional small roles in such films as 0:31:22.520 --> 0:31:25.280 nineteen eighty six as Crocodile Dundee nineteen ninety four Is 0:31:25.280 --> 0:31:28.960 Blown Away. She remained more active in theater and later 0:31:29.120 --> 0:31:32.920 as a theater instructor. Now her father in this who's 0:31:32.920 --> 0:31:36.040 just credited as the character's name, is just Hilarian's father, 0:31:36.480 --> 0:31:39.200 and he was played by Imris James, who lived nineteen 0:31:39.240 --> 0:31:42.320 twenty eight through nineteen eighty nine, a Welsh Shakespearean actor, 0:31:42.680 --> 0:31:45.480 probably best known for this film. His credits include a 0:31:45.480 --> 0:31:48.920 lot of Shakespearean theater and British television, including Sherlock Holmes, 0:31:48.960 --> 0:31:52.680 Doctor Who, and Hammer House of Horror. In fact, we 0:31:52.840 --> 0:31:55.600 have discussed the episode of Hammer House of Horror that 0:31:55.640 --> 0:31:58.719 he acted in in Stuff to Blow Your Mind episode 0:31:58.760 --> 0:32:01.400 Halloween episode Anthology of Horror that we did. That's the 0:32:01.480 --> 0:32:05.160 nineteen eighty episode the Mark of Satan. Oh. 0:32:05.280 --> 0:32:08.120 Yeah, that was a creepy one where we talked about 0:32:08.120 --> 0:32:13.040 like the evil mind control virus theme of that episode. 0:32:13.680 --> 0:32:15.680 I was looking at the screenshot you showed me of 0:32:15.760 --> 0:32:17.560 him in that episode and I think he might have 0:32:17.640 --> 0:32:22.800 been playing like the coroner or something. But in Dragon 0:32:22.880 --> 0:32:27.240 Slayer he plays yeah, Valerian's father, who you know He's 0:32:27.320 --> 0:32:31.880 a very like, strong, kind, sturdy, friendly presence, and he 0:32:32.760 --> 0:32:35.840 takes it quite well that his daughter seems to have 0:32:35.960 --> 0:32:38.560 fallen in love with one of the last pagan wizards 0:32:38.560 --> 0:32:39.240 in the country. 0:32:39.640 --> 0:32:45.320 Yeah, he's very supportive and very protective. So yeah, fine, 0:32:45.320 --> 0:32:50.160 fine character, so old performance. Oh but now let's get 0:32:50.160 --> 0:32:55.080 to the royal family of the area, starting with the king. 0:32:55.160 --> 0:33:00.000 The King Casadorus Rex played by Peter Are born nineteen 0:33:00.200 --> 0:33:03.240 forty two. He is a practical ruler for dark times. 0:33:03.640 --> 0:33:05.680 Yeah. I think practical is a good word for him 0:33:05.680 --> 0:33:08.600 because and this will come up even more so with 0:33:08.720 --> 0:33:10.560 I think the next character we're going to talk about. 0:33:11.720 --> 0:33:14.880 But he is while you would say that he sort 0:33:14.880 --> 0:33:17.640 of fills the role of a villain in the plot, 0:33:17.720 --> 0:33:21.120 he's not really all that villainous. He does some kind 0:33:21.160 --> 0:33:25.160 of bad or sneaky things, but he ultimately is is 0:33:25.200 --> 0:33:28.600 shown to be quite quite practical and quite you know, 0:33:28.720 --> 0:33:30.000 sympathetic in many ways. 0:33:30.560 --> 0:33:30.760 Yeah. 0:33:30.920 --> 0:33:34.840 I think he's a pretty nuanced character. And then the 0:33:34.840 --> 0:33:37.719 performance is quite nice instead, So we don't get like 0:33:37.800 --> 0:33:41.560 a cartoon tyrant. We don't get a comical coward here, 0:33:41.960 --> 0:33:45.200 but rather a rational ruler who has made some morally 0:33:45.320 --> 0:33:49.480 questionable and at times hypocritical choices in order to maintain 0:33:49.520 --> 0:33:52.640 the status quo, in order to I think very much 0:33:52.640 --> 0:33:55.720 in his mind as he discusses to keep the peace 0:33:55.840 --> 0:34:00.360 and to keep everything, to maintain stability. And if that 0:34:00.440 --> 0:34:05.080 means yeah, feeding a woman to a dragon every year, 0:34:05.160 --> 0:34:07.200 well that's just what you have to do. It's what 0:34:07.240 --> 0:34:10.000 we've done. It seems to be working. Let's not shake 0:34:10.040 --> 0:34:14.800 the boat, right. Peter Air probably best known for this film, 0:34:15.000 --> 0:34:18.080 but his extensive credits include nineteen nineties Mountains of the Moon, 0:34:18.480 --> 0:34:21.399 ninety two's Orlando, ninety three's The Remains of the Day 0:34:21.480 --> 0:34:24.880 in two thousand and ones from Hell, alongside such TV 0:34:24.960 --> 0:34:27.359 shows as The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles in Rome. 0:34:28.200 --> 0:34:31.520 He's got some interesting facial hair choices. 0:34:31.960 --> 0:34:35.080 Oh yeah, yeah, they dress them up nicely for this. Now. 0:34:35.280 --> 0:34:39.080 His daughter in this picture is Princess Elsbeth played by 0:34:39.200 --> 0:34:44.080 Chloe Salomon. So this is the king's noble and idealistic daughter. 0:34:44.600 --> 0:34:46.399 More on her in a bit. But the actor here 0:34:46.719 --> 0:34:49.160 a British actor with extensive TV and stage roles, though 0:34:49.200 --> 0:34:51.960 this was her biggest film, and interestingly enough, this is 0:34:52.000 --> 0:34:53.160 Alec Guinness's niece. 0:34:53.520 --> 0:34:55.440 Oh, I had no idea. 0:34:55.520 --> 0:34:57.880 So in many ways, she's the heart and moral compass 0:34:57.880 --> 0:35:02.160 of the film, but that doesn't necessarily bode well for her. 0:35:02.520 --> 0:35:05.920 Yeah, I would say her character's fate was one of 0:35:05.960 --> 0:35:09.719 the biggest surprises of the movie. Got incredibly grim there 0:35:09.760 --> 0:35:10.040 for a. 0:35:09.960 --> 0:35:12.399 Bit, all right. 0:35:12.440 --> 0:35:15.319 Now back to the sort of the villain realm our 0:35:15.400 --> 0:35:17.799 sort of villains and shades of gray. Here we have 0:35:17.880 --> 0:35:22.160 the character Tyrian, and this is the King's main enforcer, 0:35:22.680 --> 0:35:27.800 a cold man but also a practical man of the sword. 0:35:28.360 --> 0:35:31.160 Yeah, so the same thing I said about the King 0:35:31.200 --> 0:35:33.760 I think applies to his character, but even more so, 0:35:33.880 --> 0:35:37.560 he is I would say, the human villain of the movie. 0:35:37.640 --> 0:35:40.680 But I kept waiting for him to do something more 0:35:40.760 --> 0:35:48.400 overtly villainous, more absolutely selfish, But he really doesn't. Unless 0:35:48.400 --> 0:35:50.440 there's something I'm forgiving, I don't think he ever really 0:35:50.520 --> 0:35:54.000 does something overtly all that selfish. Instead, it seems like 0:35:54.760 --> 0:35:57.840 he has a view about what would be the best 0:35:57.880 --> 0:36:00.440 way to protect the people of the kingdom, and he 0:36:00.600 --> 0:36:02.239 is following through on that view. 0:36:02.560 --> 0:36:03.759 Yeah. I mean, there is one murder. 0:36:04.800 --> 0:36:07.000 Oh, well, there's more than one murder, but there's there's 0:36:07.000 --> 0:36:10.160 one that's particularly cold blood. Well, we can get into that, 0:36:10.200 --> 0:36:10.800 and when we get. 0:36:10.640 --> 0:36:12.520 Into that, it is cold blooded, but it is part 0:36:12.560 --> 0:36:14.560 of his strategy for protecting his people. 0:36:14.680 --> 0:36:15.160 That's right. 0:36:16.000 --> 0:36:19.319 I'm not saying murders, Okay, I'm just saying like, you 0:36:19.400 --> 0:36:21.799 never end up seeing him doing something where he's just like, oh, 0:36:21.880 --> 0:36:23.799 trying to grab all the gold and take it away 0:36:23.800 --> 0:36:24.960 for himself or something. 0:36:25.160 --> 0:36:25.359 Right. 0:36:25.400 --> 0:36:28.440 He makes some good points, as we'll get into. But 0:36:28.760 --> 0:36:32.040 this character is played by John Hallam, who lived nineteen 0:36:32.080 --> 0:36:36.040 forty one through two thousand and six. We've actually talked 0:36:36.040 --> 0:36:38.320 about him on the show before because he played Luro, 0:36:38.800 --> 0:36:42.480 the second in command Hawkman in nineteen eighty one's Flash Gordon, 0:36:43.239 --> 0:36:45.759 which means he was very hard to focus on since 0:36:45.800 --> 0:36:48.440 he was almost always in a scene with Brian Blessed. 0:36:48.840 --> 0:36:50.720 Yeah, how could you even see him? 0:36:50.880 --> 0:36:51.120 Yeah? 0:36:51.160 --> 0:36:54.160 Like, basically he's the other hawk Man that's not Brian Blessed, 0:36:54.800 --> 0:36:59.120 and that is somewhat less loud. His other credits include 0:36:59.160 --> 0:37:04.000 nineteen seventy one's Life Valley with Michael Caine, Nicholas and Alexandria. 0:37:04.000 --> 0:37:06.920 From the same year, nineteen seventy three is the Wickerman 0:37:07.000 --> 0:37:10.200 eighty five's Life Force, Oh eighty five Santa Claus the 0:37:10.239 --> 0:37:13.680 movie and nineteen ninety one's Robin Hood Prince of Thieves. 0:37:14.160 --> 0:37:16.120 It's a lot of movies I've seen and I don't 0:37:16.160 --> 0:37:19.680 remember what he was in any of them. 0:37:20.200 --> 0:37:20.600 Let's see. 0:37:20.640 --> 0:37:22.719 And one more cast member I want to mention here, 0:37:22.760 --> 0:37:27.480 and that is this I guess you would. He's kind 0:37:27.480 --> 0:37:31.080 of like a missionary, a Christian, an outsider that has 0:37:31.080 --> 0:37:33.440 brought Christianity to the local realm. 