Dragonheart

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Biography

Dragonheart is a 1996 fantasy adventure film directed by Rob Cohen . It stars Dennis Quaid , David Thewlis , Pete Postlethwaite , Dina Meyer , and the voice of Sean Connery . It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and various other awards in 1996 and 1997. The film also inspired a direct-to-video sequel, Dragonheart: A New Beginning in 2000.

Plot

In 984 England , the knight Bowen ( Dennis Quaid ) mentors Saxons|Saxon prince Einon ( Lee Oakes ) in the ideals of chivalry in the hope that he will become a better king than his tyrannical father. When the king is killed while suppressing a peasant rebellion, Einon rushes to claim his crown and is accidentally mortally wounded by the peasant girl Kara (Sandra Kovacicova). Einon's mother, Queen Aislinn ( Julie Christie ), has him taken before a dragon whom she implores to save his life. The dragon replaces Einon's damaged heart with a piece of its own on the promise that Einon will rule with justice and virtue. However, Einon soon becomes as tyrannical as his father, enslaving the former rebels and forcing them to rebuild a Roman Empire|Roman castle. Bowen believes that the dragon's heart has twisted Einon, and swears vengeance on all dragons.

Twelve years later, Einon's ( David Thewlis ) castle has been rebuilt and Bowen has become a dragon-slayer. Brother Gilbert ( Pete Postlethwaite ), a monk and aspiring poet , observes Bowen slaying a dragon and follows him to record his exploits. Bowen stalks another dragon to its cave, but the confrontation ends in a stalemate . The dragon (voiced by Sean Connery ) states that it is the last of its kind, and thus if Bowen kills it he will be out of a job. The two form a partnership to defraud local villagers with staged dragon-slayings. Bowen calls the dragon Draco, after Draco (constellation)|the constellation of stars . Unbeknownst to Bowen, Draco is the dragon who shared his heart with Einon, and through this connection any pain inflicted upon one is also felt by the other.

Meanwhile, Kara ( Dina Meyer ) seeks revenge on Einon for murdering her father and is imprisoned. Einon recognizes her as the one responsible for his near-death and attempts to seduce her. Aislinn, disgusted by what her son has become, helps her to escape. Kara tries to rally the villagers against Einon, but they instead offer her as a sacrifice to Draco, who takes her to his lair. Einon arrives to recapture her and fights Bowen, declaring that he never believed in the knight's code of honor. Draco intervenes and Einon flees. Kara asks Bowen to help overthrow Einon, but the disillusioned knight refuses.

Bowen and Draco's next staged dragon-slaying goes poorly and their confidence scam|con is exposed. Draco takes Bowen, Kara, and Gilbert to Avalon , where they take shelter among the tombs of the Round Table|Knights of the Round Table . Draco reveals the connection between himself and Einon, stating that he hoped giving the prince a piece of his heart would change Einon's nature and reunite the races of Man and Dragon. Through this action Draco hoped to earn a place in his namesake constellation, which is a heaven for dragons who prove their worth. He fears that his failure will cost him his soul , and agrees to help Kara and Gilbert against Einon. After experiencing a vision of King Arthur (voiced by John Gielgud ) that reminds him of his knightly code, Bowen agrees to help as well.

With Bowen and Draco on their side, the villagers are organized into a formidable fighting force. Aislinn presents Einon with a group of dragon-slayers, secretly knowing that killing Draco will cause Einon to die as well. The villagers are on the verge of victory against Einon's cavalry when Gilbert strikes Einon with an arrow. Draco feels the pain also, falls from the sky, and is captured. Einon realizes that he is effectively immortal as long as Draco remains alive, and determines to keep the dragon imprisoned. Aislinn attempts to kill Draco during the night, but Einon murders her.

The rebels invade Einon's castle, and Draco begs Bowen to kill him as it is the only way to end Einon's reign. Einon charges at Bowen with a dagger, but Bowen reluctantly throws an axe into Draco's exposed heart. Draco and Einon both die, and Draco's body dissipates as his soul becomes a new star in the constellation. Bowen and Kara go on to lead the kingdom into an era of justice and brotherhood.

Production

Development

Patrick Read Johnson, who wrote the story for Dragonheart , first proposed the idea for the film to producer Raffaella de Laurentiis. Johnson describes it as " Skin Game|The Skin Game with a dragon in it...or Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid|Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Dragon ", and that he wanted "the idea of a dragon and a knight conning villages for money" because he thought that the concept was "not only funny, but kind of sweet". Johnson went on to Pitch (filmmaking)|pitch the idea to screenplay writer Charles Edward Pogue, and he agreed to work on the film. De Laurentiis originally intended for John Badham , Rob Cohen's then-partner, to work on Dragonheart . According to Cohen, Badham "didn't respond" to the material, so Johnson was then asked to direct the film.

