Dragonslayer (1981 film)

According to Hal Barwood, he and Matthew Robbins got the inspiration for Dragonslayer from The Sorcerer's Apprentice sequence in Fantasia, and later came up with a story after researching St. George and the Dragon. Barwood and Robins rejected the traditional conceptions of the medieval world in order to give the film more realism: "our film has no knights in shining armor, no pennants streaming in the breeze, no delicate ladies with diaphonous veils waving from turreted castles, no courtly love, no holy grail. Instead we set out to create a very strange world with a lot of weird values and customs, steeped in superstition, where the clothes and manners of the people were rough, their homes and villages primitive and their countryside almost primeval, so that the idea of magic would be a natural part of their existence." For this reason, they chose to set the film after the Roman departure from Britain, prior to the arrival of Christianity. Barwood and Robins began to hastily work on the story outline on June 25, 1979 and completed in early August. They received numerous refusals from various film studios, due to their inexperience in budget negotiations. The screenplay was eventually accepted by Paramount Pictures and Walt Disney Productions, becoming the two studios' second joint effort after the 1980 film Popeye.[3]

According to Barwood, the dragon's basic body plan was based on that of the Jurassic pterosaur Rhamphorhynchus[4]

Twenty-five percent of the film's budget went into the special effects to bring the dragon to life. Graphic artist David Bunnett was assigned to design the look of the dragon, and was fed ideas on the mechanics on how the dragon would move, and then rendered the concepts on paper. It was decided early on in production that as the film's most important sequence would have been the final battle, it was deemed necessary to design a dragon with an emphasis on its flying abilities. Bunnett also designed the dragon to have a degree of personality, deliberately trying to avoid creating something like the titular creature from Alien, which he believed was "too hideous to look at".[3]

Ken Ralston's flying model of the dragon, Vermithrax Pejorative

After Bunnett handed his storyboard panels to the film crew, it was decided that the dragon would have to be realized with a wide variety of techniques: the resulting dragon on film is a composite of several different models. Phil Tippett of ILM finalized the dragon's design, and sculpted a reference model which Danny Lee of Disney Studios closely followed in constructing the larger dragon props for closeup shots. Two months later, Lee's team finished building a sixteen-foot head and neck assembly, a twenty-foot tail, thighs and legs, claws capable of grabbing a man, and a 30-foot-wide (9.1 m) wing section. The parts were flown to Pinewood Studios outside London in the cargo hold of a Boeing 747.[3]

Brian Johnson was hired to supervise the special effects, and began planning both on and off-set effects with various special effects specialists. Dennis Muren, the effects cameraman, stated, "We knew the dragon had a lot more importance to this film than some of the incidental things that appeared in only a few shots in Star Wars or The Empire Strikes Back. The dragon had to be presented in a way that the audience would be absolutely stunned."[3]

After the completion of principal shooting, a special effects team of eighty people at ILM studios in northern California worked eight months in producing 160 composite shots of the dragon. Chris Walas sculpted and operated the dragon head used for close-up shots. The head measured eight feet in length. The model was animated by a combination of radio controls, cable controls, air bladders, levers and by hand, thus giving the illusion of a fully coordinated face with a wide range of expression.[3] Real WW2 era flamethrowers were used for the dragons fire breathing effects. The animals used for the dragon's vocalizations included lions, tigers, leopards, jaguars, alligators, pigs, camels, and elephants.

Phil Tippett built a model for the scenes in which the dragon would be required to walk. Tippett did not want to use standard stop motion animation techniques, and had his team build a dragon model which would move during each exposure rather than in between as was once the standard. This process, named "go motion" by Tippett, recorded the creature's movements in motion as a real animal would move, and removed the jerkiness common in prior stop motion films.[3]

Ken Ralston was assigned to the flying scenes. He built a model with an articulated aluminum skeleton in order to give it a wide range of motion. Ralston shot films of birds flying in order to incorporate their movements into the model. As with the walking dragon, the flying model was filmed using go-motion techniques. The camera was programmed to tilt and move at various angles in order to convey the sensation of flight.[3]

Peter MacNicol first met Robbins while waiting to audition for the pilot film of Breaking Away, and agreed to take part in Dragonslayer, despite having a dislike for performing magic tricks. MacNicol had to learn horse riding, both English style and bareback for the role. MacNicol found this difficult, saying that "They took away my stirrups, they took away my reins and whipped the horse, and then they told me to windmill my arms and turn a complete circle in the saddle. Then they took away the saddle!" He later took on vocal coaching in order to disguise his Texas accent, and took magic lessons from British prestidigitator Harold Taylor, who had previously performed for the British royal family.[3]

Caitlin Clarke was initially hesitant to involve herself in the film, as she was preparing to audition for a play in Chicago. Her agent insisted, though, and after doing an audition tape, was called back for more tests. Clarke failed them, but managed to pass after doing another test at Robbins' insistence. She got on well with Ralph Richardson, and stated that he taught her more in one rehearsal than in years of acting classes.[3]