0:37:33.520 --> 0:37:33.759 Here. 0:37:34.560 --> 0:37:39.799 Brother jacopis here and he is played by Ian McDermott 0:37:40.400 --> 0:37:42.919 born nineteen forty five. So, yes, the man who would 0:37:42.920 --> 0:37:47.279 become Emperor Palpatine seen here in a small but solid part. 0:37:47.520 --> 0:37:49.600 Right, So he is the person who shows up at 0:37:49.600 --> 0:37:52.000 the village to tell them the good news of Jesus 0:37:52.120 --> 0:37:54.600 Christ and to inform them that the dragon is not 0:37:54.680 --> 0:37:57.360 a dragon but is Lucifer incarnate. And then he just 0:37:57.360 --> 0:37:58.880 gets like blasted with fire. 0:37:59.160 --> 0:38:03.480 Yeah, so instead of like twinkling depths of decrepit evil, 0:38:03.840 --> 0:38:07.440 we get reckless religious fanaticism. And in the process, I 0:38:07.480 --> 0:38:09.840 think we do get some hints of the tools, the 0:38:09.880 --> 0:38:13.560 acting tools he'd employ in his performances of Palpatine over 0:38:13.600 --> 0:38:17.640 the decades to come. But yeah, great tremendous actor in 0:38:17.760 --> 0:38:20.200 Star Wars and out of Star Wars. Outside of the 0:38:20.200 --> 0:38:23.880 Star Wars franchise, his credits include nineteen eighties The Awakening, 0:38:24.000 --> 0:38:27.920 eighty three's Gorky Park, eighty eight Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, nineteen 0:38:27.960 --> 0:38:32.680 ninety five's Restoration in nineteen ninety nine Sleepy Hollow. All right, now, 0:38:32.680 --> 0:38:35.759 going behind the scenes here. We don't always call out 0:38:35.760 --> 0:38:39.040 the cinematographer on a picture, but we absolutely have to 0:38:39.160 --> 0:38:43.239 hear because the cinematography in this film is amazing and 0:38:43.280 --> 0:38:47.680 it is by a legend in the business, Derek van Lint, 0:38:47.719 --> 0:38:50.520 who lived nineteen thirty two through twenty ten. 0:38:51.360 --> 0:38:55.600 I agree this is a fantastic looking movie, and in 0:38:55.640 --> 0:38:58.239 all of its different ways. I liked that there is 0:38:58.280 --> 0:39:01.200 a lot of visual contra asked in the sets and 0:39:01.280 --> 0:39:05.760 the settings, Like you're constantly going back and forth between 0:39:07.160 --> 0:39:11.760 environments that are cramped and claustrophobic and slimy and ugly 0:39:11.840 --> 0:39:15.440 and suggest hell to and then going from there to 0:39:15.600 --> 0:39:19.800 beautiful open vistas and mountain landscapes and valleys and running 0:39:19.800 --> 0:39:23.920 water and all that. There is a there's a pleasing 0:39:24.000 --> 0:39:26.920 sort of rhythm of images, and I like that. 0:39:27.600 --> 0:39:31.239 Yeah, come as no surprise, I think to a lot 0:39:31.280 --> 0:39:35.800 of people that His other main cinematography credit in feature 0:39:35.800 --> 0:39:38.520 film is for nineteen seventy nine's Alien, and I think 0:39:38.560 --> 0:39:43.360 you definitely see that in comparing like the caves environments 0:39:43.400 --> 0:39:47.319 and even the other interior environments that we explore in 0:39:47.320 --> 0:39:50.040 this film, comparing those to the you know, like the 0:39:50.960 --> 0:39:53.719 alien planet in Aliens or just that the depths of 0:39:53.719 --> 0:39:57.960 the Nostromo. But the curious thing is that outside of 0:39:58.800 --> 0:40:03.879 mostly dragons Alien, he worked mostly on commercials for Canadian TV. 0:40:04.239 --> 0:40:08.160 He was a Canadian, you know, there's and I couldn't 0:40:08.160 --> 0:40:10.600 find a complete list of everything he worked on, but 0:40:10.760 --> 0:40:13.480 he did like an Atari twenty six hundred commercial for 0:40:13.560 --> 0:40:18.760 Activision's Pitfall two and yeah, so not a lot of credits. 0:40:18.760 --> 0:40:20.720 But even then, from what I've read, he was highly 0:40:20.760 --> 0:40:25.719 influential within the business and actually turned down the work 0:40:25.760 --> 0:40:28.920 on subsequent big film projects with Ridley Scott and others. 0:40:29.560 --> 0:40:32.879 He directed a single feature link film himself the year 0:40:32.880 --> 0:40:36.880 two thousands, The Spreading Ground, starring Dennis Hopper, which was 0:40:36.920 --> 0:40:40.120 also co written by Mark Berman. Oh, I haven't seen that, 0:40:40.440 --> 0:40:42.919 so anyway, He's one of the many reasons you should 0:40:42.960 --> 0:40:46.239 definitely see this film in the best quality possible in 0:40:46.280 --> 0:40:47.480 a nice dark room. 0:40:47.719 --> 0:40:48.240 Good TV. 0:40:48.680 --> 0:40:49.879 It looks fantastic. 0:40:51.000 --> 0:40:54.160 Now, the composer on this film is another legend in 0:40:54.200 --> 0:40:56.759 the business, and that's Alex North, who lived nineteen ten 0:40:56.800 --> 0:41:01.000 through nineteen ninety one American composer and fifteen time Academy 0:41:01.040 --> 0:41:04.680 Award nominee. His most famous scores include those for nineteen 0:41:04.680 --> 0:41:06.879 fifty two is a Street Car Named Desire, and Death 0:41:06.880 --> 0:41:10.239 of a Salesman nineteen fifty six is Unchained. That's where 0:41:10.280 --> 0:41:13.839 We get Unchained Melody nineteen sixty one Spartacus sixty four 0:41:13.920 --> 0:41:17.960 is Cleopatra eighty five's Under the Volcano. He completed a 0:41:17.960 --> 0:41:20.520 score for two thousand and one, A Space Odyssey, but 0:41:20.640 --> 0:41:24.240 Kubrick rejected it in favor of a needle drop classical 0:41:24.320 --> 0:41:29.279 music score, and I'm to understand he actually reused some 0:41:29.440 --> 0:41:32.879 material from the two thousand and one project in this 0:41:32.960 --> 0:41:37.400 film HM Now. He received an OSCAR nomination for Dragon Slayer, 0:41:37.960 --> 0:41:41.000 but lost out to Vangelists for his work on Chariots 0:41:41.040 --> 0:41:44.480 of Fire. John Williams was also nominated that year for Raiders, 0:41:45.719 --> 0:41:47.840 But I mean Chariots of Fire is an all timer, 0:41:47.920 --> 0:41:50.040 so I mean, if you got to lose to Chariots 0:41:50.080 --> 0:41:50.399 of Fire. 0:41:50.760 --> 0:41:52.000 It's perfectly fine. 0:41:52.200 --> 0:41:55.160 I think the music in Dragon Slayer works quite well, 0:41:55.440 --> 0:41:57.759 especially right at the beginning of the movie. There's it's 0:41:57.880 --> 0:42:00.759 you know, classic dark fantasy opening. It opens with like 0:42:00.800 --> 0:42:04.839 a black screen and these just lead heavy horns really 0:42:04.880 --> 0:42:09.680 working the brass section. It's dark, deep, ominous. It's really good. 0:42:09.840 --> 0:42:13.920 Yeah, highly effective. All right, Now, this is a special 0:42:13.960 --> 0:42:18.480 effects movie. This is got This has tremendous special effects 0:42:18.800 --> 0:42:21.000 and we're not going to be able to do complete 0:42:21.120 --> 0:42:25.080 justice to them here. But the dragon does not play himself. 0:42:25.840 --> 0:42:29.080 This was the work of a vast industrial light and 0:42:29.160 --> 0:42:33.520 magic crew, featuring such names as Dennis Murran, Phil Tippett, 0:42:33.960 --> 0:42:37.880 Ken Ralston and Brian Johnson. The film was nominated for 0:42:38.040 --> 0:42:40.680 a Special Effects OSCAR that year, but lost out too. 0:42:40.800 --> 0:42:44.520 The only other nominee which was also an ILM project, 0:42:44.640 --> 0:42:48.839 Raiders of the Lost Ark. This film so they used 0:42:48.920 --> 0:42:52.240 various methods to bring the dragon to life. The film 0:42:52.680 --> 0:42:56.200 makes use of the go Motion system to create realistic 0:42:56.239 --> 0:42:59.960 motion blur and smooth character articulation for the dragon, as 0:43:00.040 --> 0:43:03.800 well as related miniature elements, and according to ILM on 0:43:03.840 --> 0:43:06.560 their website, the film inspired the development of the GO 0:43:06.640 --> 0:43:09.239 emotion system. I think Tipet had previously employed some of 0:43:09.280 --> 0:43:12.319 the techniques on The Empire Strikes Back, but this was like, 0:43:12.440 --> 0:43:15.200 this was a big go motion picture. And if you 0:43:15.239 --> 0:43:18.920 want more details on what that consists of, again, I 0:43:19.000 --> 0:43:23.120 highly recommend the making of documentary that is on the 0:43:23.160 --> 0:43:23.640 Blu Ray. 0:43:24.080 --> 0:43:27.680 I was curious about how they achieved the shots of 0:43:27.719 --> 0:43:32.960 the dragon moving because it does look unlike really any 0:43:33.000 --> 0:43:36.360 other special effects shots of that type I can think of, 0:43:36.440 --> 0:43:37.600 and it looks wonderful. 0:43:38.160 --> 0:43:42.680 Yeah, I think it's so these different types of effects. Obviously, 0:43:42.760 --> 0:43:45.080 see have large scale pneumatic limbs. You got a large 0:43:45.080 --> 0:43:48.759 scale heads, stop motion, go motion miniatures, flying miniatures that 0:43:48.800 --> 0:43:50.359 are brought to life in a very kind of like 0:43:50.640 --> 0:43:55.400 Star Wars spaceship fashion, and then puppetry, flamethrowers and so forth. 0:43:55.440 --> 0:43:58.560 But I imagine the scenes you're thinking of are particularly 0:43:58.640 --> 0:44:02.320 like the crawling around the cave sequences, and I believe 0:44:02.360 --> 0:44:05.520 that what we're talking about here are those go motion 0:44:05.680 --> 0:44:08.440 sequences that Phil tip It was in charge of, and 0:44:08.560 --> 0:44:12.440 indeed these are just just so magical, it just absolutely 0:44:12.480 --> 0:44:15.320 feels alive. I mean, there's a reason that del Toro 0:44:15.880 --> 0:44:18.000 himself says like this not only is this the best 0:44:18.040 --> 0:44:20.359 Dragon that had ever been done? This is the best 0:44:20.440 --> 0:44:21.879 Dragon that has ever been done in. 0:44:21.840 --> 0:44:25.840 Cinema still to this day. Yeah, I don't know. I 0:44:25.880 --> 0:44:27.520 don't know what I would think was better. 0:44:28.120 --> 0:44:31.600 Yeah, I mean even I've read other productions talking about 0:44:31.640 --> 0:44:36.000 their dragon and it's like they oftentimes acknowledge the DNA 0:44:36.040 --> 0:44:38.759 of Dragon Slayer in what they do. You know, it's like, well, 0:44:38.760 --> 0:44:40.880 we looked to Dragon Slayer, we looked at what worked, 0:44:41.200 --> 0:44:42.640 and we tried to build off of that. 0:44:52.320 --> 0:44:54.720 All right, are you ready to talk about the plot? 0:44:54.920 --> 0:44:55.560 Let's dive in. 0:44:55.960 --> 0:44:58.360 So we begin in darkness, as I said earlier, with 0:44:58.440 --> 0:45:03.160 those the heavy, scary kind of horn melodies playing, and 0:45:03.200 --> 0:45:06.360 then eventually out of the blackness we see a burning 0:45:06.600 --> 0:45:10.400 torch emerge, and then there's another and another, and the 0:45:10.440 --> 0:45:14.640 picture kind of differentiates from just pure black into an 0:45:14.640 --> 0:45:18.040 indigo nighttime sky in the background, and then the dark 0:45:18.120 --> 0:45:21.839 shapes of dead trees in the foreground. So a group 0:45:21.880 --> 0:45:24.640 of people are making their way across a hillside by 0:45:24.680 --> 0:45:28.759 torchlight in the dead of night. And then somewhere else 0:45:28.840 --> 0:45:31.480 we see an old man in a dim cave like 0:45:31.560 --> 0:45:35.960 room surrounded by arcane instruments, engaged in magic and alchemy, 0:45:36.160 --> 0:45:38.879 and he sort of waves a fire of sorcery into 0:45:38.920 --> 0:45:41.640 existence in a metal bowl and then stares into the 0:45:41.640 --> 0:45:44.680 flame like he is divining a scene from elsewhere or 0:45:44.719 --> 0:45:47.800 from the future, and we hear screams and the sound 0:45:47.800 --> 0:45:51.120 of metal clashing violence, all this echoing in his mind. 0:45:52.080 --> 0:45:54.719 And then the party we saw traveling by night, they 0:45:54.840 --> 0:45:58.200 arrive at the heavy door of a hilltop castle and 0:45:58.239 --> 0:46:01.480 they knock and somebody answers the door. I believe it's Hodge. 