IMDb > Lionheart (1987)

Lionheart (1987) More at IMDbPro »


Overview

User Rating:
5.2/10   393 votes
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Writers:
Menno Meyjes (screenplay) and
Richard Outten (screenplay) ...
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Contact:
View company contact information for Lionheart: The Children's Crusade on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
August 1987 (USA) more
Genre:
Tagline:
He has the fire of his sword. And the courage of his youth. more
Plot:
A young knight sets out to join King Richards crusaders. Along the way, he encounters The Black Prince... more | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
User Comments:
Interesting failure undone by bad casting and editing more (8 total)

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Eric Stoltz ... (Robert Nerra)

Gabriel Byrne ... Black Prince
Nicola Cowper ... Blanche

Dexter Fletcher ... Michael
Deborah Moore ... Mathilda (as Deborah Barrymore)
Nicholas Clay ... Charles De Montfort
Bruce Purchase ... Simon Nerra

Neil Dickson ... King Richard
Penny Downie ... Madelaine
Nadim Sawalha ... Selim
John Franklyn-Robbins ... The Abbot
Chris Pitt ... Odo

Matthew Sim ... Hugo
Paul Rhys ... Mayor of the Underground City

Sammi Davis ... Baptista
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Additional Details

Also Known As:
Lionheart: The Children's Crusade (USA)
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Runtime:
104 min
Country:
Language:
Color:
Aspect Ratio:
2.35 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Filming Locations:
Company:

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
This is the final film that composer Jerry Goldsmith would compose for Director and personal friend, Franklin J. Schaffner, who would direct one more film before his passing in 1989. more

FAQ

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6 out of 8 people found the following comment useful.
Interesting failure undone by bad casting and editing, 7 August 2005
6/10
Author: burrobaggy from Newcastle, home of footie

Lionheart - The Children's Crusade was an interesting find in a bargain bin at a video shop - a medieval epic that I'd never even heard of from the director of Patton, produced by Coppola and with music by Jerry Goldsmith. Looking it up on the IMDb, not many others have either: it only seems to have played a week in Detroit! Why? Well, the obvious reason is it's not very good.

Its got a solid script about a disgraced young French knight who finds himself leading a bunch of abandoned children to the Holy Land to join King Richard's crusade and coming up against Gabriel Byrne's disillusioned crusader turned child-slave-trader. But it often looks like chunks are missing, and the kids are pretty awful: Eric Stoltz very effeminate and uncharismatic as the lead, Dexter Fletcher irritating as the lovable Artful Dodger type and Nicola Cowper a one-woman petrified forest as the love interest - I've never, ever seen an actress stay as rigidly immobile or as impervious to emotion as this gal. It's like watching a beautifully made up corpse in early rigor mortis for 105 minutes. Only Deborah Moore seems to give it a bit of wellie as a tomboyish female whose far more manly than the hero.

Bits of it do work, and Byrne's dark knight character is genuinely interesting and gets all the best dialogue, but the main interest is Jerry Goldsmith's astonishingly good score, one of the best I've ever heard for an epic even if it disappears towards the end. Worth a look but set expectations on low.

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this still around on VHS or DVD? david-1722
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