dragonslayer

Director: matthew robbins

Actor: peter macnicol,caitlin clarke,ralph richardson,john hallam

Data Published: Fri Jun 26 1981

Genres: Action,Adventure,Fantasy

Key Words: psychotronic film,dragon,wizard,unlikely hero,knight

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082288/

WIKI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonslayer_(1981_film)

Description: Dragonslayer is a movie starring Peter MacNicol, Caitlin Clarke, and Ralph Richardson. A young wizarding apprentice is sent to kill a dragon which has been devouring girls from a nearby kingdom.

Plot: A sixth-century post-Roman kingdom called Urland[3] is being terrorized by a 400 year-old dragon named “Vermithrax Pejorative”.[3] To appease the dragon, King Casiodorus (Peter Eyre) offers it virgin girls selected by lottery twice a year. An expedition led by a young man called Valerian (Clarke) seeks the last sorcerer, Ulrich of Craggenmoor (Richardson), for help. A brutish soldier from Urland named Tyrian (Hallam), who has followed the expedition, intimidates the wizard. Ulrich invites Tyrian to stab him to prove his magical powers. Tyrian does so and Ulrich dies instantly, to the horror of his young apprentice Galen Bradwarden (MacNicol) and his elderly servant Hodge (Sydney Bromley). Hodge cremates Ulrich's body and places the ashes in a leather pouch, informing Galen that Ulrich wanted his ashes spread over a lake of burning water. Galen is selected by the wizard's magical amulet as its next owner; encouraged, he takes it upon himself to journey to Urland. On the way, he discovers Valerian is really a young woman, who is disguised to avoid being selected in the lottery. In an effort to discourage the expedition, Tyrian kills Hodge; before dying, he hands Galen the pouch of ashes and dies with the words "Burning water ..." on his lips. Arriving in Urland, Galen inspects the dragon's lair and attempts to seal its entrance by causing rocks to fall from the cliff. Tyrian apprehends Galen and takes him to the court of King Casiodorus. King Casiodorus guesses that Galen is not a real wizard and complains that his attack may have angered the dragon instead of killing it, as his own brother and predecessor once did. The king confiscates the amulet and imprisons Galen. His daughter Elspeth (Chloe Salaman) comes to taunt Galen, but is shocked when he informs her of rumors that the lottery is rigged to exclude her name and those who are rich enough to pay to have the names of their children removed. Casiodorus is unable to lie convincingly when she confronts him regarding this. Meanwhile, the dragon frees itself from its prison and causes an earthquake. Galen narrowly escapes from his prison, but without the amulet. The village priest, Brother Jacopus (Ian McDiarmid), leads his congregation to confront the dragon, denouncing it as the Devil, but the dragon incinerates him and then heads for the village, burning all in its path. When the lottery begins anew, Princess Elspeth rigs the draw so that only her name can be chosen. Consequently, King Casiodorus returns the amulet to Galen so that he might save Elspeth. Galen uses the amulet to enchant a heavy spear that had been forged by Valerian's father (which he had dubbed Sicarius Dracorum, or "Dragonslayer") with the ability to pierce the dragon's armored hide. Valerian gathers some molted dragon scales and uses them to make Galen a shield, and the two realize they have romantic feelings for each other. Galen attempts to rescue Princess Elspeth, and fights and kills Tyrian, but the Princess is determined to make amends for all the girls whose names had been chosen in the past, and descends into the dragon's cave and to her death. Galen follows her and finds a brood of young dragons feasting on her corpse. He kills them and finds Vermithrax resting by an underground lake of fire. He manages to wound the monster but the spear is broken. Only Valerian's shield saves him from incineration. After his failure to kill Vermithrax, Valerian convinces Galen to leave the village with her. As the two lovers prepare to leave, the amulet gives Galen a vision that explains his teacher's final wishes: He used Galen to deliver him to Urland. Ulrich had asked that his ashes be spread over "burning water", which is in the dragon's cave, and Galen realizes that the wizard had planned his own death and cremation, realizing he was too old and frail to make the journey. Galen returns to the cave. When he spreads the ashes over the fiery lake, the wizard is resurrected within the flames. Ulrich reveals that his time is short and that Galen must destroy the amulet “when the time is right”. The wizard then transports himself to a mountaintop and confronts the dragon. After a brief battle, the monster snatches the old man and flies away with him. Cued by Ulrich, Galen crushes the amulet with a rock. The wizard clutched to its chest explodes and kills the dragon, whose corpse falls out of the sky. In the aftermath, villagers inspecting the wreckage credit God with the victory. The king arrives and drives a sword into the dragon's broken carcass to claim the glory for himself. As Galen and Valerian leave Urland together, he confesses that he misses both Ulrich and the amulet. He says "I just wish we had a horse." A white horse appears to take the incredulous lovers away.