0:46:01.480 --> 0:46:06.000 Here are sort of like a strange old man, and 0:46:06.120 --> 0:46:08.440 he tries to turn them away, but we learned that 0:46:08.520 --> 0:46:13.200 this is the dwelling of Ulrich of Kraganmore. He says, yes, 0:46:13.280 --> 0:46:15.840 you've come a long way, Yes, your business is urgent. 0:46:16.000 --> 0:46:18.879 It does not matter. He sees no one, and there's 0:46:18.960 --> 0:46:21.399 grumbling from within the party. They are being led by 0:46:21.400 --> 0:46:23.960 a young man named a Valerian, and some of the 0:46:24.040 --> 0:46:27.520 unhappy travelers are like, what now, boy? In fact, I 0:46:27.520 --> 0:46:29.560 think it's the guy who's going to later convert to 0:46:29.640 --> 0:46:33.759 Christianity that's being really grumpy. But eventually they get led 0:46:33.800 --> 0:46:36.520 inside the castle and the master of the castle is 0:46:36.640 --> 0:46:40.680 the great wizard Ulric of kraganmore and he has foreseen 0:46:40.960 --> 0:46:43.759 that he must meet with them. He also tells his 0:46:43.880 --> 0:46:48.480 young apprentice Galen that he foresees his own death and 0:46:48.760 --> 0:46:51.920 matters that will be of great importance to Galen as well. 0:46:53.000 --> 0:46:55.960 We learned that Galen is an eager young student. He 0:46:56.000 --> 0:46:59.279 wants to basically what he wants more than anything else 0:46:59.280 --> 0:47:01.880 in the world is to become mighty in the ways 0:47:01.920 --> 0:47:04.560 of sorcery. But he is still learning. And then we 0:47:04.640 --> 0:47:07.399 get to the scene where Ulric comes out to meet 0:47:07.480 --> 0:47:09.759 the travelers, and I thought this was really funny. I 0:47:09.800 --> 0:47:14.440 love the use of what you might call diegetic special 0:47:14.440 --> 0:47:18.240 effects in this scene. So, you know, in many cases 0:47:18.280 --> 0:47:21.239 you might say that the mechanisms of special effects are 0:47:21.280 --> 0:47:25.000 non diegetic because they're just supposed to appear on screen 0:47:25.080 --> 0:47:27.760 as if they are representing some kind of real magic. 0:47:28.200 --> 0:47:31.080 But here, as Ulric comes out to meet the guests, 0:47:31.600 --> 0:47:35.160 Galen is like shaking some sheet metal to generate a 0:47:35.239 --> 0:47:38.880 sound of thunder, and then he throws exploding powder on 0:47:38.920 --> 0:47:41.320 the floor to create a flash of light and smoke 0:47:41.400 --> 0:47:44.200 as Ulric enters the room, so it's like he's still 0:47:44.239 --> 0:47:46.920 sort of got the sorcery training wheels on, you know, 0:47:47.000 --> 0:47:49.239 he's like using these materials. 0:47:50.000 --> 0:47:53.520 It also reminded me a bit of some of the 0:47:53.520 --> 0:47:56.400 themes they're explored in The Last Unicorn, like the idea 0:47:56.400 --> 0:47:58.640 of having to put a like a fake horn on 0:47:58.680 --> 0:48:03.440 a real unicorn. Normal people could see it like a 0:48:03.560 --> 0:48:05.720 we're living in a world here where magic is leaving 0:48:05.760 --> 0:48:10.080 the world. There's less magic available, but also legitimate sorcery 0:48:10.120 --> 0:48:12.080 as we see it in the film has kind of 0:48:12.080 --> 0:48:15.560 like this kind of subtle quality to it, and there's 0:48:15.640 --> 0:48:18.680 kind of this sense that just normal folk might miss it, 0:48:18.760 --> 0:48:21.640 they might not understand what they're seeing. So perhaps you've 0:48:21.640 --> 0:48:24.279 got to spice things up a little bit with some 0:48:24.560 --> 0:48:26.080 stage effects and so forth. 0:48:26.600 --> 0:48:29.520 But of course Ulrich is the real deal, because when 0:48:29.520 --> 0:48:31.759 he comes into the room, we see him immediately using 0:48:31.880 --> 0:48:35.239 real magic, like he raises flames on the candles and 0:48:35.280 --> 0:48:37.760 in the hearth with a word. And so he meets 0:48:37.760 --> 0:48:40.439 with the travelers. We learn they are a delegation from 0:48:40.719 --> 0:48:44.359 or Land, which is beyond Valvatia, and he says, let's 0:48:44.400 --> 0:48:48.840 see the artifacts, as if this is almost like a routine, 0:48:48.920 --> 0:48:52.000 kind of recurring type of meeting. He's just like, we 0:48:52.080 --> 0:48:54.920 go through the steps here, show me the artifacts and 0:48:55.000 --> 0:48:59.640 they share with him scales and an enormous tooth. Ulric 0:49:00.000 --> 0:49:02.880 it first seems a little intimidated. He says, the beast 0:49:02.960 --> 0:49:07.200 that this came from must be enormous, and he suggests 0:49:07.200 --> 0:49:10.640 they try someone else. He says, try the Meridid sisters 0:49:10.719 --> 0:49:14.480 or Rimbau. These are other sorcerers that apparently have experience 0:49:14.560 --> 0:49:18.160 fighting dragons, but Valerian says, nope, they are all dead. 0:49:18.360 --> 0:49:21.560 Ulrich seems to be the only great sorcerer left in 0:49:21.680 --> 0:49:25.080 the land. Ulrich then discovers more of their plight. The 0:49:25.200 --> 0:49:29.240 king of Orland, Cassiodorus, has made a pact with the monster. 0:49:29.880 --> 0:49:33.040 The dragon agrees not to attack the villages and burn 0:49:33.120 --> 0:49:36.279 the crops of Orland, but this is only as long 0:49:36.360 --> 0:49:40.000 as at the spring and autumn equinox he receives a 0:49:40.080 --> 0:49:44.600 human sacrifice. They will send him a virgin selected by lottery. 0:49:45.080 --> 0:49:49.719 Ulrich judges this arrangement barbaric, and then Valerian says to him, 0:49:49.760 --> 0:49:53.200 are you afraid of dragons? And Ulrich says, I'm going 0:49:53.239 --> 0:49:55.920 to quote him here. He says no. In fact, if 0:49:55.920 --> 0:50:00.279 it weren't for sorcerers, there wouldn't be any dragons. Once 0:50:00.320 --> 0:50:06.320 the skies were dotted with them, magnificent horned backs, leathern wings, soaring, 0:50:06.719 --> 0:50:10.240 and their hot breath wind. Oh, I know, this creature 0:50:10.280 --> 0:50:16.160 of yours vermic thracks, pejorative. Look at these scales, these ridges. 0:50:16.560 --> 0:50:20.480 When a dragon gets this old, it knows nothing but pain, 0:50:21.000 --> 0:50:26.560 constant pain. It grows decrepit, crippled, pitiful, spiteful. 0:50:27.080 --> 0:50:30.279 It's a great moment because, I mean, obviously he's not 0:50:30.360 --> 0:50:34.440 just describing the dragon here, he's also talking about himself. 0:50:34.480 --> 0:50:37.640 He's talking about the ravages of age. 0:50:37.560 --> 0:50:40.640 That's right, So that's interesting. But also it's a strange 0:50:40.680 --> 0:50:43.560 take on the dragon. So you know, we were saying 0:50:43.560 --> 0:50:45.719 earlier that the dragon in this movie is very much 0:50:45.719 --> 0:50:48.960 a monster and is not one of the noble, intelligent, 0:50:49.840 --> 0:50:52.600 you know, higher dragons of some other fantasy stories. But 0:50:52.680 --> 0:50:55.960 it almost sounds like maybe this same dragon would have 0:50:56.040 --> 0:50:59.480 been many many years ago. But dragons, when they become 0:50:59.640 --> 0:51:04.200 old to become twisted and cruel. Yeah, and it's because 0:51:04.280 --> 0:51:05.640 they themselves are in pain. 0:51:06.040 --> 0:51:08.600 Yeah. I mean, it reminds me a bit of examples 0:51:08.600 --> 0:51:12.320 we've talked about in the natural world concerning meat eaters, 0:51:13.239 --> 0:51:17.080 you know, particularly a man eaters, large predators that have 0:51:18.160 --> 0:51:22.839 just have turned to killing and consuming human beings, and 0:51:22.880 --> 0:51:25.040 in many cases that's not because you have a creature 0:51:25.040 --> 0:51:28.200 in its prime. You have a creature that's aging, that 0:51:28.320 --> 0:51:32.400 maybe has dental problems and so forth, and therefore has 0:51:32.480 --> 0:51:34.360 kind of been reduced to this status. 0:51:34.840 --> 0:51:38.040 Yeah, it's having trouble surviving in the way it always 0:51:38.080 --> 0:51:41.400 has before, and so is trying new things out of desperation. 0:51:42.520 --> 0:51:45.880 So Ulric agrees to help them. He suits up to travel, 0:51:46.040 --> 0:51:49.080 and he says goodbye to Galen and Hodge. Hodge is 0:51:49.080 --> 0:51:52.520 his retainer there at the castle, Galen's little magical assistant. 0:51:52.560 --> 0:51:56.320 That's that's Peter McNichol. As he's leaving, he says to Galen, 0:51:56.440 --> 0:52:00.839 keep your hands out of my reagents. Ooh, then we're 0:52:00.840 --> 0:52:04.120 about to get a really great villain introduction. As the 0:52:04.160 --> 0:52:07.480 party is preparing to leave the castle of Kraganmore, they 0:52:07.520 --> 0:52:11.520 are intercepted by armed men led by Tyrian, the captain 0:52:11.640 --> 0:52:15.040 of Cassiodorus's royal guard, his king's guard, if you will. 0:52:16.200 --> 0:52:21.040 Tyrian is a large man. He is sneering and seemingly dangerous. 0:52:21.080 --> 0:52:24.319 He has that energy of someone who is calm for 0:52:24.400 --> 0:52:29.200 the moment, but could suddenly become violent. However, once he 0:52:29.280 --> 0:52:33.719 starts talking, I gotta admit Tyrian makes some good points. 0:52:34.239 --> 0:52:36.400 He says, look, I know what you're up to. You 0:52:36.400 --> 0:52:39.440 know you're gonna get a wizard to go kill this dragon. Well, 0:52:39.600 --> 0:52:42.200 I don't love the dragon either, but if you try 0:52:42.239 --> 0:52:45.439 to kill it and fail, you are going to stir 0:52:45.560 --> 0:52:48.680 up a huge mess of trouble and it may that 0:52:48.760 --> 0:52:51.799 may be disastrous for the people of the kingdom. So 0:52:52.040 --> 0:52:54.320 if you're gonna try to kill the dragon, you better 0:52:54.480 --> 0:52:57.000 be sure that your wizard is up to the job. 0:52:57.640 --> 0:53:00.480 And then Hodge responds to this, saying, ah, so it's 0:53:00.480 --> 0:53:04.319 a test you're looking for. We don't do tests, and 0:53:04.400 --> 0:53:09.000 Tyrian's response is no, of course not. They never do tests. 