Knightriders (1981)
- adamsoverduereview
- 17 hours ago
- 9 min read
Knightriders is an epic 1981 American film from legendary director George A. Romero. After the massive and influential success of his independent horror film Night of the Living Dead (1968), Romero spent most of the 1970s making less commercial films that didn’t find audiences at the time. He returned to overt horror and the Dead in 1978, scoring an international box office hit with Dawn of the Dead (originally titled Dawn of the Living Dead).
The budget was supposedly $640,000 but was reported as $1.5 million at the time to inflate the price for international sales. Either way the worldwide box office total was $66 million! That success is the only way I can understand how he came to make something as ambitious and unusual as Knightriders for his next film.
Here Romero once again leaves behind the horror genre he will forever be associated with for a drama about growing strife within an iconoclastic travelling group of entertainers. King William, aka Billy (a ridiculously handsome young Ed Harris in his first lead role) leads a renaissance fair troupe that joust on motorcycles instead of horses. Obviously there are real life renaissance fair types that helped inspire these characters, but the addition of the motorcycles makes the whole thing infinitely more exciting and cool. Romero creates a fictional subculture that feels more authentic and lived in than plenty of real life subcultures other movies have tried to depict or exploit. It is also a cult of personality originally centered around Billy’s uniquely weird vision, until his unwavering ideals begin to clash with reality and his followers.
There are times where the lifestyle looks goofy or ridiculous, and times where it looks completely badass and fun as hell. Similarly, one can see the appeal of living removed from the grind of 9-5 jobs and square society, but it also shows how conflicts both major and petty still arise between any group of people living or working together no matter what ideals they supposedly share. It works as an allegory for creative projects and collectives, start-up religions/cults, and independent businesses. It started with Billy and his beliefs, pure and unyielding. But a King (or a Director) needs people to command to put on a show, and that show needs an audience. They perform for random yokels who are often drunk or dismissive, but they need that money to survive. The show is really for the performers, but they still have to make it appealing enough to draw a crowd (like including zombies and violence to make your social commentary more commercial). The troupe expands as all are welcome and others are attracted to various aspects of it. Once any project gets big enough, it begins to need more money, and more stable leadership for the growing number of people depending on it. Overhead, healthcare, logistics. Success also attracts attention and outsiders who want to profit from or exploit something they don’t really understand. These are the conflicts that are starting to test the group when we meet them, as magazine articles, talent agents, and bribe-seeking cops begin to invade their fantasy world.
The movie opens with a visibly troubled Billy and his lover Linet (Amy Ingersoll) alone in the woods. Billy bathes in a lake and self-flagellates with a branch before suiting up in armor and a crown, then they ride off on his motorcycle. Apparently Romero originally envisioned this at its earliest stages as an actual medieval period piece, and for a few seconds my wife assumed that was what we were watching until the bike appeared. We are introduced to the rest of the group as they prepare for their show. There are debates about whether a new, real weapon is safe to use in the duels. Some knights have actual crafted armor, but others point out they are still basically wearing tinfoil (arguments over how much of the group’s money is used for armor, weapons, and bike repairs are recurring). Despite nursing a previous injury, Billy joins in the duels and lets his opponent Sir Morgan use the real weapon. Billy is after authenticity and preserving integrity to the point of masochism, Morgan just wants to make things more exciting and fuck shit up. Their conflict and Billy’s injury sets the stage for a lot of what comes later in the movie. The motorcycle duels are plentiful and thrilling, packed with stunts, crashes, flips, and near misses.
One early scene made me say “Holy Shit!” when it shows they have people who are tasked with tackling/knocking over the bikes that go flying towards the crowd, kind of like rodeo clowns distracting bulls. That is a great little moment that shows some thought and world-building for how their performances work, provides a quick jolt of excitement with someone really tackling a flying motorcycle, and it plants seeds for later when things begin to fall apart.
The group has been touring together long enough that they have a mix of characters with varying levels of investment in the lifestyle, like Billy’s “Queen” Linet and their Lancelot-equivalent Sir Alan (Gary Lahti). Legendary special effects maestro Tom Savini gets a rare featured role as the group’s black knight Sir Morgan, who joined up as a motorcycle enthusiast and cares more about the bikes and action than the “King Arthur crap.”. He proves the most susceptible to promises of fame and fortune when agents come calling.
During the opening fair, Alan picks up cute local girl Julie (Patricia Tallman, a childhood crush of mine from TV series Babylon 5), who is trying to get away from her abusive father and doesn’t really understand what the group is all about (not that Alan bothers trying to explain much or connect with her).
Pippin (Warner Snook) is the group’s storyteller/explainer/color commentator who seems to have joined to escape the judgements of society and questions about himself. There is an uncomfortable campfire scene where mechanic Angie (Christine Morgan, who married director Romero the year they made this) asks Pippin point blank in front of everyone if he is gay, and he doesn't have an answer (unlike the lone female knight in the group, who is out and proud). Angie picks up their conversation later in private and it turns out to have come from a place of caring, as she just wants to help her friend to be happy and true in his life. A nice surprise for a 1981 film, even one coming from a creator known for being socially conscious in their work. Pippin also gives her some bitter medicine, telling Angie she needs to value herself and not think that on-again-off-again boyfriend (and serial cheater) Morgan is the only man who would want her. There are characters who don’t have arcs, but still have enough scenes and dialogue to feel like important parts of the troupe, including Dawn of the Dead star Ken Foree as blacksmith Little John.