Ulrich's Castle looking over to Moel Siabod, Dolwyddelan Castle, North Wales

Elliot Scott was hired to design the sets of the film's sixth-century world. He temporarily converted the 13th-century Dolwyddelan Castle into Ulrich's ramshackle sixth-century fortress, much to the surprise of the locals. Next, Scott built the entire village of Swanscombe on a farmside outside London. Although Scott extensively researched medieval architecture in the British Museum and his own library, he took some artistic liberties in creating the thatched roof houses, the granary, Simon's house and smithy and Casiodorus' castle, as he was unable to find enough information on how they would look exactly. Scott then built the interior of the dragon's lair, using 25,000 cubic feet (710 m³) of polystyrene and 40 tons of Welsh slate and shale. The shots of the Welsh and Scottish landscapes were extended through the use of over three dozen matte paintings.[3]

Galen (Peter MacNicol) & Hodge (Sydney Bromley) rehearsing for the pack levitation scene. Mathew Robbins (Director) can be seen monitoring through the camera. Capel Curig, North Wales

Location of Valerian's speech and handing a shield (made from the Dragon's scales) to Galen. Below Tryfan, Llyn Ogwen, North Wales

Dolwyddelan Castle, used for Ulrich's Castle.

Nearly all of the outdoor scenes were shot in North Wales. The final scene was shot in Skye, Scotland.

• The filming crew were based in Betws y Coed, and the artists were stabled further down the Conwy valley.
• Dolwyddelan Castle was used for all outdoor shots of Ulrich's Castle. This includes the arrival of the delegation from Urland, the arrival of guards from Urland, Ulrich's first death scene and funeral burning. Many locals were hired as extras during this scene.
• The external long shots of the dragon's lair were of the main face of Tryfan, within yards of the A5, opposite Llyn Ogwen. The lair was shot looking upwards from the road, towards the broken face of Tryfan, Nant Ffrancon.
• Shots of Galen and Hodge on the trek to Urland were shot on the old road from Cobdens to Bryn Engan, in Capel Curig.
• The early morning camping scenes on the trek to Urland, Tyrian's shooting of Hodge, and Hodge's death scene all take place on a 500-yard (500 m) section of Fairy Glen between Betws-y-Coed and Penmachno.
• The scenes of the delegation crossing over into Urland were shot above Ogwen Cottage, Nant Ffrancon.
• Galen fleeing on horseback from Casiodorus's castle was shot high above Llyn Crafnant.
• The scene where the party cross a wooden bridge below a waterfall was shot at the foot of Cwmorthin Slate Quarry
• The scene where Galen Bradwarden sees an apparition in the lake was shot at the bottom end of Llyn Crafnant.
• The bleak rocky outcrop where Valerian gathers Dragon scales is Castell y Gwynt, above the Pen-y-Gwryd hotel.
• The scenes where Valerian delivers a shield made from the Dragon's scales and the intimate scene between Valerian and Galen were shot in the boulder field below Tryfan, about 300 yards from the A5 near the Llyn Ogwen Car Park.
• The procession scenes in which victims are transported to the Dragon's lair were shot on Gelli behind the main shop in Capel Curig.
• Vermithrax crashes into Llyn Llydaw, below Snowdon.

The costumes were designed by Anthony Mendelson, who consulted the British Museum, the London Library and his own reference files in order to make the clothing evoke the designs of the early Middle Ages. Mendelson designed the costumes to be roughly stitched and the utilized colors were only ones which would have been possible with the vegetable dyes then in use. The costumes of Casiodorus and his court were designed of fine silk, as opposed to the coarsely woven clothes of the Urlanders.[3]

The film's Academy Award-nominated score was composed by Alex North. The score's linear conception was developed through transparently layered, polyphonic orchestral texture dominated by a medieval-style modal harmony. The score was largely based on five major thematic concepts:

1. the suffering of the Urlanders;
2. a "magic" motif;
3. the amulet;
4. the sacrificial virgins;
5. the relationship between Galen and Valerian.

North had six weeks to compose the score,[5] which featured music rejected from his score for Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. (The opening sequence of Dragonslayer features a reworking of North's original music for the opening of the "Dawn of Man" sequence—which in the final film was played without music—and a waltz representing the dragon in flight was a variation of the cue "Space Station Docking", which in the final cut of 2001 was replaced by The Blue Danube).[6] North was disappointed by the resulting dragon scenes, as they did not use the entirety of the pieces he composed for them. He later stated that he had written "a very lovely waltz for when the dragon first appears, with just a slight indication that this may not be a bad dragon." The waltz was scrapped in favor of tracks used earlier in the movie.

Despite the omission of the dragon-reveal waltz, the score was widely praised. Pauline Kael wrote in the New Yorker that the score was a "beauty", and that "at times, the music and the fiery dragon seem one". Royal S. Brown of Fanfare Magazine praised the soundtrack as "one of the best scores of 1981".[7]

In 2010 a limited edition soundtrack cd with Alex North's score was released on La La Land Records.