0:53:09.200 --> 0:53:13.759 Not many real deeds either. Oh, conversation with your grandmother's 0:53:13.800 --> 0:53:17.160 shade in a darkened room, the odd love potion or two. 0:53:17.560 --> 0:53:20.399 But comes a doubter. Why then it's the wrong day, 0:53:20.600 --> 0:53:23.920 The planets are not in line, the entrails are not favorable. 0:53:24.400 --> 0:53:28.640 We don't do tests. And so Tyrian comes off like 0:53:28.640 --> 0:53:30.640 a villain in the scene, but he's making a lot 0:53:30.680 --> 0:53:33.960 of sense. You do not want to send Uri Geller 0:53:34.120 --> 0:53:36.880 up to fight the monster that is going to react 0:53:36.920 --> 0:53:38.680 with swift and terrible revenge. 0:53:39.320 --> 0:53:39.520 Yeah. 0:53:39.600 --> 0:53:41.440 Yeah, he does make some great points here. You know, 0:53:41.480 --> 0:53:44.960 it's like, again kind of in support of the status quo, 0:53:45.080 --> 0:53:49.160 but it's like, are you going to actually solve any 0:53:49.200 --> 0:53:50.680 problems with this or are you just going to make 0:53:50.760 --> 0:53:54.160 things worse. He's very much of the mindset I think, 0:53:54.200 --> 0:53:57.600 you know, better one hundred years of tyranny than a 0:53:57.640 --> 0:53:59.080 day of chaos, that sort of thing. 0:53:59.360 --> 0:54:01.719 But they have sperience to base this on because they 0:54:01.760 --> 0:54:05.200 will reveal later that the king's brother long ago did 0:54:05.280 --> 0:54:07.560 try to go slay the dragon to free the people 0:54:07.960 --> 0:54:13.080 from its from its oppression, and in response to this attack, 0:54:13.239 --> 0:54:17.440 the dragon burned all their crops and attacked their villages 0:54:17.520 --> 0:54:22.600 and many were killed and it was horrible. Yeah, but anyway, 0:54:22.719 --> 0:54:26.440 Ulric says, yeah, okay, Tyrian, I will consent to a test. 0:54:26.560 --> 0:54:29.040 And it's what test is it? It's the old stab 0:54:29.120 --> 0:54:33.720 me with the magic dagger test. So Ulric assures Tyrian. 0:54:33.760 --> 0:54:36.760 He like gets Peter McNichol to go get a special 0:54:36.840 --> 0:54:39.200 dagger for him, and he puts the dagger against his 0:54:39.360 --> 0:54:42.160 chest and says, go on, you can't hurt me. And 0:54:42.200 --> 0:54:45.480 then Ulrich he uses magic to trap Galen inside his 0:54:45.560 --> 0:54:49.400 workshop to prevent him from intervening, and Tyrian does the 0:54:49.480 --> 0:54:51.640 test and oh no, Ulric is killed. 0:54:52.400 --> 0:54:54.480 This is a really great scene and one that I 0:54:54.880 --> 0:54:59.120 enjoyed rewatching with commentary. So Richardson really does a lot 0:54:59.160 --> 0:55:02.440 of s all fascinating work here, Like there's kind of 0:55:02.440 --> 0:55:07.160 like ritualistic handling of the dagger leading up to the test, 0:55:07.560 --> 0:55:10.680 the bearing of his breast for the dagger, and there's 0:55:10.719 --> 0:55:12.920 and the look in his eyes, you know, with this 0:55:13.160 --> 0:55:16.840 at first with the boldness and assuredness of a powerful wizard, 0:55:17.320 --> 0:55:19.760 but then it you know, it kind of transitions into 0:55:20.800 --> 0:55:24.680 like the certainty, the the the mundane nature of death, 0:55:24.800 --> 0:55:29.200 you know. Uh. And del Toro talks about this a 0:55:29.200 --> 0:55:32.160 bit on the commentary track, compares the overall blocking and 0:55:32.239 --> 0:55:35.480 cinematography of the scene to like arim Brandt painting. 0:55:35.880 --> 0:55:36.120 You know. 0:55:36.200 --> 0:55:39.040 It's it's it's really a great sequence and really a 0:55:39.040 --> 0:55:40.720 showcase for Richardson's acting. 0:55:41.640 --> 0:55:43.520 Yeah, you know, there are a lot of things about 0:55:43.520 --> 0:55:46.239 this movie I think you could regard as as a 0:55:46.280 --> 0:55:49.640 bit rim brandy. There are these scenes of orange light 0:55:49.800 --> 0:55:53.239 and shadows, but also yeah, the blocking, like the way 0:55:53.280 --> 0:55:54.719 the wizard kind of collapses. 0:55:55.760 --> 0:55:58.399 Yeah, yeah, because he does do like the death here 0:55:58.960 --> 0:56:02.239 does not feel magic. It feels like an old man 0:56:02.280 --> 0:56:05.760 foolishly getting himself stabbed through the heart and just dying 0:56:05.800 --> 0:56:06.520 there in the mud. 0:56:07.120 --> 0:56:09.520 It makes you wonder did he actually have any powers 0:56:09.520 --> 0:56:11.640 at all? I mean, we saw him light some candles 0:56:11.640 --> 0:56:12.839 and stuff, but was that it? 0:56:13.640 --> 0:56:16.480 And it seems very much a world where that is 0:56:16.520 --> 0:56:19.520 a strong possibility that he had no magic left in him. 0:56:19.520 --> 0:56:21.600 There was no great magic left for this guy to do. 0:56:22.040 --> 0:56:24.880 So we see funeral rights for Ulrich. Galen burns his 0:56:24.960 --> 0:56:28.000 body on a pyre. There's a green flame that emerges, 0:56:28.520 --> 0:56:31.600 and Galen looks on with terrible sadness. We see shooting 0:56:31.640 --> 0:56:35.600 stars streaking across the heavens. And the next morning Hodge 0:56:35.600 --> 0:56:38.560 comes in and scrapes up the ashes from the funeral 0:56:38.600 --> 0:56:42.319 pyre into a leather pouch, and we see Galen kind 0:56:42.320 --> 0:56:45.400 of moping around, covering up Ulric's things with cloth and 0:56:45.440 --> 0:56:49.239 wondering what to do with himself. But his adventure is 0:56:49.400 --> 0:56:52.919 just beginning because some magical selection is at work here. 0:56:53.560 --> 0:56:58.480 Galen finds Ulric's enchanted amulet burning for him, burning with 0:56:58.560 --> 0:57:02.320 this eager orange light in his presence. It has chosen 0:57:02.400 --> 0:57:06.680 him as its next owner. You are the wizard now, Galen, and. 0:57:06.800 --> 0:57:09.560 Just fills him with the foolish self confidence he needs 0:57:09.920 --> 0:57:12.120 to set out to slay the dragon. 0:57:12.320 --> 0:57:14.480 That's right. So we see Galen and Hodge on the 0:57:14.560 --> 0:57:17.680 journey to Orland. They're making the journey and they're like 0:57:17.720 --> 0:57:20.360 catching up to the party of visitors that came to 0:57:20.400 --> 0:57:24.880 them earlier. Galen seems excited and a little bit overwhelmed 0:57:24.920 --> 0:57:27.520 by his new power, like he's levitating an egg in 0:57:27.600 --> 0:57:30.640 his hands while they walk across the country. This is 0:57:30.720 --> 0:57:34.200 the first time we see like some really gorgeous exterior 0:57:34.280 --> 0:57:38.000 location shots. They're going through a green valley framed by mountains, 0:57:38.040 --> 0:57:41.400 and they make their way through these misty, sun dappled woods. 0:57:41.400 --> 0:57:45.680 It's very beautiful. But Galen is also he's playing with 0:57:45.800 --> 0:57:49.760 and arguably abusing his wizard powers. Hodge is complaining and 0:57:49.840 --> 0:57:54.560 Galen starts like magically stealing his cloak and stuff. Eventually, 0:57:54.600 --> 0:57:57.080 Galen and Hodge catch up to the traveling party and 0:57:57.120 --> 0:58:00.600 Galen introduces them to his new powers. Says, you know, 0:58:01.320 --> 0:58:04.080 he's saying, I take on the burden of your request. 0:58:04.200 --> 0:58:07.320 I am Galen, I am the inheritor of Ulrich's knowledge, 0:58:07.360 --> 0:58:18.920 and I am the sorcerer you seek. Now Here we 0:58:19.000 --> 0:58:22.480 cut away to somewhere else in Orland, where we are 0:58:22.520 --> 0:58:27.200 going to witness a sacrifice to vermic Thrack's pejorative the dragon. 0:58:28.240 --> 0:58:30.480 I don't know if we even took a moment to 0:58:30.520 --> 0:58:33.360 comment on the dragon's name yet, did we know? 0:58:33.560 --> 0:58:36.160 But it is such a wonderful name, and it is 0:58:36.280 --> 0:58:39.360 kind of left a little vague whether this is thought 0:58:39.400 --> 0:58:42.280 of as an individual name or like a species sort 0:58:42.280 --> 0:58:46.960 of name, given the Wizard's identification of it earlier. 0:58:47.520 --> 0:58:49.560 Oh, I hadn't thought of it as a species name. 0:58:49.600 --> 0:58:51.360 I thought of it as like a proper name. But 0:58:51.800 --> 0:58:55.760 you could be right, it works either way, I think. Yeah, 0:58:55.800 --> 0:58:58.520 But how does anybody know this is the dragon's name? 0:58:58.640 --> 0:58:58.760 Like? 0:58:59.120 --> 0:59:01.440 Does the dragon use this name itself? 0:59:01.480 --> 0:59:04.480 We never hear it talk, I do know. If it 0:59:04.760 --> 0:59:08.600 can talk, it doesn't, or it no longer speaks. Yeah, 0:59:08.600 --> 0:59:10.800 this is not a dragon with anything to say and 0:59:11.040 --> 0:59:15.000 say with words. It speaks instead with flames and violence. 0:59:15.440 --> 0:59:19.160 Right, So we see a procession of soldiers, carts robed 0:59:19.240 --> 0:59:23.000 priests winding up a mountain path of dark rocks. They 0:59:23.000 --> 0:59:26.640 are escorting a prisoner, a young woman dressed in white 0:59:26.680 --> 0:59:30.160 with flowers in her hair. She is a sacrifice that 0:59:30.320 --> 0:59:33.000 is meant for the dragon. So they take her up 0:59:33.080 --> 0:59:35.320 the mountain and they leave her chain to a stake 0:59:35.520 --> 0:59:38.920 near the mouth of a cave, and the priest produces 0:59:38.960 --> 0:59:43.120 a scroll and begins reading an official decree commemorating the sacrifice. 0:59:43.640 --> 0:59:48.360 Though while he's reading this, there begins a great deep rumbling, 0:59:48.760 --> 0:59:51.280 and the soldiers and the teamsters with the carts, they 0:59:51.280 --> 0:59:53.400 all panic and they start just trying to get out 0:59:53.440 --> 0:59:56.240 of there as fast as they can before the cleric 0:59:56.280 --> 1:00:00.520 even finishes reading the statement, which is really funny. Everybody's 1:00:00.560 --> 1:00:02.640 trying to run away, like the carts are getting stuck 1:00:02.680 --> 1:00:05.360 in the mud, and people are freaking out. But this 1:00:05.480 --> 1:00:10.600 scene is actually quite scary. Yeah, the young woman being sacrificed, 1:00:10.600 --> 1:00:13.960 she struggles to free herself from her manacles. We hear 1:00:14.000 --> 1:00:17.439 these heavy footsteps approaching. We don't see the dragon yet, 1:00:17.440 --> 1:00:19.680 but these sounds are coming from the yawning mouth of 1:00:19.720 --> 1:00:23.000 the cave. There's steam rushing up from the gaps in 1:00:23.040 --> 1:00:26.040 the rocks, and then we see a giant, clawed pair 1:00:26.120 --> 1:00:29.960 of toes curling around the corner of the rock, and 1:00:30.200 --> 1:00:33.800 the beast reveals itself in full to her, but not 1:00:34.000 --> 1:00:37.480 to us. Yet we get the feeling we sort of 1:00:37.480 --> 1:00:40.040 see from its point of view and get the feeling 1:00:40.080 --> 1:00:43.840 that it is towering, monstrous. We do see that it 1:00:43.920 --> 1:00:48.600 has a slimy tail covered in these spikes protruding bones. 