Two Cents is an original column akin to a book club for films. The Cinapse team will program films and contribute our best, most insightful, or most creative thoughts on each film using a maximum of 200 words each. Guest writers and fan comments are encouraged, as are suggestions for future entries to the column. Join us as we share our two cents on films we love, films we are curious about, and films we believe merit some discussion.
The Pick
There can be little doubt that George A. Romero’s legacy will be his Living Dead series. After all, it’s not every filmmaker that accidentally invents a subgenre that continues to rise in popular 40 years after its inception. But film fans would be amiss if they thought Romero had nothing else to offer besides head shots and helicopter-kills.
There’s the psychedelic phantasms of Creepshow, the nebulous vampire tale Martin, and even the bizarre, twisted studio efforts like Monkey Shines and The Dark Half.
And then there’s Knightriders. The story of a fiercely independent performing team, directed by one of America’s fiercest voices of independent filmmaking, Knightriders has never been Romero’s best-known film, but its cult following is as devoted as the knights who surround Ed Harris’ ‘King’ William.
William (or Billy, as he is better known) is the leader of a traveling troupe of performers who go to town to town putting on medieval-style jousting tourneys, albeit mounted on motorcycles instead of horseback. But while the people who come to watch the show may view it as nothing more than dumb bloodsport, for William and his followers it is a way of life, built around a rigid code of chivalry and honor.
But the outside world is hard to shake off. Money problems, harassment by corrupt cops, media attention, and infighting largely spurred on by the rebellious Morgan (make-up god Tom Savini) take their toll. Soon, King William has to decide just how far he will go to protect and preserve his code, his world, and the troupe that has become his family.
Is Knightriders an underappreciated masterpiece from one of America’s underappreciated masters, or is it better left as a curious footnote in an iconic career? Is the entire 2.5 hour runtime worth it just for Stephen King’s cameo as a hot dog masticating hick? The answer to the last one is yes, but for the other questions, let’s let the Two Cents team take it.
Did you get a chance to watch along with us this week? Want to recommend a great (or not so great) film for the whole gang to cover? Comment below or post on our Facebook or hit us up on Twitter!
Next Week’s Pick
Park Chan-Wook shot to genre godhood with his Vengeance Trilogy (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance) but none of his subsequent efforts seemed to catch on in quite the same way (not even his English-language debut, the gonzo gothic Stoker).
Until The Handmaiden, which blew the doors off audiences worldwide with its twisting caper plot and astonishing erotic content. We figured it just might be time to see what all the fuss is about.
The Handmaiden is now streaming on Amazon Prime.
Would you like to be a guest in next week’s Two Cents column? Simply watch and send your under-200-word review to twocents(at)cinapse.co!
Our Guests
Trey Lawson
Knightriders is unlike any other film in George A. Romero’s filmography, and it is without question one of my favorites (right up there with his 1978 film Martin). I’m not breaking any new critical or scholarly ground by noting the social commentary that underpins much of Romero’s work, but while much of that attention has gone toward his horror films, it is also true of the more subdued Knightriders. It takes the amazingly high-concept pitch of stunt riders performing medieval-style combat games on modern motorcycles and uses it to explore far more introspective questions about the characters involved. Sure this is a movie about a motorcycle-riding Renaissance faire troupe, but it is also a film about artists, integrity, and in a sort of existential way the very function and purpose of art.
Ed Harris as Billy/King William epitomizes this as he struggles to live up to a chivalric code he takes very seriously, even as the troupe is confronted by local corruption and the temptations of commercial success. There is an overlap between personal identity and performance that Billy can’t easily reconcile, and in some ways this mirrors the very anachronism of the troupe’s blending of quasi-medieval sensibilities and modern technologies. Without summarizing the rest of the plot, I’ll say it is far more thoughtful and character-driven than one might expect from a movie about people who wear homemade armor and joust on motorcycles. Alongside Harris’s powerful performance, Tom Savini as Morgan the Black Knight will be familiar to most from his other genre work, and Ken Foree has a small role as Little John. Brother Blue is fantastic as Merlin, the troupe’s doctor and something of a spiritual advisor to Billy. And of course I have to point out the amusingly crude cameo by horror author Stephen King as “Hoagie Man.”
