Truly Dreadful Film

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

After going to see "Excalibur" with my brother and his friends, I was told "Next week we're going to see "Knightriders". I said "what's that?" and my brother told me "A George Romero film" and my first response was "Ick!" I'm not a Romero fan (my brother is), so when this came out originally I almost didn't go see it. Then, during the intervening week I saw a single ad on TV for it and thought it was a King Arthur version, but on motorcycles, so I figured, what the heck (especially after "Excalibur" which was both good and bad, IMO). I was stunned. I was completely blown away. I cried. I still cry, all these years later. I'm in the Society for Creative Anachronism (and yes, it was very loosely based on a real incident, and extrapolated very neatly by Romero without actually reporting it) and I tell everyone I know that they should see it, at least once. Yes, it's a low-budget biker movie. But it has heart, and some great performances, and the soul of a poet. It says more about chivalry and honor and truth then anything else I have ever seen. I completely understood King Billy's motivations in trying to keep the others to his code, and in Morgan's initial rejection of them. The look on Morgan's face when he realizes that the crass commercialism of the promoter is completely against Billy's code, and that in spite of trying to rebel against that code it's what he (Morgan) really does want after all -- that's priceless.

...it seems like you do your best work when shuffling, flesh-craving reanimated corpses are involved. There's a reason the "Living Dead" tetralogy is the stuff of legend and Romero's 'side-projects' are mostly little-known footnotes within his career--while often artistically innovative and unconventional, efforts like "Monkey Shines," "Bruiser," and "Knightriders" are--at best--tonally uneven experiences. Here we have a modern-day Ren Faire tent community that travels from town to town, putting on jousting competitions (done on motorcycles, natch) and living the medieval lifestyle in a modern world. Romero uses this postmodernist fairy tale to frame a heavy-handed (and overlong) meditation on man's code of honor and what it takes to hang onto it in a world where everybody else is "selling out" to live a life of luxury (yes, an up-and-coming rock band could have easily been substituted for the Ren Faire). The film is ponderous at points (with many sledgehammer-obvious monologues), repetitive at others (while the jousting tournaments are a marvel of slick editing, they don't vary much), and the premise is treated so seriously that at times it's hard not to laugh (and granted, there is a lot of intentional humor as well). Despite all this, Romero's voice does come out in certain dialog scenes, and the production is wonderfully photographed by Michael Gornick; the performances vary (with a young Ed Harris all over the map), but Tom Savini shows some formidable chops as a potential traitor to the cause. The commentary on the 'knights'' displacement in a world given in to modernity meets an uneven end (blatantly ripping off "Easy Rider"), but "Knightriders" is an oddly transfixing--albeit inferior--piece of work.

I can see the potential here. Bikers engaging in medieval games on their hogs is a fun idea. So is an almost cult-like group organized around a charismatic leader posing as a king. In addition to the cult group dynamics, it allows an exploration of medieval social roles in a modern setting, including the reaction of outsiders to this strange group. Because they're on the road, we also have gypsy themes, allusions to Easy Rider, and even elements very similar to a rock 'n' roll band going crazy while touring.But something went seriously wrong when it came to making those ideas into a film. It's a combination of things really: * For much of Knightriders, there's really not much of a story. There are long scenes where all characters are in stasis. There are too many long scenes of the tournaments--too many because despite the impressiveness of the stunts, they're shot and edited so that all dramatic tension is lost. When more of a plot is attempted, it's not usually explained very well. Chunks of exposition seem to be missing. Characters come and go without much explanation. There are major characters who we never get to know anything about. There are times when the story becomes a bit more interesting and coherent, but they're few and far between, and all good will they engender is usually demolished in the next couple scenes.* The editing is some of the worst work I've ever seen in a "major" film. A lot of scenes seem to be put together randomly, as if they literally threw shots into the air in the cutting room and reassembled them as they grabbed them.* The acting is pretty uniformly awful. The only person I liked was Stephen King, and he only had a cameo for maybe 90 seconds total screen time. Ed Harris overacts ridiculously. Tom Savini is too often awkward. Romero apparently told everyone to play the film serious as a heart attack (only King didn't listen), and it has the effect of making every character annoying, as well as making an inherently absurd premise, with apparently insane characters, far too droll.* Romero makes a ton of bad decisions here for cinematography. Poorly chosen, poorly framed shots are the norm. The few good shots stick out like a sore thumb because of this. It's a pretty ugly film. And for that matter, the costumes, props, "sets" and such tend to be ugly too. I don't mean that it should be "pretty" and "pleasant". Rather, it should have visual aesthetic merit appropriate to the subject matter rather than having all the appeal of a washed-out mid-70s low budget porno.* The score is similarly ugly.Knightriders almost makes Romero's Bruiser (2000) look good in comparison.

When a troupe of Motorcyclists, who are members of a traveling renaissance fair. They move town to town with great audiences each time. They are the perfect medieval jousting tournament group. The rule of the game, if someone of the opposite team lead by Arthur (Tom Savini). If his team wins, Arthur will become the new King of Camelot. If Arthur doesn't win, Billy (Ed Harris) will always stay King of Camelot. But Billy almost believe too much about the real world of today society of Camelot is being renewed. While they are getting national attention much to the dismay of the current King of this Camelot. The members of this medieval jousting tournament group asked themselves, why they are here doing and what they loved being in the first place.Written and Directed by George A. Romero (Creepshow, The Dark Half, Monkey Shines) shows a unique style and flair to the extremely well made unusual film. It was a flop in theaters but the film received an cult following on video. Harris gives an terrific performance in his first lead role. The film has an nice supporting performances by Amy Ingersoll, Gary Lahti, Patricia Tallman, Christine Forrest Romero (The filmmaker's wife), Warner Shook, Brother Blue, Martin Ferrero, Ken Foree and Scott Reiniger.DVD has an fine anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1) transfer and an clear Dolby 2.0 Mono Sound. DVD has an entertaining commentary track by Writer/Director:Romero, Make-Up Artist/Actor:Savini, Film Historian:Chris Stavrakis, Brief Comments by the director's wife and a few comments by actor:John Amplas. DVD also gas a silent behind the scenes featurette, theatrical trailer and a collector's booklet. While this film is not for all tastes but it is still an interesting film. Great music score by Donald Rubinstein (Bruiser, Martin). Watch for Novelist:Stephen King and his wife:Tabitha King in Cameos. (****/*****).