1:00:49.520 --> 1:00:52.920 Not like the elegant sort of patterns of ridges and 1:00:53.360 --> 1:00:57.160 bumps who you see on smoother dragons of recent media. 1:00:57.200 --> 1:01:01.560 This looks more like a gigantic spot of fish bones, 1:01:01.680 --> 1:01:05.600 you know, like broken in places, irregular modeled, with age, 1:01:05.920 --> 1:01:09.360 covered in scales and mucus. Just horrible in every way. 1:01:09.640 --> 1:01:12.960 And again we don't see it in full us the viewer. 1:01:13.080 --> 1:01:16.880 We see bits and pieces of it. The full shape 1:01:16.880 --> 1:01:19.960 of the dragon is implied rather than stated overtly. 1:01:20.480 --> 1:01:23.200 Right, So, the young woman, actually the last moment, does 1:01:23.280 --> 1:01:26.560 manage to free herself from her from her manacles, but 1:01:27.120 --> 1:01:30.400 it's too late. The dragon is there. It's looming over her, 1:01:30.880 --> 1:01:35.240 a giant, stinking, hateful mass. And then finally it just 1:01:35.360 --> 1:01:40.560 unleashes a breath of fire. It's an incredibly effective scary scene. 1:01:40.640 --> 1:01:43.040 Yeah, this is like a horror movie sequence right here, 1:01:43.800 --> 1:01:45.920 and it uses the tools of horror quite well. Like 1:01:46.360 --> 1:01:49.120 you mentioned, her trying to free herselves from herself from 1:01:49.160 --> 1:01:52.000 the manacles, and of course that they're cutting up her wrists, 1:01:52.400 --> 1:01:55.160 she's straining and having to squeeze, like and it's one 1:01:55.160 --> 1:01:58.360 of those small touches, you know, where we can more 1:01:58.400 --> 1:02:02.480 easily imagine that pain, in that desperation, then we can 1:02:02.600 --> 1:02:06.920 like the larger, more fantastic aspects of and extreme aspects 1:02:06.920 --> 1:02:10.280 of the situation, and therefore, like the familiar makes the 1:02:11.120 --> 1:02:16.880 fantastic more real to us. So it's excellently done. And yeah, 1:02:16.920 --> 1:02:20.120 when we start seeing these glimpses of the dragon, just 1:02:20.240 --> 1:02:23.640 utterly terrifying. On the commentary track, del Toro just loses 1:02:23.640 --> 1:02:27.000 his mind over this sequence. He's just he's like, oh, 1:02:27.000 --> 1:02:29.440 what of what I wouldn't give for a scene like this? 1:02:29.680 --> 1:02:32.280 You know, It's like, find someone in your life who 1:02:32.440 --> 1:02:35.560 loves you as much as del Toro loves these dragon sequences. 1:02:36.040 --> 1:02:38.080 Yeah, that is a good point you make about the 1:02:38.120 --> 1:02:40.880 way that it combines different types of horror in the 1:02:40.920 --> 1:02:43.960 same scene. For this this greater than the sum of 1:02:43.960 --> 1:02:47.440 its parts effect, so that the horrors of the scene 1:02:47.480 --> 1:02:52.000 are both large and small, both sort of concrete and familiar, 1:02:52.280 --> 1:02:54.480 and then fantastical and magical. 1:02:54.960 --> 1:02:55.280 Yeah. 1:02:55.480 --> 1:02:58.919 Anyway, after this terrifying sequence, we see Valerian wake from 1:02:58.920 --> 1:03:02.400 a nightmare in a cold sweat at their camp in 1:03:02.440 --> 1:03:06.040 the forest, and then here at the river beside the camp, 1:03:06.440 --> 1:03:08.760 Galen wakes up and he decides to go bathing in 1:03:08.800 --> 1:03:12.439 the water, which Valerian is also doing as well, and 1:03:12.640 --> 1:03:15.720 in this process he discovers that Valerian is not a 1:03:15.760 --> 1:03:18.920 young man but a young woman in disguise, and this 1:03:19.000 --> 1:03:21.280 is where we get the story she fills him in. 1:03:22.240 --> 1:03:24.520 We find out that she has lived her whole life 1:03:24.520 --> 1:03:27.840 in public disguised as a boy to hide from the 1:03:27.960 --> 1:03:33.080 Vermathrax sacrifice lottery, and Galen promises he'll help her keep 1:03:33.120 --> 1:03:36.000 her secret. He's not going to tell anybody, and they 1:03:36.000 --> 1:03:39.439 have a conversation where Valerian reveals also that it's only 1:03:39.520 --> 1:03:41.840 the daughters of the common people who are in danger. 1:03:41.880 --> 1:03:44.080 If you're rich enough, if you're the daughter of the king, 1:03:44.200 --> 1:03:47.439 you can avoid the lottery. But of course Valerian's father 1:03:47.560 --> 1:03:49.320 is just a blacksmith. He's poor. 1:03:49.840 --> 1:03:52.240 Now on the commentary tract, they do point out like 1:03:52.280 --> 1:03:57.640 the obvious connection here to the military draft, particularly during 1:03:57.640 --> 1:04:00.840 the nineteen sixties in the United States, and so there's 1:04:00.880 --> 1:04:02.680 you know, there's this is one of the many moments 1:04:02.680 --> 1:04:05.240 in the film where there's actually some there's a lot 1:04:05.240 --> 1:04:07.920 of food for thought in the scenario that's being drawn 1:04:08.000 --> 1:04:11.880 out for us here. You know, it's it's it's fantasy, Yes, 1:04:12.000 --> 1:04:16.880 it's it's it's supposed to be centuries ago in this, 1:04:17.560 --> 1:04:20.320 you know, somewhere a little adjacent to history. But he 1:04:20.360 --> 1:04:23.000 does have you know, there are various comparison points for 1:04:23.320 --> 1:04:24.840 modern life in the modern world. 1:04:25.280 --> 1:04:29.960 Yeah, yeah, So also in the scene, though, Galen sees 1:04:29.960 --> 1:04:33.080 a vision in the water, his like amulet activates and 1:04:33.080 --> 1:04:36.320 he starts to use the water surface as a divining mirror. 1:04:36.720 --> 1:04:39.680 And he sees soldiers riding on the road and Tyrian, 1:04:40.000 --> 1:04:43.840 the captain of the King's guard, overlooking the camp, drawing 1:04:43.920 --> 1:04:47.360 his bow. And now he sees Tyrian has shot Hodge 1:04:47.360 --> 1:04:50.200 with an arrow. So Galen is like, no, no, no, 1:04:50.240 --> 1:04:52.560 and he runs to intervene, but it's too late. Galen 1:04:52.640 --> 1:04:56.440 finds Hodge dying of his wound, and Hodge instructs Galen. 1:04:56.520 --> 1:05:00.040 He says, our master had dying wishes take the this 1:05:00.320 --> 1:05:04.560 pouch of Ulrich's ashes, find the lake of burning water 1:05:04.800 --> 1:05:09.280 and throw the ashes in, and then Hodg dies. Galen tries, 1:05:09.320 --> 1:05:11.840 I think, to resurrect him with magic, but this fails. 1:05:12.840 --> 1:05:14.880 So the stakes are up and this sort of marks 1:05:14.960 --> 1:05:16.600 roughly the end of act one. 1:05:16.720 --> 1:05:19.320 Ish Yeah, yeah, I think so. 1:05:19.320 --> 1:05:22.000 So Galen, Valerian, and the rest of the Erlanders make 1:05:22.040 --> 1:05:24.560 their way back to Dragon Country, and again lots of 1:05:24.640 --> 1:05:29.320 absolutely gorgeous outdoor location shots here, the landscape, the rocks 1:05:29.320 --> 1:05:33.240 covered in moss, waterfalls, mountains of gray boulders, and on 1:05:33.280 --> 1:05:36.600 the way they pass by the layer of Vermathrax pejorative 1:05:36.840 --> 1:05:38.960 and Galen wants to go straight to it. I think 1:05:39.000 --> 1:05:41.080 they're like, well, let's go home first. Somebody's like, no, 1:05:41.240 --> 1:05:43.120 get me there right now. So they go to the 1:05:43.160 --> 1:05:46.320 cave mouth. Galen is just he has so much zeal 1:05:46.360 --> 1:05:49.760 he just goes straight inside, against the warnings of Valerian 1:05:49.840 --> 1:05:52.320 and the others. It's very tense when he goes in 1:05:52.360 --> 1:05:55.920 the atmosphere and the dragon's cave is wonderful, and he 1:05:55.960 --> 1:05:58.439 tries to call out vermoth racks and there are these 1:05:58.480 --> 1:06:01.480 blasts of smoke and dust, but the dragon does not appear. 1:06:02.000 --> 1:06:05.080 So Galen comes back out of the cave and he's 1:06:05.120 --> 1:06:07.800 been told by the others that there is only one 1:06:08.160 --> 1:06:10.720 entrance and exit to the cave. There's no other way 1:06:10.760 --> 1:06:15.280 in or out, so seemingly kind of chastened by fear 1:06:15.320 --> 1:06:17.160 a little bit. Instead of going in to fight the 1:06:17.240 --> 1:06:21.320 dragon inside, he does a magical incantation to cause a 1:06:21.360 --> 1:06:25.919 boulder to fall down and plug the mouth of the cave. Again, 1:06:25.960 --> 1:06:28.440 we've been told this is the only entrance, but it's 1:06:28.440 --> 1:06:30.560 almost like he doesn't know his own strength because it 1:06:30.640 --> 1:06:33.560 ends up causing a gigantic rock slide with all of 1:06:33.560 --> 1:06:36.840 these rocks coming down and piling up over the mouth 1:06:36.840 --> 1:06:39.160 of the cave, and it seems to have worked. The 1:06:39.200 --> 1:06:42.640 mouth of the cave of Vermathrax is filled in with rocks, 1:06:43.080 --> 1:06:44.320 and they say he's done it. 1:06:44.560 --> 1:06:47.320 All right, mission accomplished, kind of like a lucky first 1:06:47.320 --> 1:06:47.800 blow there. 1:06:47.800 --> 1:06:51.040 All right, yeah, good thing, the movie's over. But it's 1:06:51.120 --> 1:06:54.439 not so. Back at the village, everybody is celebrating being 1:06:54.480 --> 1:06:57.240 freed of the dragon. There's a bonfire. They're burning the 1:06:57.240 --> 1:07:00.200 cult effigies of the dragon that they'd previously care eat 1:07:00.240 --> 1:07:03.400 up the mountain in fear. Galen is telling stories to 1:07:03.440 --> 1:07:06.200 the children, and we meet Valerian's father, who is the 1:07:06.280 --> 1:07:11.600 village blacksmith, and Valerian finally now free of the dragon's curse. 1:07:11.840 --> 1:07:15.440 She in this scene puts on address and reveals to 1:07:15.520 --> 1:07:19.320 everyone that she is a girl. And there's also a 1:07:19.320 --> 1:07:22.120 funny development in the scene, which is where we meet 1:07:22.160 --> 1:07:26.360 the Christian missionary and it's Ian McDermid and some of 1:07:26.360 --> 1:07:29.360 the villagers are talking. I think I forget the villager's name, 1:07:29.360 --> 1:07:31.280 but it's the one who seems to be really into 1:07:31.360 --> 1:07:34.080 what the Christian is saying. He's like, don't you think 1:07:34.080 --> 1:07:36.360 it's strange that there's a holy man in the village 1:07:36.360 --> 1:07:38.680 at the same time that the dragon was defeated? 