Review: DragonHeart

From March 2005.

DragonHeart

Dennis Quaid, Sean Connery. PG-13.

Action/Adventure/Fantasy

In the tenth century, evil lurks. It is in the hearts of kings and the sons of kings. The question is: what or who put it there?

Who is this Bowen, Knight of the Code, fencing with wooden swords, teaching Einon the son of the King? Oh, it is Dennis Quaid; I recognize the crinkles when he smiles. He is wholly devoted to his student, serving the wicked king because of his love for the boy.

In a twist of events, the cruel and avaricious king is slain. The prince is mortally wounded.

To save the prince’s life, Bowen and the Queen bring him to the cave of the dragon. Treachery is afoot. A life is saved, two lives are– you guessed it– forever intertwined.

Einon immediately follows in the steps of his father, the cruelty even worse than that of the former king. Bowen is cheated, bitter, living in exile, slaying dragons for lucre out of hatred for the dragon who cursed the young king.

Along the way, Bowen meets Gilbert of Glockenspur. He is played by Pete Postlethwaite, an amusing priest and poet. (Postlethwaite is far more believable here than in his psychopathic madness seen in Sharpe’s Company. He still carries the hint of insanity, but this time, he’s harmless. Harmless, that is, unless he’s armed.)

Bowen one day meets his match in a talking dragon who sounds rather like Sean Connery. We are then treated to a mild case of scoundrel-turns-honest. Bowen must finally face the wickedness of the king who will not die as long as the dragon lives. Will he go Han Solo?

DragonHeart is a strange mix of genre.   In addition to the PG-13 rating, there are other concepts young minds aren’t ready to interpret. These include making a deal with a devil. There is also the theme of one determining the value of another person’s life. We receive a [sanitized] version of male to female violence. There is cruelty and murder used to show the despicable evil of one character.

Don’t confuse with Braveheart, although we do have Sean Connery’s Scottish lilt poking through at times.

CFI: 0

Rental Value: $2.50. Think “rainy afternoon” fare. Not a date movie unless your date likes Star Trek, Hitchhiker’s Guide or Zorro. (I confess.) No raging hormones in this one, Quaid’s dimples notwithstanding. But I was referring to teenager dates, anyway.

[Initially when I wrote this review, I put the value as $1.50, but I increased it due to inflation.]