The 1980s fantasy movie George R.R. Martin calls “underrated”
As the mastermind behind A Song of Ice and Fire, George R.R. Martin is one of the modern era’s most well-known purveyors of literary fantasy, with his stature increasing immensely after his book series served as the basis for one of the 21st century’s defining TV shows.
Many Game of Thrones supporters hardly deem it a coincidence that the quality of HBO’s episodic adaptation nosedived when showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss ran out of Martin’s source material to bring to the screen, but the author certainly knows his way around the realms of swords and sorcery regardless.
Given the blood, guts, sex, and violence that features prominently in both Martin’s work and its subsequent jump to live-action, it may come as something of a surprise to hear him describe a Disney movie in such glowing terms. Then again, 1981’s Dragonslayer isn’t a typical Mouse House production.
“It ranks well above most of Disney’s live action from the period,” Martin told The Daily Beast. “It’s surprisingly dark, and delivers some nice twists and turns along the way.” Beyond that, he’s hardly the first prominent figure from the world of fantasy to describe Vermithrax Pejorative as “the best dragon ever put on film.”
The fire-breathing creature is Guillermo del Toro’s favourite-ever cinematic dragon, too, although Martin curiously positions the beasts from Christian Bale’s post-apocalyptic bust Reign of Fire as “a close second”. Ralph Richardson’s Ulrich of Cragganmore also wins praise as “Best Film Wizard of All Time (Until Ian McKellen Put on the Pointy Hat” in Martin’s words, but the film was nowhere near as successful as its lauded reputation would suggest.
As one of the darkest Disney films ever made at the time, Dragonslayer faced an uphill battle to succeed, ultimately failing to recoup its budget at the box office despite strong reviews and a pair of Academy Award nominations for ‘Best Original Score’ and ‘Best Visual Effects’, with the latter tied to its status as the first non-Star Wars project to ever enlist the services of George Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic.
The story finds the fearsome Vermithrax Pejorative terrorising the kingdom of Urland, with Peter MacNicol’s Galen Brandwardyn anointed as the chosen one to slay the beast and free the lands from tyranny following the death of his wizarding mentor Ulrich.
Describing the hero as “an impressively earnest, blotchy, and incompetent sorcerer’s apprentice,” Martin further celebrates Dragonslayer for its portrayal of villainy. “The film’s bad guys are painted in shades of grey; from where they sit, they’re the heroes, doing what has to be done to save the land,” he continued. “Even Vermithrax has believable motives.”
A well-established cult classic, Dragonslayer made its mark on Martin, with Vermithrax Pejorative potentially even lending inspiration to his own bibliography, which has never been shy of dabbling in a dragon or two.