To be able to stay within the budget that Universal Studios was willing to shell out with Johnson directing, the developers approached Jim Henson's Creature Shop to create the dragon through traditional means as opposed to Computer-generated imagery|CGI . The dragon model was done within eight weeks time, and the crew then went to Shepperton Studios in England to begin shooting the film, starting with the campfire scene. The crew faced difficulties in keeping within the budget.

After working with de Laurentiis on Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story in 1992, Rob Cohen agreed to take over as director for the film. He approached Universal Studios with his new ideas, one of them being the idea of utilizing the CGI technology that was used to create the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park (film)|Jurassic Park to animate the dragon in Dragonheart .

Casting

The principal cast members of Dragonheart were:

Dennis Quaid as Bowen, a knight who becomes a dragon-slayer and then allies with Draco. Director Rob Cohen was impressed with Quaid, telling producer Raffaella De Laurentiis " is a knight of the old code." Cohen called Quaid "obviously intelligent and fun to work with", and said that he "really he Bowen." Quaid underwent rigorous training for the role, mostly practicing swordfighting. Quaid and Cohen both wanted Bowen's sword technique to have an "Eastern flavor", so Quaid trained with Japanese sword master Kiyoshi Yamasaki.

Sean Connery as the voice of Draco, the last remaining dragon. Cohen felt it was "very important that personality be derived from the actor that was going to play the voice", and said that Connery was the only actor he had in mind for the role. He described Connery's voice as "unique" and "instantly recognizable", but said that it was "what stood for in life as an actor and as a man that most related to what I wanted for Draco." Voice recording for Draco was done in three sessions. To help animate Draco's facial expressions, Cohen and the ILM animators took close-up shots of Connery from his previous films, categorized the clips according to what emotion was being expressed, and put them in separate tapes for easy reference.

David Thewlis as Einon, the tyrannical king who shares part of Draco's heart. Cohen cast Thewlis based on his performance in Naked (film)|Naked , stating "what makes a villain scary is the brain, not the brawn." The young Einon in the film's opening scenes was played by Lee Oakes .

Pete Postlethwaite as Gilbert of Glockenspur, a monk and aspiring poet who joins Bowen and Draco in the revolt against Einon. Cohen wanted Postlethwaite for the role based on his performance in In the Name of the Father (film)|In the Name of the Father , feeling that "anyone who was assured in a dramatic role could take Brother Gilbert and make it real and charmingly funny."

Jason Isaacs as Lord Felton, Einon's second in command. He hires Bowen to slay a dragon running rampant around his village, but refuses to pay after learning more of Bowen.

Julie Christie as Queen Aislinn, Einon's mother. Cohen found Christie through David Thewlis' casting agent.

Dina Meyer as Kara, a peasant girl who seeks revenge on Einon for killing her father. Meyer was the second actress Cohen interviewed for the role. Cohen stated that he needed an actress who was "strong and someone who could, in the end, handle herself with these double viking axes and look believable."

Brian Thompson (actor)|Brian Thompson as Brok.

Terry O'Neill (martial artist)|Terry O'Neill as Redbeard.

John Gielgud as the uncredited voice of King Arthur , who speaks to Bowen during his visit to Avalon .

Dragon design and animation

Phil Tippett , a visual effects producer specializing in creature design and character animation, and Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) were hired to work on animating Draco for Dragonheart . Tippett states that the responsibilities that his studio had for Dragonheart differed from what they did for Jurassic Park in that they were mostly responsible for the actual look and design of the dragon as well as the storyboards, Blocking (stage)|blocking , and the timing of action sequences.

Tippett worked closely with sculptor Pete Konig in designing Draco. Konig crafted several maquette|maquettes that they showed to Cohen, and they worked on improving the ones that Cohen said " right". Cohen's ideas for Draco's design stemmed from the traditional Chinese guardian lions|Chinese guardian lion , which Cohen describes as having "a lion-like elegance, a fierceness", and that it is "ultimately a proud...visually powerful creature". He also drew ideas from nature, such as the boa constrictor 's jaw structure and the musculature of horses. Tippett also took into consideration how the scenes with Draco in it would be framed, the size difference between Draco and the human actors, and what he would actually be doing throughout the film.