It’s always amazed me that someone put up the money to make a film like Knightriders, which despite its impressive stuntwork rarely lets the motorcycle action overshadow the focus on characters. There seems to be some influence from Easy Rider in its DNA, plus a bit of thematic and stylistic material from 1960s Italian and French New Wave cinemas. Knightriders is not an easy film to describe, especially compared to Romero’s horror films, but it is definitely one worth checking out. (Trey Lawson)
Husain Sumra:
Having never seen Knightriders, and having only read the synopsis, I had expected something similar. Maybe something more akin to some parts of Role Models. Boy, I did not expect a movie as sweet and charming, something as full of romanticism as this.
George Romero has always been a master of taking big ideas about society and paring them down into easy-to-understand allegories. I mean, look at what he did to zombies over and over and over again. This time, he sets his sights on modern society’s uncanny ability to mess good things up. Some of the best things can be ruined and destroyed by consumerism and people’s seemingly endless appetite for violence and sex.
At the end of the day, though, Knightriders isn’t cynical about any of that. It’s not hear to warn you, it’s here to put a calming hand on your shoulder and remind you that, at the end of the day, people will come to their senses. Also, Ed Harris’ smile in the final battle for the crown is this movie in a nutshell. Look at that joy! (Husain Sumra)
The Team
Justin Harlan:
There are few things in life more disappointing than finally seeing a film that you’ve been stoked on for a while, only for it to shit the bed. I’ve been wanting to watch Knightriders for years but never found the time; this week I have a reason and a snow day, so I revved up my engine and gunned it.
Damn! That’s really all I can say. A movie with this premise by this director screams “Justin! This one’s for you!” but alas, it was a liar. Long and slow, I made it just over halfway total in two separate sittings a few hours apart. How can a movie like this not be fun? (Justin Harlan)
Brendan Foley:
I’ll echo a number of other folks on here and say that I really had no idea what sort of film Knightriders would be beyond the bare-bones premise. And as the movie got underway and I settled into its groove, I began to steel myself for what I thought would be the inevitable heartbreak waiting at the end. After all, King Arthur’s legend has no happy ending, and it’s not like George A. Romero is known for his upbeat climaxes, and this era of filmmaking was rife with stories about dreamers and wanderers whose search for freedom and enlightenment ends in fire and blood.
So I was shocked, shocked, by how sweet, hopeful and, yes, capital-R Romantic Knightriders turned out to be. There are some bitter truths and hardships in this film, but Knightriders as a whole argues strongly against the cynicism that Romero’s Dead films depicted so boldly. People can change, people can set aside differences for a common good, idealism and hope can triumph. I was stunned by the depths of warmth and love that power this film, unlike anything Romero has ever done with his career.
As a film, Knightriders is shaggy and rough around the edges, wearing its low budget as a badge of honor. It runs a little long, but it’s the sort of length that suggests that Romero fell deeply in love with this strange little family of performers and couldn’t stand to short-shrift any of them. By the end of the film, I was right there with him. It’s heartbreaking to leave this motorized-Camelot, but galvanizing to know it stands strong. (Brendan Foley)
I took interest in Knightriders based on the promise of motorcycle jousting, coupled with the direction of George Romero. Going in with no more knowledge than that, I was surprised at how different it was from the film I’d sort of envisioned. It’s probably my own fault that I was disappointed that this doesn’t take place in an alternate history or universe, or that the motorcycle jousters are Renaissance fair performers rather than post-apocalyptic nomads.
Getting past that, there are some pretty impressive elements at work here. You have to buy into these characters and their viewpoint for this film to work, but if you do, you’re rewarded with a very heartfelt and romantic vision of camaraderie that tries — and mostly succeeds — to evoke the Arthurian melodrama that inspired it.
Get it at Amazon:
Knightriders — [Blu-ray] | [Amazon Video]