Le chevalier du dragon

Whatever you think of Star Knight – good or bad – the one thing that cannot be denied is this is a very strange movie. Its combination of a medieval yarn with science fiction is somewhat odd and surely must be a result of the writers simply combining two popular genres of the day - the fantasy action flick with Spielbergian sci-fi. It's a concoction that needless to say doesn't work all that well. Set in medieval Europe, the story revolves around the appearance of a 'dragon'. Turns out it's actually a spaceship but the locals of course never understand this. On board the ship is a spacesuit clad alien, who is the star knight of the title. It's a very silly story to be honest.

Other than the strange narrative, the second aspect that marks this one out is its very interesting cast. Well, it's interesting on paper at least. Specifically the combination of Klaus Kinski with Harvey Keitel is something that should catch the interest of most cult movie fans (although I don't actually remember them both appearing on screen at the same time though). Kinski plays an alchemist and is unfortunately dubbed, while Keitel is a knight and amusingly is not dubbed, seeing as his New York accent could not be more inappropriate for a medieval character. The 80's was a bit of a graveyard for a lot of film stars who rose to prominence in the 70's and this film indicates the strange places Keitel went in this decade before his re-emergence in the early 90's.

Despite all of the factors above, Star Knight is unfortunately a pretty weak effort. Its eccentricities never make up for the general lameness of events depicted. It seems to in fact, be a comedy as well but not a very funny one to be honest. Production values aren't bad though with handsome period detail and alright special effects of the spaceship. But despite this and its original aspects, it's still not terribly good fun.

Of course this movie is a bunch of silly nonsense but, hey, at least it's a very entertaining bunch of silly nonsense! "Star Knight" is some sort of comical Sci-Fi fantasy/adventure with the most amazingly far-fetched plot ever and quite a deranged cast of characters. I can't but notice that the opinions of IMDb-users towards this cheaply made Spanish film are very much differing! Some reviewers seem to think it's pure crap, whereas other ones claim that it's a rather efficient spoof. I'm somewhat in the middle of both opinions. To me, "Star Knight" is a hugely inept and forgettable movie, but nevertheless an amusing one that honestly made me chuckle a couple of times. It's really astonishing that TWO eminent actors – Harvey Keitel and Klaus Kinski – agreed to star in bizarre rubbish like this. Klaus Kinski stars as Boecius; a brilliant alchemist in the 15th Century and working for a rich monarch. For no apparent reason, Boecius summoned a spaceship from the future and the poor superstitious villagers believe that it's a fiery dragon. The 'pilot' of the spaceship kidnaps and falls in love with the monarch's daughter Alba and hopes to take her back with him to the future. Harvey Keitel plays Clever; a knight who doesn't really lives up to his name and talks rather funny. Clever's duty is to free the gorgeous princess from the claws of the 'dragon'. No matter how crazy it all sounds, the screenplay contains some truly ingenious ideas. The blending of the two totally different eras, for example. Spaceships, whether alien and futuristic, usually just land in our present time but rarely ever in medieval times. It's also well observed that the villagers automatically assume that the flamboyant machine is a dragon that comes to devour their cattle and crops. This mix-up leads to gags and comical situations that could have come straight out of a Monty Python movie, only the processing is slightly poorer. Keitel and Kinski are seemly having fun in their roles (maybe it was a welcome break from their usually serious type of characters they play?) and most of the decors & set pieces are fairly adequate. The whole thing gets boring near the second half of the film, though, and particularly the silent star knight character (portrayed by the Spanish singer Miguel Bosé) becomes dreadfully annoying very quick. Worth a peek in case there really isn't anything else to rent.

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.

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".

Harvey Keitel plays medieval soldier Klever, who is keen to earn himself a knighthood and win the hand of the Count of Rue's beautiful daughter Princess Alba (Maria Lamor); unfortunately for Klever, the princess is more interested in Ix (Miguel Bosé), a mysterious knight who wears indestructible armour and who commands a fearsome dragon. In reality, Ix is a visitor from another galaxy and his dragon a spacecraft. Kinski plays alchemist Boetius, who befriends the space traveller and helps him to defeat Klever in both combat and love.

I don't know what I found more surprising: Harvey Keitel starring alongside Klaus Kinski in a Spanish 80s fantasy/sci-fi/comedy, or the fact that I enjoyed the film more than I expected I would (Star Knight appears on a cheap 50-film box set of sci-fi obscurities, the majority of which are downright awful): the special effects in this one are pretty decent, the alien technology is well designed, there are some genuinely funny moments, the characters are delightfully daft (with the Green Knight being the funniest—the human equivalent of Sir Didymus in Labyrinth), and the story is rather charming.

Quite what Keitel and Kinski are doing in appearing in such frivolous nonsense, I do not know, but they seem to be having a fair amount of fun. As did I.