Tippett and his crew created a five-foot model of Draco for lighting reference, and an articulated model that could be used for as a reference for Draco's poses. Because Draco would have more screen time than the CGI dinosaurs in Jurassic Park (23 minutes for Draco, as opposed to six and a half for the dinosaurs), visual effects producer Julie Weaver and her team did a screen test for Dragonheart six to eight months before actual storyboarding, using a "stretched out" version of the Tyrannosaurus Rex from Jurassic Park .

Filming

Actual filming began in July 1994 in Slovakia . During sequences with Draco and Bowen in them, visual effects supervisor Scott Squires and his teams used what they called a "monster stick" - a pole with a bar and two red circles at the top - as an indicator for where Draco's eyes would be for Quaid's reference. They also set up speakers through which Cohen would read Draco's lines for Quaid, which Quaid said "helped out a lot."

While filming the scenes involving Draco in flight, the crew used a Ultralight aviation|microlight as reference, and then edited the footage to "put Draco over the top of that and remove any traces of the aircraft."

Although Draco is fully rendered in CGI, full-sized models of some of Draco's body parts were for some of the scenes. One of them was Draco's foot, which was used to pin Bowen to the ground, and the other was Draco's jaw during the scene where Bowen gets trapped inside it. While the foot was a non-moving prop, the jaw had moving parts and had to be operated by a puppeteer.

According to Cohen, they spent an additional thirteen months working on the film after making the final cut of the film. He in Rome to shoot Daylight (film)|Daylight on-location during this period, and had to review animation sequences with ILM and give them his comments and instructions through a satellite hookup.

Music and sound

The score was composed by Randy Edelman. The main theme song, "To the Stars", was used in the film Two Brothers , such film trailer s as Mulan and Seven Years in Tibet (1997 film)|Seven Years in Tibet , and clip montages at the Academy Awards , making it a well known film score . MCA Records released the film's soundtrack album on May 28, 1996, which contains 15 music tracks.

Release

The film was released in the US and Canada on May 31, 1996, and earned $15,027,150 during its opening weekend.

Reception

Dragonheart received mixed reviews, scoring a 50% on Rotten Tomatoes . Critics praised the premise, visual effects and character development but panned the script as confusing and clichéd. Roger Ebert gave the film 3 stars out of 4, saying "While no reasonable person over the age of 12 would presumably be able to take it seriously, it nevertheless has a lighthearted joy, a cheerfulness, an insouciance, that recalls the days when movies were content to be fun. Add that to the impressive technical achievement that went into creating the dragon, and you have something to acknowledge here. It isn't great cinema, but I'm glad I saw it." Jami Bernard of The New York Daily News described the film as "a movie for people young enough to keep dragons in the menageries of their imaginations", and went on to say that "the dragon is the most believable part of the whole movie." Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly gave the movie a positive review, but criticized the fact that Sean Connery provided the voice for Draco, saying that "If only Sean Connery didn't have such a wonderfully distinctive voice, Draco might live and breathe as his own creature."

In 2006, Draco was ranked no. 6 on a top 10 list of movie dragons by Karl Heitmueller for MTV Movie News . The film is also notably the first to use ILM's CARIcature software.

Awards and nominations

Award !! Category !! Winner/ Nominee !! Result
Academy Award s	Best Effects, Visual Effects	Scott Squires, Phil Tippett, James Straus, and Kit West	Nominated
Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films	Best Fantasy Film	Universal Pictures	Won
	Best Costumes	Thomas Casterline and Anna B. Sheppard	Nominated
	Best Music	Randy Edelman	Nominated
	Best Special Effects	Scott Squires, Phil Tippett, James Straus, and Kit West	Nominated
Hollywood Film Festival	Hollywood Digital Award	Scott Squires	Won
Satellite Awards	Outstanding Visual Effects	Scott Squires	Nominated
Sitges - Catalonian International Film Festival	Best Film	Rob Cohen	Nominated

Other media

After its release, Dragonheart spawned a spin-off 2D hack and slash game for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn|Saturn called Dragonheart: Fire & Steel , made by Acclaim Entertainment , which was met with mostly negative reviews due to bad gameplay, poor quality graphics, and a generally unimaginative design. In late 1996, Acclaim Entertainment|Acclaim ported a Personal computer|PC version of the game, which received similar criticism. There was also an original Game Boy game based on the film.

There was a sequel to the film called Dragonheart: A New Beginning .

Copyright Citations

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