El caballero del dragón

If you are a fan of Klaus Kinski as I am then you must own this movie. Watch it once, check it off your list, then never watch it again. What a waste of celluloid, time, and effort. Quite simply this is an enormously huge waste of time. Think of all of the hungry children the budget of this film could have fed.......

I found this gem in a sale bin of old VHS tapes about ten years ago.... I put it on not knowing what to expect... and I couldn't stop it! Mr.Keitel must have tried to buy up all the copies of this film.. because it's impossible to find anyone that has seen it before. It's absurb to point of being a Monty Python film... I can imagine that the producers started off wanting to make a serious film and half way through said.. "hey.. you know it's pretty funny.. I think we should go that way!" There must have been some great coke on set for this baby in the eighties... if you can find it, I highly suggest it over a bottle or two of your favourite bevy.

I saw "The Little Shop of Horrors" when I was a kid on late night television.. and never forgot that as being such an amazing 'cartoon' of a film... I wasn't surprised when it had a second life... not to mention John Water's "Hairspray".. it's kind of like that great old movie "The Producers"... you just can't make a movie bad enough that it won't be entertaining... to someone!

Harvey Keitel?... Klaus Kinsky?... how can you go wrong?

STAR KNIGHT (or THE KNIGHT OF THE DRAGON) is an adventure/comedy from Spain that was released in 1985/86. It blends science fiction with medieval fantasy elements into a plodding chore of a film where the only magic on display is how it manages to make 90 minutes last an eternity. I had never heard of the film before sitting down to watch it but my hopes were raised a little higher when I saw Harvey Keitel was involved. Keitel did elevate the film to a more enjoyable level but probably not for the reason he might hope. In the film, Keitel is Klever, a soldier who aspires for knighthood and the good graces of his king and, especially, the king's daughter Alba (Maria Lamor). Alba longs for marriage but her father has rejected all of her potential suitors as unworthy. When one of Alba's resulting temper tantrums brings her to the lake for a swim, she encounters a stranger beneath the waves. That stranger is an alien named IX (Miguel Bosé) and he arrived, conveniently enough, at the same time the king's medical adviser Boetius (Klaus Kinski) was performing a ritual to summon an angel (or a demon…it wasn't too clear). While Boetius believes IX to be the supernatural agent summoned to his aid, the rest of the kingdom goes in a panic when IX's spaceship is mistaken for a dragon. Princess Alba falls in love with this strange knight and finds support with Boetius (who might have his own machinations), but Klever teams with the king's religious adviser (Fernando Rey) to kill the new arrival and slay his dragon, earning his knighthood and the hand of Princess Alba in marriage.

Having seen this movie a couple of times now, the only things that seems to stick with me is how poor Harvey Keitel sticks out like a sore thumb. He's delivering the dialogue of a period piece with an accent straight out of Brooklyn. He's pledging allegiance and vowing to slay the mighty dragon, and it's just not working at all. It's the funniest part of the whole movie, which is sad because there are actual attempts at humor all over. They just fall flat every single time. The herald's series of unsuccessful visits to the townsfolk, Klever's assault on IX's ship, and the final tag with Klever and Rey and their fate; all of it lands it a dull thud. The same could be said of the film's "romantic adventure". IX arrives on Earth to catalogue fauna for his home civilization. So I guess he's on some sort of science mission. Keep in mind, IX doesn't speak so all of this is interpreted through what he shows Alba. Alba believes he is collecting animal souls for his home world, because she's primitive and ignorant. Despite the fact that Alba comes from a primitive, superstitious society and is a completely different species, IX falls in love with her. He jeopardizes his entire mission to interfere with Alba and her kind, so we know he's not much of a scientist. I have to assume this all resulted from years of lonely interstellar travel leaving IX vulnerable to the temptations of a backwards, medieval era human.