One of the most significant and memorable side characters is the group’s “magician” Merlin, a former physician with an especially elaborate outfit and blue butterflies painted on him. He often speaks in rhythm or rhyme as he dispenses esoteric counsel to Billy, and occasionally busts out a harmonica mid-sentence. Those butterflies are actually a signature of Merlin’s performer, Brother Blue, an educator, storyteller, musician and street performer who only seems to have acted in this single film. I imagine Romero saw a kindred spirit in this interesting individual.
The movie is long and sprawling, giving lots of time to its large cast of characters. I came out initially thinking the women got short shrift, as Queen Linet and Julie didn’t seem to have a lot of meat on them. The more I thought about it, though, the more I realized that the few lines Linet has helped underscore how important they are, whether telling an increasingly difficult Billy that her feelings for him might not be the reason she is sticking around, or making the hard decision to ignore Billy’s orders and move camp after he is arrested. Julie really does get a raw deal, left on the porch of her shitty home crying, but that speaks more to Alan’s character.
I also realized Alan himself is pretty thinly sketched, depending a lot on pre-existing ideas and vibes of the Lancelot-type character for us to draw conclusions based on a few lines and furtive glances. Also, Angie the mechanic ends up being one of the most memorable and developed characters, so I think my initial assessment was overly critical. I was also delighted by the reveal of the lesbian knight as one of the bit players. The part I feel has aged the worst is the subplot that results in a late arriving Native American being treated as a bit of a non-character magical/mystical being. Most of that significance is assigned by Billy and not necessarily the movie itself, but the fact that he then follows Billy around and never has a line of dialogue does play into those kinds of tropes. I did also start to feel a bit of Return of the King-style fatigue as the film seemingly went beyond multiple possible end points. Once it got to the actual conclusion, I realized it was all building with purpose to that inevitable moment. The long coda made it that much more impactful, and helped give the film as a whole an epic feel (along with some final cheer-worthy moments along the way).
Knightriders feels like a movie made by someone with resources, time, and the goal of expressing or proving something to themselves more than they care about appealing to the masses. I couldn’t find any budget or box office information, and it seems the movie never got a wide theatrical release. This looked like an incredibly difficult movie to produce and shoot. Nearly the entire film takes place outdoors, frequently involving crowds or large groups of main characters, everyone has elaborate costumes and props, and there are tons of intense stunt sequences. Despite the obvious difficulties, the cast consistently deliver strong performances throughout and the movie looks great.
The movie's fictional subculture allows it to avoid many pitfalls that come with works about living life and/or creating with passion and integrity. Sometimes when an artist creates a work about making art itself, it can become myopic or go up its own ass. The artist’s purity and creativity take on almost holy significance, and even if it shows potential negative effects it has on people around them it ultimately values the creator’s self-expression over everything else. But this isn’t about traditionally respected or revered art forms, or even popular entertainment. They aren’t painting something that can hang in a museum, writing a hit song, or even staging a traditional play or movie. We aren’t told that some mediocre-looking work is inspiring rapturous responses in crowds or critics. It's weird and will never be fully understood or respected, even if it becomes profitable, and they are doing it for “some sort of spiritual fix” more than anything else. There is much debate in the film about how hard it is to live for art and ideals when you have to worry about the basics of survival. Many artists have the time and resources to make art because they come from money or comfort or benefit from those who do. On the flipside, some struggling people see success purely as a means to gain the money and comfort they lack. Knightriders acknowledges the struggle while still encouraging the characters and the viewer to try and find a way to live that sustains them beyond the money and attention of others.
It shows admiration for Billy’s ideals but also understands they are untenable and a little crazy. He ultimately finds a way to compromise just enough for others that will let his dream, his creation, live on through them, even if he himself has to keep “fighting the dragon.” That moment elevates the act of creative collaboration and community above the individual artist, with all their flaws and genius. This fucking movie is something else. Fittingly enough, thanks to the grind of daily work/life it has taken me a week to slowly put this review together, but I couldn’t stop thinking about the film throughout and had to express something about how it made me feel.
Knightriders is also one of the rare cases of a movie that lives up to its badass painted poster (by Boris Vallejo). Many 1980s movies had awesome posters or VHS covers painted by Vallejo, Frank Frazetta, and various imitators, but they usually ranged from making something in the movie look way cooler than it actually did to complete fabrications that didn’t depict the movie at all. This one is bang on. Now I am trying to figure out if I can squeeze another movie poster onto my wall.
Random note: When the knights say to bring out the “hacks” (the motorcycle-sidecars that allow the passenger to stand) I actually knew what they meant immediately because thanks to Mystery Science Theater 3000 I have seen the awful movie Sidehackers!
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