George R. R. Martin names his 10 favourite fantasy movies
There are a dozen or so visionary writers and filmmakers who have forever changed the world of fantasy storytelling over generations, from the writing of C. S. Lewis, who conjured the world of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to Denis Villeneuve’s Dune, adapted from Frank Herbert’s genre-defining book. Yet, in the contemporary world of fantasy, arguably, no writer has done more for the genre than the mind behind Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin.
Started in 1996, Martin is still on a mission to complete his epic Game of Thrones book series, which has since sold over 90 million copies worldwide, with the sixth book, The Winds of Winter, having been in development for decades. While the book series still hasn’t come to an end, the TV show, which helped popularise the literary tales, became a phenomenon on the small screen of HBO from 2011 to 2019.
Ever since, Martin has become adored as a master of the fantasy genre, comparable to J. R. R. Tolkien, who created The Lord of the Rings books back in the mid-1950s. The author was especially inspired by Tolkien’s tales, too, and went on to gush over Peter Jackson’s movie adaptations, telling Daily Beast that the films were “as faithful and reverent an adaptation as could ever have been hoped for. If you don’t like these films, you don’t like fantasy,” during a rundown of his favourite fantasy movies of all time.
But the Lord of the Rings movies aren’t the only fantasy movies he loves. He also has a fondness for Steven Spielberg’s epic 1981 tale Raiders of the Lost Ark, which introduced the world of cinema to Indiana Jones. Although largely seen as an action-adventure tale, Spielberg ingeniously drizzles the perfect dose of fantasy over each of the original three films in the Indiana Jones trilogy, giving it all a sense of unsettling, even existential, mystery.
“Yes, of course, it’s a fantasy film,” Martin reiterates, “Unless you believe that the Ark of the Covenant really does have the power to melt Nazis… None of sequel villains could match the urbane French archaeologist Belloq (Rene Freeman), that sinister Peter Lorre-ish hench-Nazi (Ronald Lacey), or that treacherous little bastard of a monkey. None of Indy’s later sidekicks was as good as John Rhys-Davies as Sallah. The biggest difference, though, was the female lead. Karen Allen was wonderful as Marion Ravenwood.”
Elsewhere, Martin names a selection of hidden fantasy gems, with Alex Proyas’s 1998 film Dark City perhaps being the most curious of the bunch. Starring the likes of Jennifer Connelly, William Hurt and Kiefer Sutherland, the film tells the story of a man who struggles with nightmarish visions of the past in which he remembers living in a strange, dangerous world. A forgotten gem of the genre, Dark City has gained a cult following since its release.
Take a look at the full list of Martin’s ten favourite fantasy movies below, which includes other classics such as Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth and Victor Fleming’s Wizard of Oz.
George R. R. Martin’s favourite fantasy movies:
- Beauty and the Beast (Jean Cocteau, 1946)
- Dark City (Alex Proyas, 1998)
- Dragonslayer (Matthew Robbins, 1981)
- Ladyhawke (Richard Donner, 1985)
- The Lord of the Rings trilogy (Peter Jackson, 2001-2003)
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam, 1975)
- Pan’s Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro, 2006)
- The Princess Bride (Rob Reiner, 1987)
- Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Spielberg, 1981)
- The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939)
