DragonHeart Collection

Fantasy

Action

Adventure

Drama

DragonHeart

Universal Pictures

United States of America

English

Dennis Quaid

Sean Connery

David Thewlis

Dina Meyer

Pete Postlethwaite

Jason Isaacs

Brian Thompson

Julie Christie

Lee Oakes

Wolf Christian

Terry O'Neill

Peter Hric

Eva Vejmělková

Milan Bahul

Sandra Kovacicova

Kyle Cohen

Thom Baker

John Gielgud

Buddy Quaid

Raffaella De Laurentiis

Charles Edward Pogue

Rob Cohen

David Eggby

Patrick Read Johnson

Randy Edelman

David Rotman

Peter Amundson

Rob Coleman

Giorgio Desideri

Nada Pinter

Anna B. Sheppard

Ján Svoboda

Benjamín Fernández

Margery Simkin

Thomas Casterline

Maria Teresa Barbasso

Monika Fišerová

Phil Tippett

Ingrid Vrabcova

Jana Zvaríková

Paul Weston

Nikita Knatz

Dusan Svoboda

Patrick Janicke

Barbara Ostrowiecki

Herb Gains

Jiri Juda

Milan Stanisic

Hester Hargett

Mentor Huebner

Stefano Spadoni

Peter Balogh

Alberto Tosto

Jonathan Downing

Matthew McLemore

Ron Downing

Donna Smith

Stano Mozny

Tracey Wilson

Mark Siegel

Viliam Richter

Peter Petruna

Francesco Valento

Joseph Musso

Terence J. Cox

Giannetto De Rossi

Trevor Wood

Kelly Breidenbach

Maurizio Silvi

Angelo Vannella

Kit West

Mirella De Rossi

Chitra F. Mojtabai

Scott Squires

Kiyoshi Yamasaki

Filipe Manuel Neto

**A good piece of family entertainment.**

This is one of those regular fantasy films that were a hit when they hit television during the 90s, becoming a fairly regular presence on weekend afternoons and holidays. Easily appealing to children and young people, it is a family film that entertains and moves.

The film is set in an uncertain period of the Middle Ages, in a legendary European kingdom where the young and cruel Einon reigns with an iron fist and no heart. As a teenager, his life had been saved by a dragon that gave him half of its own heart. Now, he ignores his master's lessons of honor and bravery, and rules like a tyrant. However, the population is fed up with his excesses and Bowen, the king's former tutor, decides to lead the revolt against him with the help of a dragon, the last one still alive, and precisely the one that saved the king.

I'm not going to waste a lot of time on this film because it's far from being a relevant work for those involved, even though its popularity at the time was remarkable. There are many nice and well done things in this film, starting with the script. Yes, it's a cheesy story, it looks a lot like Robin Hood and other like that, it's full of clichés and the humor is, to say the least, off-putting. But the truth is that it entertains and has enough fantasy and emotion to delight us. There are some good fight scenes, the castle attack sequence is exciting and intense, the special effects and the CGI (a new technology, at the time) used are quite worthy and do a very good job considering the time and resources. We also have excellent cinematography and a memorable soundtrack, truly epic, which was then used for a thousand and one uses, as we know.

The actors, despite not shining, make a credible effort and are reasonably committed. There are some well-known names here, starting with the dragon's voice, lent by the unmistakable Sir Sean Connery, in one of the best voice dubbing work done by him. Dennis Quaid was capable enough in the role of a mature hero, already not very young, but it is the quality of David Thewlis that surprises us and steals all the attention. The actor brought the perfidious King Einon to life in a truly remarkable way, with commitment and emotion, giving him touches of cynicism, sadism and madness. I have a very strong feeling that Thewlis drew his inspiration from Peter Ustinov's wonderful performance in “Quo Vadis”, in the role of Nero. Finally, Pete Postlethwaite seems to really enjoy the character he was lucky enough to play, a friendly monk with the air of a great troubadour.

Unfortunately, I didn't like Dina Meyer at all: she doesn't make an effort for her character and the romantic chemistry with Quaid is absolutely nil. I also missed the contextualization, in time and space: as the film is pure fantasy, we don't even have the notion of a concrete place or time, in order to be able to copy clothes, technologies, architecture. Although the movie had good sets and costumes, I can't say that I really liked them because they were too fanciful.

DragonHeart (1996) Trailer

DragonHeart (1996) Teaser

Dragonheart Trailer HD

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DragonHeart

Cast & Crew

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Cast

Dennis Quaid

Sean Connery

David Thewlis

Dina Meyer

Pete Postlethwaite

Jason Isaacs

Brian Thompson

Julie Christie

Lee Oakes

Wolf Christian

Box office

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