I wouldn't have spent so much time nitpicking the romance plot if there were something to keep me entertained. Maybe some conflict? There's no real conflict to drive the plot forward. Sure, Alba is in love with IX but even that doesn't seem all that important when, in a scene late in the movie, IX appears to be disinterested in protecting her honor through battle with Klever. When it looks as if IX is just going to lift off and go on with his life (as he should), she just shrugs her shoulders and prepares to accept Klever as her new suitor without much hassle. She's not that interested. She's just a rebellious young girl. Klever just wants to be taken seriously by his king but he's too much of a doofus to pull it off. He poses zero threat to IX and only gains the upper hand later in the movie because IX's species has nothing similar to the "Star Trek" prime directive to tell him it's a bad idea to give a primitive witch doctor access to a mind-controlled information orb. The only person I ever actually thought might've had evil, selfish intentions was Boetius with his weird summoning rituals and resting evil face, and I guess he was a good guy in the end. I don't know. This movie blows. Nothing about this movie makes much sense when you really think about it and, as bored as I was, I had plenty of time to think.

Ironical and dis-mythical fantasy packs acceptable production design, primitive special effects , and evocative as well as colorful cinematography . When a dazzling craft illuminates the sky above a medieval European village, the townspeople fear mayhem while the ruling party prepares for battle with the mysterious "dragon in the sky." After Princess Alba (Maria Lamor) is discovered missing, being abducted by an alien aircraft ; the quest for power and the young girl's affections drive Klever (Harvey Keitel) to free her from the strange cosmic knight , IX ,(Miguel Bose , though Imanol Arias turned down the role) . Count of Rue (José Vivó) asks for help his magician alchemist (Klaus Kinski) and the Green Knight (Jose Maria Pou) to find the beautiful princess . But is that her desire? . Worldly boundaries are crossed in this spoofy Sci-Fi .

This ironic Sci-Fi contains lots of humor with tongue-in-cheek , entertainment and amusement , though falls flat for its continuous absurdity and ridiculousness . It is a slightly funny film with entertaining events , giggles , and a love story between a princess and an extraterrestrial . This is a Gothic sci-fi tale of power, greed and the universal language of love . Spanish exploitation of American fantasy , realized by time of Close Encounters of the Third Kind , ET and other films in which extraterrestrial visits and UFOs were common themes ; and here adding the legend of Saint George , ¨Jorge¨ , and the Dragon . The film moves in fits and starts most of which would be desirable, with more traps the viewer resists any kind, and some moments of enjoyment and others quite a few embarrassing . Adequate production design by Felix Murcia and naive but effective special effects by Reyes Abades , many of them made by old computer generator . Very good cast but frankly wasted , it stars two myths of modern cinema , Harvey Keitel and Klaus Kinski, in addition , the great Fernando Rey as an inquisitive priest , but all of them turned into caricatured figures . Atmospheric musical score by Jose Nieto , Vicente Aranda's ordinary musician , he composes a stirring soundtrack by means of synthesizer . Jose Nieto is a magnificent composer and deemed to be one of the best Spanish musicians . Furthermore , a colorful and evocative cinematography by Jose Luis Alcaine who was first cinematographer to use fluorescent tube as "key" lightning and deemed to be one of the best Spanish cameraman . Alcaine frequently works with Pedro Almodóvar , Bigas Luna and Vicente Aranda , as he has photographed ¨The skin I live in¨ , The bad education¨ , ¨Volver¨ , ¨Women in the verge of a nervous breakdown¨, among others .

The motion picture was middlingly written and directed Fernando Colomo . Fernando Colomo was born in Madrid and is a talented and versatile writer/director who has made a vast array of often solid and entertaining films in all kind of genres as comedy, drama and one science fiction movie , this 1985 El caballero del Dragón, in a career that spans over 30 years . Especially known for directing comedies such as 1987 La Vida Alegre , 1988 Miss Caribe , 1989 Bajarse al Moro , 1993 Rosa Rosae , 1994 Alegre Ma Non Troppo , 1995 Efecto Mariposa . And in the 2000s directed Al Sur Granada (2003) , El Próximo Oriente (2006), Rivales (2008) and La Banda Picasso (2012) .

I was reading what the guy above said about it and no i have no clue how Harvey got suckered into doing this film. it is raw comedy for him. Typical princess meets the man of her dreams and can't have him film with Harvey as the knight who loves her and her money and is gonna kill the one she loves to impress the dad and princess, marry her, and thus be rich. Only problem is, he can't...and the idiocy of his fighting with a man who cannot be beaten...he is in an IRON suit which a bunch of swords cannot penetrate, is a riot! This must have been done during the BAD years when he had to buy baby formula and stuff. But see it just for the HUMOR and likeness to those crazy 60's sci-fi flicks like "It Came From Outer Space".