Dragonslayer, 1981.
Directed by Matthew Robbins.
Starring Peter MacNicol, Caitlin Clarke, Ralph Richardson, John Hallam, Peter Eyre, Sydney Bromley, Chloe Salaman, and Ian McDiarmid.
SYNOPSIS:
1980s era fantasy classic Dragonslayer makes its 4K Ultra HD debut in an edition that features spectacular image quality along with a nice complement of newly commissioned bonus features that include a 63-minute documentary and a commentary track with director Matthew Robbins and Guillermo del Toro. Highly recommended for fans of the film.
I’ve been looking forward to this one for a long time. The last time I saw Dragonslayer was on HBO when I was a kid in the 80s. (I don’t recall seeing it in the theater.) I remembered some of the story beats and the big moments, but it was fuzzy in my brain, like an old school standard def video, until now.
Like many other recent 4K Ultra HD releases, this one is glorious. Dragonslayer isn’t a movie full of bright colors that will pop off the screen in 4K, but it does have plenty of dark, moody shots that likely struggled to render well on the old DVD. (I never had that one, and as far as I know, this movie skipped Blu-ray, for whatever reason.)
In 4K, the film looks beautiful, its muted color palette richly rendered onscreen. Clothing textures are visible, and facial details are readily apparent. There are tons of shadows, of course, especially in the lair of the dragon known as Vermithrax Pejorative, and they hold up well. (Such a great name for a dragon living in the European medieval era.)
The plot is a basic fantasy adventure that still manages to give some layers to its plot and environment. Peter MacNicol plays Galen Bradwarden, an apprentice to the wizard Ulrich of Cragganmore (Ralph Richardson), who embarks on an adventure with a group of people from a nearby village after his mentor dies.
That group is led by Valerian (Caitlin Clarke), who harbors a secret, and the expedition is followed by Tyrian, who has been tasked by King Casiodorus with trying to learn what the group is up to and to stop them if necessary. The king is skeptical of attempts to kill the dragon because he has been sacrificing virgin women to it for many years, which keeps the creature at bay. He believes a change to that arrangement could lead to Vermithrax destroying his kingdom.
The layers in the plot come from the characters’ motivations, which go beyond basic good versus evil dynamics, and within the environment, we learn that this is a world changing from an era of magic and monsters to a more rational one. One interesting note about the latter comes in the form of the arrival of a holy man who espouses Christianity and believes God will protect the kingdom from the dragon, which he believes is a manifestation of Satan. And pay close attention to who assumes that role when the holy man is killed.
This release features one 4K Ultra HD platter for the film and the bonus features, along with a code for a digital copy. It’s a bummer a Blu-ray wasn’t included too, but I find that if I want to watch a movie and don’t have access to my 4K setup for some reason (like when I was traveling for work recently), streaming in Vudu or Movies Anywhere fills that need.
Paramount didn’t commission a ton of bonus features, but what’s here is wonderful, and none of it has been available before on home video. The extras kick off with a commentary track featuring director Matthew Robbins and Guillermo Del Toro, who leads a screen-specific discussion that imparts plenty of information about the film. Del Toro clearly prepared for the talk, which never lags or goes off on tangents.
In many ways, the commentary track goes deeper than the 63-minute documentary, The Slayer of All Dragons, also included here. Robbins and special effects whizzes Phil Tippett and Dennis Muren look back on the making of the film in the context of that era. The special effects still hold up very well, and Tippett and Muren discuss how they pulled that off in a spectacular way. Robbins tells a lot of stories that he elaborates on in the commentary track.
The studio also included nearly 16 minutes of screen tests of Peter MacNicol with Caitlin Clarke and Maureen Teefy for the role of Valerian and William Squire for the role of Ulrich. Robbins gets into his casting choices in the documentary, so this is a chance to see some of what he was working with when making decisions. I could see how Teefy and Squire weren’t quite right for their roles, despite how well they played them.
The theatrical trailer rounds out the disc.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Brad Cook
