Lionheart

This is probably the best fantasy movie set in a historical period that has been made. The story does not insult the audience by assuming they are ignorant, and requires that people actually pay attention.

Yes, the accents aren't entirely accurate. Yes, some things are not explained. Tough. The arms, armor, and tactics are accurate and properly executed. The duel between Robert and Matilda is both amusing and impressive. No Wirefu, no anachronistic eastern martial arts, nothing in the movie that doesn't belong.

Music is also excellent, and unlike LadyHawk, appropriate to the feel of the movie.

The only reason I can figure for this movie not being a bigger success is that people confused it with the Jean Clod Van-Dummie movie of the same name.

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.

Muffle the Background music? You're kidding right? The music to this film is enough reason to try to hunt down the movie or soundtrack. This was the last film scored by Jerry Goldsmith for director Franklin J. Scaffner. They lowered the music in and out which was wrong because the film needs the music. It's not as bad as everyone says it is. Sure it drags but it's nice to see an original idea about the Crusades where Richard I is not the center of the movie. It has flaws but it's still entertaining. It's overdue for DVD since most movies from the 80s are released with no special features anyway (widescreen please). I'd rather watch this than the recent garbage like Kingdom of Heaven.

Lionheart is a great film about what happens to everyone, particularly children, during war. As a knight makes his way to join King Richard on the Crusades, he picks up a band of children, which he must protect from the Black Knight. The Black Night wants these children as slaves. Follow the band of children and their lord as they try to beat the odds and make it to King Richard.

Although Franklin J. Schaffner's last film was considered to be a big disappointment, I would like to point out that the original score composed by the late Jerry Goldsmith for this film is a masterpiece which showcases the brilliance of the greatest film composer of all time. The work propelled two original score album releases issued by Varèse Sarabande, plus a subsequent album entitled "Lionheart: The Epic Symphonic Score". Written for orchestra and subtle electronics, the score presents Jerry Goldsmith in his most thematic, epic and romantic style. Performed in concert, the heraldic "Robert's Theme" remains one of the composer's most memorable compositions.