Dragonslayer is a 1981 American fantasy film directed by Matthew Robbins. It is a co-production between Paramount Pictures and Walt Disney Productions, the former of which held distribution rights, and was released on June 26, 1981. Because the film has more darker and mature themes than the usual Disney fare, which were mostly aimed at family audiences, it is believed to be responsible for the creation of the company's Touchstone Pictures banner.
Plot[]
In the sixth century, a post-Roman kingdom known as Urland has spent the last 400 years terrorized by a dragon named Vermithrax Pejorative, who is offered virgin girls twice a year by King Casiodorus to appease it. An expedition led by a young man named Valerian and followed by the brutal and cynical Captain Tyrian of Casiodorus' Royal Guard seek the last sorcerer, Ulrich of Cragganmore, for help in ridding them of the dragon.
Tyrian and his lieutenant Jerbul intimidate the wizard, doubtful of his abilities. Ulrich offers Tyrian to stab him in the heart and kill him to prove his magical powers, which Tyrian does, and Ulrich dies while also using his powers to prevent his apprentice, Galen Macwardin, from intervening. Ulrich's body is cremated by his elderly servant Hodge, who places the ashes in a leather pouch and explains to Galen that Ulrich wanted his ashes placed in a lake of burning water.
Galen is selected by the wizard's magical amulet as its next owner, and he and Hodge join the expedition back to Urland. While stopping to bathe, Galen discovers that Valerian is really a young woman, who disguised herself as a man to avoid being selected for an offering. Tyrian kills Hodge to discourage the expedition, though Hodge manages to give Galen the pouch of ashes before dying.
Arriving in Urland, Galen inspects the dragon's cave and uses his magical powers to seal with it an avalanche, thinking it successful. Galen is apprehended by Tyrian and taken to Castle Morgenthorme, from which King Casiodorus governs Urland. Casiodorus deduces that Galen is not a real wizard and complains that his actions may have angered the dragon as opposed to killing it, as his own brother and predecessor once did. The king confiscated the amulet and has Galen thrown in prison, where he is visited by Princess Elspeth, Casiodorus' daughter. She initially came to taunt him, but is caught off guard when Galen reveals rumors that the lottery is rigged; it excludes her name, and those who are rich enough to bribe the king into disqualifying their children. She confronts her father over this, and his inability to lie convincingly seems to confirm it.
Meanwhile, the dragon frees itself and causes an earthquake that allows Galen to escape from prison, though without the amulet. The village priest, Brother Jacobus, leads his congregation to confront the dragon, which he denounces as the Devil, but is incinerated by the dragon which then heads down to burn down the village.
When the lottery begins anew, Princess Elspeth rigs the draw so only her name is 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 they realize that they have fallen in love with each other.
Galen, attempting to rescue Elspeth, fights and kills Tyrian. The Princess, however, descends into the dragon's cave to her death to make amends for all the girls whose names were chosen in previous offerings. Galen follows her into the cave and finds a brood of young dragons feeding on her corpse and proceeds to kill them. He finds Vermithrax resting by an underground lake of fire and manages to wound her, but at the cost of breaking the spear. Only the shield manages to save him from being burnt alive.
After his failure to kill Vermithrax, Valerian convinces Galen to leave Swanscombe with her. As they prepare to leave, the amulet gives Galen a vision which explains the wizard'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. Galen realizes that the wizard had planned his own death and cremation as he was too old and frail to make the journey.
Galen returns to the cave and spreads the ashes over the water, reviving Ulrich. 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, where he summons a storm and confronts Vermithrax. After a brief battle, the monster snatches the old man and proceeds to fly away with him. On Ulrich's cue, Galen smashes the amulet with a rock, and Ulrich's body explodes, killing the dragon and sending it falling from the sky.
In the aftermath, the villagers credit God for the victory, and the king drives his sword into the dragon's carcass to claim the glory for himself. As Galen and Valerian leave together, he confesses that he misses Ulrich and the amulet and says "I just wish we had a horse". As if on cue, a white horse suddenly appears and carries the two lovers away.
Why It's Great[]
- The film is noted from being much different from the more family oriented films that Disney made and was associated with at the time, both in tone and plot. While it was not the first time Disney tried to do a more mature film - that position goes to 1978's The Black Hole -, it was the one that proved that they were capable of handling such subject matter and content and could branch out to other forms of entertainment without being restrained to being for children and families only.
- The film notably has troped associated with stories featuring this type of premise, (e.g., a young man rescuing a princess from a dragon), it does not follow the formula note-for-note. Instead, it flips the script on such tropes. For example, Galen falls in love with a village girl as opposed to the princess, whom he just met and the latter actually dying as opposed to be rescued. But it still has plenty of fantasy elements that people have come to like, like powerful sorcerors and dragons and that sort. This film knows which fantasy elements to keep, which ones need to change, and balances them out perfectly.
- Vermithrax is an amazing dragon, both in looks and in the animation, which is just fantastic. She was so impressive that she has gone down as one of the most famous dragons in the history of cinema and has become a favorite for many, including Guillermo del Toro. There's even an episode of Game of Thrones that makes reference to her.