1:07:39.120 --> 1:07:41.880 Makes you think, yeah, I think this is the character 1:07:42.320 --> 1:07:46.120 Griel played by Albert Salmi who lived nineteen twenty eight 1:07:46.160 --> 1:07:49.920 through nineteen ninety. He was an American character actor. It 1:07:49.960 --> 1:07:52.120 was in a bunch of things. He was in Caddy Shack, 1:07:52.440 --> 1:07:55.000 He was on episodes of the original Twilight Zone and 1:07:55.120 --> 1:07:58.240 Night Gallery. And I think his voice is dubbed in this, 1:07:58.360 --> 1:08:00.480 but he has a very recognized. 1:08:00.880 --> 1:08:05.360 M yeah, but record scratch. The party stops when soldiers 1:08:05.360 --> 1:08:08.200 come riding into the village on horseback, led by Tyrian, 1:08:08.280 --> 1:08:10.920 the captain of the King's Guard, and they're like, we 1:08:11.000 --> 1:08:12.960 need to take Galen off to meet the king. The 1:08:13.080 --> 1:08:15.439 king wants to meet the wizard who delivered them all 1:08:15.920 --> 1:08:18.360 from the power of the dragon, And so we see 1:08:18.840 --> 1:08:21.160 Peter McNichol in front of the king trying to do 1:08:21.240 --> 1:08:24.240 demonstrations of magic. It's not going super well, like he 1:08:24.320 --> 1:08:26.639 tries to levitate a table and just kind of knocks 1:08:26.680 --> 1:08:27.479 stuff all over. 1:08:27.360 --> 1:08:29.560 The place a little bit. Nothing convincing. 1:08:29.960 --> 1:08:32.640 Yeah, but this is where we hear the stories that 1:08:32.960 --> 1:08:35.639 I alluded to earlier, where the king explains like, look, 1:08:35.680 --> 1:08:38.439 we have tried to kill the dragon before, my brother 1:08:38.560 --> 1:08:40.680 tried to do it and all it led to was 1:08:40.920 --> 1:08:44.920 horrible reprisals from the dragon. So we have to make 1:08:44.960 --> 1:08:48.400 sure did you really kill the dragon? Is it really dead? 1:08:48.680 --> 1:08:52.040 Galen promises, yes, it is, but the king is suspicious 1:08:52.040 --> 1:08:54.880 of him. He doesn't believe it, so he takes Galen prisoner, 1:08:55.000 --> 1:08:58.160 throws him in the dungeon, takes away his magical ambulet, 1:08:58.640 --> 1:09:03.000 and in the dungeon, Galen meets Princess Elspeth as she 1:09:03.120 --> 1:09:05.799 comes in, saying like, oh, I heard you muttering spells 1:09:05.800 --> 1:09:08.200 in Greek and Latin. It seems like that's not working 1:09:08.200 --> 1:09:10.320 because you know of your amulet. But I speak Greek 1:09:10.360 --> 1:09:13.840 and Latin too. And in this scene they sort of 1:09:13.840 --> 1:09:15.920 talk about what goes on with the dragon, and it's 1:09:15.960 --> 1:09:18.960 revealed that she is naive about how she's been avoiding 1:09:19.000 --> 1:09:22.080 the Dragon's lottery. Galen fills her in like, yeah, your 1:09:22.120 --> 1:09:25.160 dad's covering for you, like your name's not going into 1:09:25.200 --> 1:09:25.719 the lottery. 1:09:25.920 --> 1:09:26.160 Yeah. 1:09:26.160 --> 1:09:28.240 Where she thinks, I've just I've had the same risk 1:09:28.280 --> 1:09:31.599 the whole time, and you know, I've been lucky. 1:09:31.680 --> 1:09:33.440 But he's like, no, that's. 1:09:33.040 --> 1:09:37.720 That's complete, complete BS. The fix is in obviously. 1:09:38.080 --> 1:09:41.680 Yeah, And she goes directly to her father, King Cassiodorus 1:09:41.680 --> 1:09:45.200 and confronts him about this, and so he's he's about 1:09:45.240 --> 1:09:49.280 to sort of have to answer for misleading her about this, 1:09:49.360 --> 1:09:53.280 letting her think that she'd been competing fairly not competing, 1:09:53.320 --> 1:09:55.640 and that she'd had the same fair risk as all 1:09:55.640 --> 1:09:59.680 the other girls. But instead they're interrupted. There's like the 1:09:59.760 --> 1:10:03.519 qua of the Earth and O no Vermothrax is alive 1:10:04.320 --> 1:10:06.840 And in the in the middle here Galen escapes the 1:10:06.920 --> 1:10:09.800 dungeon because the princess comes and frees him. She's she's 1:10:09.840 --> 1:10:12.599 sort of like his revelations have rocked her world, and 1:10:12.720 --> 1:10:14.679 she's like Okay, I gotta let him out of the dungeon, 1:10:14.720 --> 1:10:17.600 and I'm in rebellion mode. Now Galen gets on a 1:10:17.600 --> 1:10:21.320 horse and runs away from the castle. Meanwhile, the villagers 1:10:21.360 --> 1:10:25.160 are led up the mountain in terror by the Christian monk, 1:10:25.240 --> 1:10:28.600 by brother Jacopis, and the Christian tells them this is 1:10:28.640 --> 1:10:32.400 not a dragon, it's a lucifer. But Vermothrax comes out 1:10:32.400 --> 1:10:35.639 of the earth and faces off against the Christian wizard 1:10:35.680 --> 1:10:38.920 here and it is no contest. There is a breath 1:10:38.960 --> 1:10:41.719 of hot wind, and the dragon is so scary. 1:10:42.000 --> 1:10:42.639 Oh my goodness. 1:10:42.720 --> 1:10:45.400 Yeah, this is this is another great sequence. This is 1:10:45.439 --> 1:10:49.360 another sequence that del Toro loses his mind over because 1:10:49.400 --> 1:10:52.080 it's just just it's the way it's blocked, the way 1:10:52.120 --> 1:10:56.519 it shot, the way Vermothrax rises up out of these 1:10:56.600 --> 1:11:00.680 flaming pit, this flaming pit with it with these horns, 1:11:01.360 --> 1:11:05.960 like some sort of Satanic figure emerging out of hell, 1:11:06.560 --> 1:11:09.679 and then like it. Very quickly, I think becomes obvious 1:11:09.840 --> 1:11:13.200 to our Christian missionary friend here that he is out 1:11:13.200 --> 1:11:16.200 of his element, that this is not something that he's 1:11:16.240 --> 1:11:18.040 going to be over to be able to overcome with 1:11:18.080 --> 1:11:19.320 his religion and his faith. 1:11:19.760 --> 1:11:23.200 Yeah, he is. He is vanquished by the power of evil. 1:11:23.920 --> 1:11:26.479 So we cut to sometime later where we see Tyrian 1:11:26.600 --> 1:11:30.439 arrive at the house of Valerian and her father, and 1:11:30.560 --> 1:11:32.920 Tyrian and his men are searching the village for Galen. 1:11:33.000 --> 1:11:35.160 So they're going around the house like looking in baskets 1:11:35.160 --> 1:11:37.960 and stuff, being like, oh, it's the wizard hiding in here, 1:11:38.680 --> 1:11:42.799 And Tyrian threatens that you know what, because the dragon 1:11:42.880 --> 1:11:45.439 is now so angry that somebody tried to go kill him, 1:11:46.120 --> 1:11:49.160 there's going to need to be an early sacrifice ahead 1:11:49.200 --> 1:11:51.960 of schedule. And you know what, now that everybody knows 1:11:51.960 --> 1:11:54.120 about your daughter, she's going to have to be in 1:11:54.120 --> 1:11:57.679 the lottery too. And they try, they try to find Galen, 1:11:57.680 --> 1:11:59.400 but they don't find him anywhere, so they leave and 1:11:59.439 --> 1:12:01.439 it turns out to he was hiding in like a 1:12:01.520 --> 1:12:03.840 secret compartment under the anvil. 1:12:04.520 --> 1:12:06.000 Yeah, yeah, standard issue. 1:12:05.760 --> 1:12:09.160 I think, yeah, But here we get a forging the 1:12:09.160 --> 1:12:11.920 weapon sequence where we find about how we find out 1:12:11.960 --> 1:12:17.519 that Valerian's father has created a secret dragon slaying weapon 1:12:17.560 --> 1:12:20.639 that he's got like hidden in this cage that's hidden 1:12:20.680 --> 1:12:23.479 behind a waterfall. That this is really cool. It's like 1:12:23.560 --> 1:12:26.240 this giant spear that he's made. But he never had 1:12:26.280 --> 1:12:29.439 the courage to use it himself. And Galen sees it. 1:12:29.439 --> 1:12:32.360 He says, it's a beautiful weapon, but it will be 1:12:32.520 --> 1:12:35.639 useless unless he unless he has the ambulet back. That's 1:12:35.640 --> 1:12:38.040 the only way he can, like, I think, infuse it 1:12:38.120 --> 1:12:40.320 with the power it needs to fight the dragon. 1:12:40.760 --> 1:12:40.920 Yea. 1:12:41.520 --> 1:12:44.000 Then we get the big lottery scene where they're going 1:12:44.040 --> 1:12:47.320 to select who has to face the dragon next and 1:12:47.400 --> 1:12:49.840 who gets picked when they pull the tiles out of 1:12:49.880 --> 1:12:53.840 the big pot. Why it's el Smeth, the princess. The 1:12:53.920 --> 1:12:56.759 king tries to say, like, no, no, no, my minister 1:12:56.880 --> 1:12:59.000 read the name on the tile wrong. Let us draw 1:12:59.040 --> 1:13:02.840 another tile. But all the tiles say Elsbeth. In fact, 1:13:02.920 --> 1:13:06.080 she arranged it that way because she thinks it's only 1:13:06.120 --> 1:13:09.439 fair given that she has been protected unfairly all these 1:13:09.520 --> 1:13:13.519 years past. There's no changing it. She's now selected. The 1:13:13.600 --> 1:13:16.400 king is desperate, trying to talk anybody into helping him 1:13:16.600 --> 1:13:19.040 get out of this, Like he tries to talk Tyrian 1:13:19.120 --> 1:13:21.760 into saying, let's figure something else out. It can't be her, 1:13:21.840 --> 1:13:24.360 But Tyrian's like, yeah, it seems fair to me. 1:13:24.960 --> 1:13:27.760 This is a great sequence, and I love how I mean, 1:13:27.800 --> 1:13:29.840 first of all, for plot reasons, they do it this way. 1:13:29.880 --> 1:13:32.920 But also I think it plays into the overall theme 1:13:32.960 --> 1:13:35.680 of the picture. There's this sense that the lottery is 1:13:35.720 --> 1:13:38.920 this thing that, once it has been created, is no 1:13:39.000 --> 1:13:42.960 longer entirely in control, in the control of the king 1:13:43.160 --> 1:13:46.280 and his men, you know, Like there's this energy between 1:13:47.479 --> 1:13:50.840 the king and his men and the crowd, like they're channing, 1:13:50.920 --> 1:13:53.200 stir the tiles, stir the tals with kind of urgency, 1:13:53.320 --> 1:13:55.120 like you know, obviously like stir it up. You've got 1:13:55.160 --> 1:13:56.920 to make sure it's fair, got to make sure it's fair. 1:13:56.960 --> 1:14:01.040 Like it's this great kind of semi chaotic feeling that 1:14:01.120 --> 1:14:04.040 things could get out of hand very easily. 