DragonHeart (1996)

The last dragon and a disillusioned dragonslaying knight must cooperate to stop an evil king who was given partial immortality.

Director:

Rob Cohen

Writers:

Patrick Read Johnson (story), Charles Edward Pogue (story),

Stars:

Dennis Quaid, Pete Postlethwaite, Dina Meyer

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 2 wins & 5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Dennis Quaid	...	Bowen
David Thewlis	...	King Einon
Pete Postlethwaite	...	Gilbert of Glockenspur
Dina Meyer	...	Kara
Jason Isaacs	...	Lord Felton
Brian Thompson	...	Brok
Lee Oakes	...	Young Einon
Wolf Christian	...	Hewe
Terry O'Neill	...	Redbeard
Eva Vejmelková	...	Felton's Minx (as Eva Vejmelkova)
Milan Bahúl	...	Swamp Village Chief (as Milan Bahul)
Peter Hric	...	King Freyne
Sandra Kovacicova	...	Young Kara
Kyle Cohen	...	Boy in Field
Thom Baker	...	Aislinn's Chess Partner

Storyline

The young, sickly King Einon was wounded in a battle. In order for him to survive, he is healed by Draco, a dragon. Some years later, Bowen, a dragon slayer, encounters Draco. The two team up to form a traveling duo that perform an act, but the act is only known by themselves. Bowen supposedly "slays" Draco and then collects a reward from the town or village that he protects by killing the dragon who had been "terrorizing" them. From there, Bowen and Draco must save the entire kingdom from the rule of the now evil King Einon, who is part of Draco and Draco a part of him.

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Plot Keywords:

dragon | king | evil king | honor | rules | 

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Taglines:

You will believe.

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Drama | Fantasy

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for action/violence

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

31 May 1996 (USA)

Also Known As:

Dragonheart

Filming Locations:

Bratislava, Slovakia

Box Office

Budget:

$57,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

ITL 2,240,387,000 (Italy) (14 February 1997)

Gross:

ITL 3,022,834,000 (Italy) (28 February 1997)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

103 min

Sound Mix:

DTS-Stereo DTS Dolby SR

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

More than 200 photos were taken of Sean Connery with a variety of facial expressions, which, along with footage of his voice recording, were used to make Draco bear a stronger resemblance to him.

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Goofs

The amount of saliva in Draco's Mouth when Draco has Bowen in his mouth.

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Quotes

King Einon: Ingenious, Felton; only you could keep such a good brain under such a bad hat.

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Connections

Featured in Maltin on Movies: Medieval Special 1 (2012)

User Reviews

Great film

Okay, I'm going to start with the fact that this is one of my favourite films-I remember seeing it when I was younger and last year when I spotted the 'special edition' DVD I snapped it straight up!!

********SPOILERS!*******

Okay, mainly people who have seen/liked/or just generally want to comment on a film come here-so I shall not describe the whole film-just bits that are needed.

Firstly, casting-I actually think the casting was good on this film-

Quaid as Bowen was good-physically he is right (strong, good looking etc.) and his presence is right-you believe that this character generally believes that Einon has 'turned' bad because of this Dragon who gave half his heart-thus creating a good straight-forward story line. In the beginning Bowen really loved the younger Einon and thats why it is quite painful to see in the first fight scene between Bowen and Einon (at the waterfall) that in fact Einon never believed Bowen's teachings of 'the old code,' you can see the sadness and realisation in Bowen, that Einon is 'bad' and was even at the beginning.

Thewlis as Einon-brill-actually Thewlis is one of my favourite actors because of the 'brains' he puts into his characters-take Einon, for example-not outly strong, etc.-but you can see that this character thinks-he's educated he knows what he is doing. You only have to look at the scene with Einon and kara in the bed chamber-look at how Thewlis plays the character-using words, the ideas of 'power' to manipulate her. Of course, its a family film and he is generally a good 'badie' but luckily not a straight-forward, stereotypical one. I must say he gives one of the best performances in the film.

Dina Meyer- this was one of her first films I believe and she does well-physically quite strong (which is quite a rarity to see a female who can stand up for herself in such films)but also adding a good character to assist Bowen.

Postlethwaite- very funny-I think he's a great actor and I loved him in this-different to a lot of stuff he had done, especially before this film-the character adds a comical touch to the film-but also he just generally portrays a 'good' character.

Connery-good, for the voice-you can tell the actor straight away and I think thats why he was chosen-but also I think his voice just adds something to the part.

The effects-brill, esp. for their time-even now they still stand on their own and as a viewer you can just relax and freeze reality for a while and believe that a dragon is actually talking etc. on screen.

Overall, a great film, that will touch the hearts of many-young and old. This is a film to watch over and over-full of laughs, fights, the odd tears and of course the classic battle between Good and Evil.

If you haven't seen it before-rent it, relax, forget everything in reality for a couple of hours and just watch this great fantasy film.