The film grossed just over $14 million in the US[8] with an estimated budget of $18 million. Despite its mediocre box office performance, it later became a cult film.[9]

At the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an 84% score based on 32 reviews, with an average rating of 6.6/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "An atypically dark Disney adventure, Dragonslayer puts a realistic spin — and some impressive special effects — on a familiar tale."[10] At Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 68 out of 100 based on 13 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[11]

Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert both gave the film three stars out of four in their respective print reviews.[12][13] Siskel praised the "dazzling special effects" and the "convincing portrait by Ralph Richardson of the aged magician Ulrich",[12] and Ebert called the scenes involving the dragon "first-rate".[13]

Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times called Vermithrax "the greatest dragon yet", and praised the film for its effective evocation of the Dark Ages.[14]

David Denby of New York praised Dragonslayer's special effects and lauded the film as being much better than Excalibur and Raiders of the Lost Ark.[14]

The film was not without its criticism. David Sterritt of The Christian Science Monitor, although praising the sets and pacing of the film, criticised it for lack of originality, stressing that MacNicol's and Richardson's characters bore too many similarities to the heroes of Star Wars. A similar critique was given by John Coleman of the New Statesman, who called the film a "turgid sword-and-sorcery fable, with Ralph Richardson in a backdated kind of Star Wars of Alec Guinness role."[14]

Tim Pulleine of the Monthly Film Bulletin criticized the film's lack of narrative drive and clarity to supplement the special effects.[14] Upon the film's first television broadcast, Gannett News Service columnist Mike Hughes called the story "slight" and "slow-paced", but admired a "lyrical beauty to the setting and mood".[15] Nonetheless, he warned: "In movie theaters, that came across wonderfully; on a little TV screen, this may be strictly for specialized tastes."[15]

Alex Keneas of Newsday criticized the film for being too focused on superstition, and for being "bereft of any sense of medieval time, place and society".[14]

Christopher John reviewed Dragonslayer in Ares Magazine #10 and commented that "Though the dialogue is occasionally stiff, there is a believable reality. When the people and setting of a fantasy are as carefully wrought as they are here, it is easy to get an audience to accept as small and wonderful a thing as a dragon."[16]

A novelization Dragonslayer was written by Wayland Drew that delves deeper into the background of many of the characters. Expansions upon the film's plot include details such as these:

• Galen has (or at least had) an elder sister named Apulia.
• As an infant, Galen was handed to Ulrich by his parents due to their fear of his magical abilities. Ulrich took him as an apprentice, but was concerned with the lad's lack of focus, which usually resulted in the unintentional creation of bizarre, dream-inspired creatures.
• The other Sorcerers of Cragganmore are mentioned; Ulrich was the apprentice of Belisarius, who was the apprentice of Pleximus.
• A vision glimpsed by Ulrich in his scrying bowl implies that sorcerers could have been responsible for the creation of dragons, and that whoever this sorcerer was, he had far more power than Ulrich. This is only briefly alluded to in the film. It is further mentioned that the sorcerer who created dragons also fashioned the magical amulet which Galen wears through most of the story.
• Urland's neighbor-kingdoms of Anwick, Cantware, and Heronsford are mentioned.
• The revelation that Vermithrax, while physically androgynous, nevertheless required copulation with another dragon for fertilization.
• Swanscombe's neighbor-villages of Nudd, Turnratchit, and Veryemere are mentioned.
• It is revealed that the lottery's standards for eligibility fluctuated, and several married women and mothers were sacrificed too, Valerian's mother being among them. Her death was the price Simon had to pay in order to fashion Sicarius Dracorum, which was done with the assistance of Ulrich himself.
• Two major rivers besides Ur are mentioned: Swanscombe and Varn.
• Simon is revealed to be a master blacksmith who fashioned highly prized weapons and armor. It was the toll of seeing so many use his arms and armor only to be killed by the dragon that convinced him to stop forging arms and armor.
• King Casiodorus is revealed to be of Roman heritage, and is portrayed as contemptuous toward his largely Saxon subjects, whom he views as superstitious and backward.
• Ulrich is revealed to have extensive research and history of dragons. When he reviews his library to determine which dragon it is that is terrorizing Urland, he discovers (to his horror) that it is Vermithrax, unlike the movie which has him knowing all along.
• When Ulrich is asking about other wizards which might still be alive to assist Valerian, he mentions Prospero, from Shakespeare's "The Tempest". Valerian gives a (brief) update of Prospero's fate which corresponds to the Shakespearean storyline.

Marvel Comics published a comic book adaptation of the film by writer Dennis O'Neil and artists Marie Severin and John Tartaglione in Marvel Super Special #20.[22][23]

Simulations Publications, Inc. produced the board game of the same name, designed by Brad Hessel and Redmond A. Simonsen.[24]

Australian label Southern Cross initially released an unauthorized soundtrack album in 1983 on LP (a boxed audiophile pressing, at 45 rpm), and in 1990 on CD. That album appeared on iTunes for a limited time. The first official and improved CD release came in 2010 by U.S. label La-La Land Records. The new album featured newly mastered audio from the original LCR (Left-Center-Right)-mix and included previously unreleased source music and alternative takes.