1:14:04.400 --> 1:14:07.120 That's right. It's almost like the people themselves have a 1:14:07.160 --> 1:14:10.920 frenzy for the outcome of the lottery selection. So the 1:14:11.000 --> 1:14:15.080 king feels utterly helpless, like he can't really and it's 1:14:15.120 --> 1:14:18.120 happened in public, so he can't really undo it. So 1:14:18.479 --> 1:14:21.280 he thinks, of the only other thing that occurs to 1:14:21.360 --> 1:14:24.320 him is we have to actually kill the dragon. So 1:14:24.400 --> 1:14:27.960 he catches Galen, having snuck back into the castle looking 1:14:27.960 --> 1:14:30.519 for his amulet. He catches him and he begs him, 1:14:30.560 --> 1:14:32.920 and he says, you can have your amulet back. If 1:14:32.960 --> 1:14:35.960 you kill the dragon and save el Smith. So Galen 1:14:36.000 --> 1:14:38.320 has been given like official sanction. Now we see him 1:14:38.320 --> 1:14:41.639 in the Blacksmith trying to like magically fire the dragon 1:14:41.720 --> 1:14:45.479 slayer weapon, like using the amulet to power up the spear. 1:14:46.520 --> 1:14:48.400 I love the following scene, by the way, there's a 1:14:48.400 --> 1:14:51.559 scene where Valerian goes up up the mountain to collect 1:14:51.680 --> 1:14:56.639 scales from the dragon to make for Galen a dragon 1:14:56.720 --> 1:15:00.280 scale shield that he can use to face firm a threat. 1:15:00.760 --> 1:15:02.920 Oh and also while she's up there, she discovers there 1:15:03.160 --> 1:15:05.639 they're baby dragons in the cave and they are also 1:15:05.720 --> 1:15:07.520 scary and must also be destroyed. 1:15:07.880 --> 1:15:10.120 Yeah, they are not cute, and they, and I say 1:15:10.120 --> 1:15:12.799 this lovingly, they have some real Gromlin energy. 1:15:13.320 --> 1:15:14.280 They did. It's great. 1:15:14.479 --> 1:15:16.920 So this is a definite puppetry used here, but to 1:15:17.000 --> 1:15:17.599 great effect. 1:15:17.800 --> 1:15:20.200 These Verma Thras babies would be popping out of a 1:15:20.240 --> 1:15:25.000 toilet in another movie or another movie cover some VHS 1:15:25.040 --> 1:15:27.840 box art. But also, oh, here we get the culmination 1:15:28.040 --> 1:15:31.799 of a I think, if I'm going to be fully honest, 1:15:31.840 --> 1:15:34.960 a somewhat underdeveloped love story. But you know what, it's fine. 1:15:35.000 --> 1:15:36.080 It's fantasy adventure. 1:15:36.320 --> 1:15:38.519 There's just kind of like acknowledge it, like we we're 1:15:38.680 --> 1:15:41.320 most of the way into this picture. We love each other, right, Yeah, yeah, 1:15:41.320 --> 1:15:41.800 of course we. 1:15:41.720 --> 1:15:44.800 Did, right. Galen and Valerian they announced their love with 1:15:44.840 --> 1:15:47.679 the in love with each other. Valerian initially thinks, oh, Galen, 1:15:47.680 --> 1:15:50.240 you must be in love with the princess, but he's like, no, no, no, 1:15:50.200 --> 1:15:52.000 I love you a good thing. 1:15:52.520 --> 1:15:55.559 Yeah, silly duck. That relationship hasn't been established either. 1:16:05.240 --> 1:16:09.520 This all leads up to the Great Final Confrontation, where 1:16:09.560 --> 1:16:12.360 Elsbeth is taken up to be sacrificed to the dragon. 1:16:13.080 --> 1:16:16.679 Galen appears and announces his intention to kill the dragon first, 1:16:16.760 --> 1:16:20.920 and everybody runs away in fear, everyone but Tyrian, and 1:16:21.000 --> 1:16:24.000 Tyrian says, you know this is the way, and if 1:16:24.040 --> 1:16:27.400 you intend to interfere with the sacrifice, I will stop you. 1:16:28.080 --> 1:16:31.439 And they fight and initially Galen is not a fighter, 1:16:31.479 --> 1:16:34.759 he's not trained to fight a captain of the King's Guard, 1:16:35.280 --> 1:16:37.880 but through a combination of pluck and luck, he does 1:16:37.960 --> 1:16:39.320 prevail in this duel. 1:16:39.640 --> 1:16:43.120 He also has a magical spear weapon, which he doesn't 1:16:43.120 --> 1:16:45.960 completely know how to use, but it is a magical weapon, 1:16:46.000 --> 1:16:47.799 so he's got like a plus three on this baby. 1:16:47.960 --> 1:16:52.200 Exactly, so the princess. Yeah, it's funny. It's like it's 1:16:52.240 --> 1:16:56.080 a hand to hand combat battle between what would you say, 1:16:56.120 --> 1:17:01.240 like a level six fighter versus a level two sorcerers. Yeah, 1:17:01.280 --> 1:17:04.240 but yeah, he has a magical weapon, so it makes 1:17:04.320 --> 1:17:06.880 up the difference. But it was kind of all for 1:17:06.960 --> 1:17:10.680 nothing here because the princess determined to be a sacrifice. 1:17:10.720 --> 1:17:13.120 She's like, no, it's got to happen. She runs into 1:17:13.200 --> 1:17:17.040 the cave and then Galen runs in after her, and 1:17:17.360 --> 1:17:23.240 in a really shockingly unexpected and horrifying scene, the princess 1:17:23.280 --> 1:17:27.400 is in there just being like eaten up by baby dragons. 1:17:27.400 --> 1:17:30.400 They're just like tearing off her limbs and eating them. 1:17:30.680 --> 1:17:33.240 Yeah, they have what They've killed her and are now 1:17:33.400 --> 1:17:34.400 like taking her apart. 1:17:35.120 --> 1:17:35.960 Unbelievable. 1:17:36.280 --> 1:17:40.720 Yeah, these little like disgusting little gromlins. And yeah, it's 1:17:40.760 --> 1:17:45.280 really a daring choice for again, a Disney co produced 1:17:46.560 --> 1:17:50.200 fantasy answer to Star Wars picture. I remember the Yeah, 1:17:50.439 --> 1:17:53.559 the director in commentary with del Toro kind of said, 1:17:53.680 --> 1:17:55.040 you know, there's a lot of stuff we got away 1:17:55.080 --> 1:17:58.240 with in this in part because we were making a 1:17:58.240 --> 1:18:04.000 film abroad and you know, so far from from studio heads, 1:18:04.400 --> 1:18:06.080 and so they you know, they weren't getting dailies. 1:18:06.120 --> 1:18:06.760 They didn't know that. 1:18:06.840 --> 1:18:09.280 You know, we had, you know, the way we were 1:18:09.280 --> 1:18:10.479 shooting some of these choices. 1:18:11.520 --> 1:18:13.760 Well, the movie is the more remarkable for it these 1:18:13.800 --> 1:18:14.519 are choices. 1:18:14.760 --> 1:18:15.000 Yeah. 1:18:15.120 --> 1:18:19.160 Yeah, So Galen goes in and fights the baby dragons, uh, 1:18:19.360 --> 1:18:22.280 and he defeats them pretty easily. But then he goes 1:18:22.320 --> 1:18:26.120 deeper into the cave and finds a burning lake. Now 1:18:26.160 --> 1:18:28.240 that meant something to me when I saw it, but 1:18:28.400 --> 1:18:31.400 apparently Galen doesn't really remember at this point, like, oh yeah, 1:18:31.439 --> 1:18:34.840 that's significant. It will come up again. But there's a 1:18:34.840 --> 1:18:38.639 big confrontation here between Galen and Vermathrax. They have their 1:18:38.720 --> 1:18:41.760 first big fight and the dragon and the scene is 1:18:41.800 --> 1:18:46.000 finally revealed in all of its hideous glory, and wow, Rob, 1:18:46.040 --> 1:18:48.800 would you like to say anything about what what Vermothrax 1:18:48.840 --> 1:18:50.160 looks like when revealed? 1:18:50.280 --> 1:18:50.439 Oh? 1:18:50.520 --> 1:18:52.040 I mean there's so many ways to approach it. I 1:18:52.040 --> 1:18:53.880 mean the simple thing to say is like, this is 1:18:53.920 --> 1:18:58.000 a real dragon, like you feel, Yeah, you can put 1:18:58.040 --> 1:19:01.519 your mind in the appreciating the spec effects and trying 1:19:01.520 --> 1:19:03.120 to see all the things they've done to bring this 1:19:03.200 --> 1:19:05.479 dragon to life. But for most of this it just 1:19:05.520 --> 1:19:09.920 feels like a real creature, and they make so many 1:19:09.920 --> 1:19:12.920 wonderful choices in the design to make that possible, things 1:19:13.040 --> 1:19:17.880 like making sure that is a quadruped that it doesn't 1:19:17.920 --> 1:19:24.080 have like four limbs plus wings. Its front limbs are wings. 1:19:24.120 --> 1:19:26.679 And therefore when it's crawling around in the cave, it's 1:19:26.760 --> 1:19:28.240 moving like a bat. 1:19:28.120 --> 1:19:28.799 On the ground. 1:19:29.800 --> 1:19:32.000 The bat comparison. That's great. The way the wings are 1:19:32.040 --> 1:19:33.400 folded as it crawls. 1:19:33.840 --> 1:19:36.920 Ugh, yeah, yeah. And then the way they've shaped the head. 1:19:37.000 --> 1:19:39.040 A lot of a lot of a lot of folks 1:19:39.080 --> 1:19:41.000 have pointed out like it has this kind of brow, 1:19:41.680 --> 1:19:46.160 so it has a lot of like I want to say, personality, 1:19:46.240 --> 1:19:52.280 but personality befitting a great beastly dragon like this. You know, 1:19:52.320 --> 1:19:54.679 there is an animal intelligence there. 1:19:55.040 --> 1:19:57.000 It reminds me a bit of a Skexis. 1:19:57.240 --> 1:19:59.920 Yeah. Yeah, I think it's a solid comparisons. 1:20:00.000 --> 1:20:02.639 So they fight and they there's a bunch that goes 1:20:02.680 --> 1:20:04.479 on in this fight. They get their jabs in, it 1:20:04.479 --> 1:20:07.760 blows fire and all that, but it's a stalemate here. 1:20:07.800 --> 1:20:10.439 The fight is not fully resolved. And the next day 1:20:10.520 --> 1:20:13.640 Valerian goes up the mountain and she finds Galen unconscious 1:20:13.640 --> 1:20:15.720 on the rocks. She wakes him and takes him back, 1:20:15.760 --> 1:20:17.839 but he is still alive, and so is the dragon. 1:20:19.160 --> 1:20:22.280 So at this point, Valerian's father talks them into leaving 1:20:22.520 --> 1:20:24.639 or Land. He's like, you know, y'all are young, you're 1:20:24.640 --> 1:20:27.280 in love. Just live in peace, go somewhere else and 1:20:27.320 --> 1:20:31.040 share your love, he says. He says, magic magicians, it's 1:20:31.080 --> 1:20:33.880 all fading from the world, all dying out. That makes 1:20:33.920 --> 1:20:36.920 me happy. That means the dragons will be dying out too. 1:20:37.400 --> 1:20:39.920 And they try to leave. They take their stuff and 1:20:39.920 --> 1:20:42.280 they start loading up a boat to go live their 1:20:42.280 --> 1:20:46.400 lives somewhere else. But then something changes. There's a darkness 1:20:46.560 --> 1:20:50.679 growing in the sky and it is a total solar eclipse. Yeah, 1:20:51.240 --> 1:20:54.200 and here's your eclipse tie in the eclipse. I don't 1:20:54.240 --> 1:20:57.120 know if maybe I miss something about this, if they 1:20:57.160 --> 1:21:00.519 said it had any particular magical effect on the dragon. 1:21:00.640 --> 1:21:03.120 But one thing it does seem to do is cause 1:21:03.200 --> 1:21:08.080 Galen to remember that his master Ulric wanted his ashes 1:21:08.120 --> 1:21:10.759 to be thrown into the burning lake, and he remembers 1:21:10.800 --> 1:21:13.960 there was a lake of fire inside the dragon's cave. 1:21:14.560 --> 1:21:17.600 Yeah, I was. My wife watched this movie with me 1:21:17.960 --> 1:21:20.439 for rewatch it. She had seen it before many years ago, 1:21:21.040 --> 1:21:23.439 and afterwards we were like, yeah, did anybody say there 1:21:23.479 --> 1:21:25.760 was going to be an eclipse? Is that factored into 1:21:25.800 --> 1:21:27.519 the plot at all? It does very much feel like 1:21:27.880 --> 1:21:30.679 and then a total So a total solar eclipse happens 1:21:30.960 --> 1:21:32.519 because it looks awesome. 1:21:33.439 --> 1:21:36.120 It does look awesome, and there is a total solar 1:21:36.120 --> 1:21:39.200 eclipse going on for the entire rest of the Showdown 1:21:39.240 --> 1:21:39.839 with the Dragon. 1:21:40.320 --> 1:21:43.480 Yeah, it's like it's a good, solid twenty minutes of totality. 1:21:43.720 --> 1:21:48.479 Yeah, so Galen does remember this. He does as he 1:21:48.560 --> 1:21:51.719 was instructed. He goes back up to the Dragon's cave, 1:21:51.880 --> 1:21:55.519 goes inside, throws the ashes into the water, and in 1:21:55.560 --> 1:21:59.800 a cradle of green fire, Ulric is resurrected. He's back. 1:22:00.040 --> 1:22:03.960 The power of the Dragon's fiery lake like brought him 1:22:03.960 --> 1:22:06.720 back from the dead, at least temporarily, so he can 1:22:06.800 --> 1:22:08.920 face the dragon with them. 1:22:09.200 --> 1:22:10.960 I have to say, I wasn't sure this was gonna happen. 1:22:11.000 --> 1:22:14.160 It's easy to in retrospect expect this to happen, but 1:22:15.280 --> 1:22:18.240 Ulric's death early in the picture just felt so final 1:22:18.439 --> 1:22:24.320 and so yeah, Mundane like it just the film worked. 1:22:24.720 --> 1:22:27.240 The trick worked here, and I really wasn't expecting him 1:22:27.240 --> 1:22:27.800 to come back. 1:22:28.439 --> 1:22:30.479 Meanwhile, you know, back down in the village, this is 1:22:30.520 --> 1:22:32.920 when one of the guys is converted to Christianity, the 1:22:32.960 --> 1:22:36.960 gray old guy, and he's baptizing everybody. Yeah, and then 1:22:36.960 --> 1:22:39.520 we get the final showdown. So now it is Vermathrax 1:22:39.680 --> 1:22:43.559 versus the three of our heroes, Galen, Valerian and Ulrich, 1:22:44.520 --> 1:22:47.120 and so Ulrich goes up on like a mountain peak 1:22:47.240 --> 1:22:50.599 and he's casting down lightning bolts at the dragon and 1:22:50.640 --> 1:22:54.040 the dragon is dive bombing him. Vermathrax is like flying 1:22:54.080 --> 1:22:56.320 by the dragon in the scene, has a kind of 1:22:56.520 --> 1:22:58.920 jet fighter quality to him, you know what I mean. 1:22:59.520 --> 1:23:01.559 Yeah, yeah, And I believe it was one of the 1:23:01.560 --> 1:23:05.200 extras with Phil tipp that talking about, though it might 1:23:05.200 --> 1:23:06.880 have been Phil Tippitt, but I don't think Phil Tippet 1:23:06.880 --> 1:23:10.680 did these effects sequences so much. I mean he was, 1:23:10.880 --> 1:23:12.920 I think therefore it, but he was. I think he 1:23:12.960 --> 1:23:15.080 did with some of the other stuff more. But they 1:23:15.080 --> 1:23:17.840 did talk about how, like most of the scenes of 1:23:17.840 --> 1:23:20.439 the dragon in flight, you're not getting that flapping, sort 1:23:20.439 --> 1:23:24.799 of labored takeoff effect that we've seen in other Dragon films. 1:23:24.840 --> 1:23:28.360 This is a dragon like swooping down from peaks and 1:23:28.439 --> 1:23:32.040 indeed flying with this kind of like fighter jet kind 1:23:32.080 --> 1:23:35.639 of severity, so we have very effective It's. 1:23:35.479 --> 1:23:38.280 Almost like you can hear a jet engine roaring as 1:23:38.280 --> 1:23:41.080 he goes by, and he goes by so fast. 1:23:41.520 --> 1:23:42.640 Yeah. 1:23:43.600 --> 1:23:45.559 A lot of other movie dragons have more of a 1:23:45.600 --> 1:23:48.120 helicopter quality, you know, they just kind of like hover 1:23:48.280 --> 1:23:51.479 around somewhere. This one like swoops, he goes really fast. 1:23:51.720 --> 1:23:52.480 Yeah. 1:23:52.520 --> 1:23:54.920 And what Galen and Valierian have been told to do 1:23:55.080 --> 1:23:58.000 is to smash the magical amulet at the right time. 1:23:58.040 --> 1:23:59.760 They're going to know when it's the right time, and 1:24:00.320 --> 1:24:03.120 ultimately Ulric is snatched up by the dragon. He's being 1:24:03.120 --> 1:24:06.200 carried away. They know, okay, it's the time. Now, they 1:24:06.280 --> 1:24:10.680 smash the amulet, and this apparently has like a detonation 1:24:10.840 --> 1:24:15.320 effect on Ulric. That's like the detonator for Ulric's resurrected form, 1:24:15.800 --> 1:24:19.720 and it blows up the dragon. The eclipse ends. Vermicthrax 1:24:19.920 --> 1:24:23.519 is dead. There's a big, gory, charred skeleton laying on 1:24:23.560 --> 1:24:26.240 the ground. And who gets credit. Well, they bring the 1:24:26.320 --> 1:24:30.280 king in. They bring him up in a carriage and 1:24:30.320 --> 1:24:32.120 they hand him a sword and he stands there and 1:24:32.200 --> 1:24:34.479 he just kind of pokes the corpse of the dragon 1:24:34.560 --> 1:24:36.519 and they're like, congratulations, sire. 1:24:37.200 --> 1:24:38.080 Yeah. Yeah, so. 1:24:39.640 --> 1:24:44.599 He ends up appropriating the church, the Kingship, the rulers, 1:24:45.600 --> 1:24:49.400 as Del Toro puts it, the man co ops everything completely, 1:24:51.080 --> 1:24:52.840 completely claims all the. 1:24:52.800 --> 1:24:55.120 Credit for the victory over the dragon. 1:24:55.360 --> 1:24:59.599 Yeah that's right. The now baptized villagers come up and say, 1:24:59.640 --> 1:25:02.160 ah does the church that saved us from the dragon. 1:25:03.720 --> 1:25:05.880 But there's also a nice ending where we see Galen 1:25:05.880 --> 1:25:08.400 and Valuria and they're still in love. They've survived this 1:25:08.479 --> 1:25:10.559 and they get to travel on together and who knows 1:25:10.600 --> 1:25:13.760 what kind of adventures of pagan sorcery they can get 1:25:13.800 --> 1:25:15.960 up to in this rapidly christianizing land. 1:25:16.120 --> 1:25:19.080 The end, yeah, their final there's this final bit where 1:25:19.080 --> 1:25:21.360 they sort of accidentally summon a horse, like a really 1:25:21.400 --> 1:25:24.439 beautiful horse, which is, you know, it's a little bit 1:25:24.520 --> 1:25:26.439 kind of like cheesey ended on a nice note, but 1:25:26.520 --> 1:25:28.680 also I like it. I was talking about this with 1:25:28.760 --> 1:25:30.960 my wife's she was like, yeah, it's kind of like 1:25:31.000 --> 1:25:33.559 there is still magic, it's just a different type of magic, 1:25:34.560 --> 1:25:37.880 you know. And so the world, at least for these 1:25:37.920 --> 1:25:40.439 two characters, is not going to be devoid of magic, 1:25:40.479 --> 1:25:42.559 but maybe magic ends up taking a different form. 1:25:43.080 --> 1:25:48.240 Maybe it increasingly looks less and less like hidden forces 1:25:48.320 --> 1:25:51.960 operating and more and more like luck. Yeah, anyway, that's 1:25:51.960 --> 1:25:54.600 what I have on Dragon Slayer. But I'm glad you 1:25:54.600 --> 1:25:56.639 picked this one, Rob. I really really liked it. 1:25:57.320 --> 1:26:00.120 Yeah. Yeah, I mean credit to my wife for that. 1:26:00.200 --> 1:26:00.240 Was. 1:26:00.280 --> 1:26:02.360 I was looking at a number of things for this week, 1:26:02.400 --> 1:26:03.559 and she was like, well, we got to watch an 1:26:03.560 --> 1:26:07.600 Eclipse movie, dude, dragon Slayer, and so I was like like, 1:26:07.960 --> 1:26:09.519 well maybe, and she's like, I'll watch it with you. 1:26:09.600 --> 1:26:13.439 I'm like, okay, So she doesn't always always watch him 1:26:13.439 --> 1:26:13.640 with me. 1:26:14.640 --> 1:26:17.880 It's a lot to ask. So so yeah, this was 1:26:17.880 --> 1:26:19.599 a lot of fun. Oh and you know, I forgot 1:26:19.600 --> 1:26:21.519 to mention and mention the special effects. I do want 1:26:21.520 --> 1:26:24.200 to call out that one of the main individuals credited 1:26:24.240 --> 1:26:27.360 with the design of the dragon and also the typeface 1:26:27.960 --> 1:26:31.960 was man by the name of David Bunnett, who you know, 1:26:32.000 --> 1:26:34.400 I think also worked in like the video game industry. 1:26:35.160 --> 1:26:38.240 But yeah, it's even said that if you look at 1:26:38.800 --> 1:26:41.840 a picture of this guy, the dragon kind of looks 1:26:41.880 --> 1:26:45.040 like a self caricature, Like there's sort of elements of 1:26:45.120 --> 1:26:50.639 his face, like his brow and the dragon. So anyway, 1:26:50.680 --> 1:26:52.400 you know, it's a credit where credit is. 1:26:52.360 --> 1:26:53.040 A du there. 1:26:53.880 --> 1:26:57.280 He had a hand in designing this tremendous dragon whoa 1:26:58.160 --> 1:27:00.479 vermathrax pajorative. 1:27:00.680 --> 1:27:03.040 A finer name has never been conjured. 1:27:05.720 --> 1:27:07.920 All right, we'll go and close it up here then, 1:27:08.080 --> 1:27:09.800 but we'd love to hear from everyone out there. Do 1:27:09.880 --> 1:27:14.000 you have memories of seeing dragons Layer for the first time, 1:27:14.080 --> 1:27:18.760 be that in a theater, on video or like on 1:27:18.800 --> 1:27:21.080 a Sunday afternoon on A and E. I think they 1:27:21.120 --> 1:27:24.439 were they aired it there. I remember seeing promos for it. 1:27:24.640 --> 1:27:25.000 Write in. 1:27:25.080 --> 1:27:27.719 We would love to hear from you. Just a reminder 1:27:27.800 --> 1:27:30.760 that Weird House Cinema is the Friday episode that we 1:27:30.840 --> 1:27:32.639 published in the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast feed. 1:27:32.680 --> 1:27:35.479 We're primarily science and culture podcasts, but on Fridays we 1:27:35.520 --> 1:27:37.720 set aside most serious concerns to just talk about a 1:27:37.720 --> 1:27:40.080 weird film here on Weird House Cinema. And if you 1:27:40.120 --> 1:27:41.599 want to see a list of all the movies we've 1:27:41.600 --> 1:27:44.040 covered over the years, go to letterbox dot com. It's 1:27:44.120 --> 1:27:45.439 L E T T E R B O x D 1:27:45.560 --> 1:27:48.439 dot com. Look for us. 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