The story about courageous knight and a dragon is a particular representation of how dreams come true. In this respect the vivid details of the story which leads everyone to the field of fairy tale are depicted with the purpose to show the reality of things. The paper is devoted to the idea maintained in the movie, i.e. to show the unique and inevitable nature of a man’s heart able to struggle against obstacles of life. The symbol of the dragon is disclosed in the book and in the movie with a particular feature of kindness and ability to help. It is really significant to work out the question whether the protagonist of the story characterizes the individual going together with the society or not. Moreover, it is necessary to point out the way the main character struggles for his place under the sun according to the idea of how one can endear the dragon’s heart.
The movie itself was launched in the year 1996 when the blockbusters were attacking the media space of ordinary viewers. In this case the idea of making something unusual and original in the details of the performance was successful for Rob Cohen and his team. In fact, when every single viewer was attached to having more sensations spoken about on TV, Cohen made a real fairy tale so splendid and interesting not only for children but for a great audience of adults sharing the idea of their childhood and interesting stories about brave knights and kings of England.
Dragonheart is an outstanding medieval story about the knight (Dennis Quaid), the dragon and their adventures in urge for making the evil king defeated and destructed. The noble and rather good desire is outlined in terms of centuries-long traditions for describing the courageous deeds of knights and their adventures throughout the continent (Gibson 94). It is not surprising that for the principal photography the filmmakers chose the splendor of Slovakian sceneries in their picturesque similarity to the time when wars and endeavors of knights ere considered with forests, hills, mountains being all around.
For Dragonheart, Universal’s medieval tale of the last dragon slayer (Dennis Quaid) and the last dragon (voiced by Sean Connery) teaming up against the tyrant king (David Thewlis) of a scourge-ridden England, producer Raffaella De Laurentiis’ castle-dotted country of choice was…Slovakia (Chase para. 1).
The story is very similar to the real relationships between people, because it deals with the values of human beings being entire in all times. One thousand years ago until present day’s human beings are still the same. Two main ideas are raised in the film: friendship, and honor. Honor in all times was considered with the ability of people, men in particular, to struggle against evil for the purpose of making justice apparent for everyone. The ideals of humane approach are outlined when speaking about honor. Thereupon,.a man without honor is helpless to recommend himself, as one being deserved better destiny. The ideal of friendship is presupposed with the reliability and capacity of two or more people to cope with different situations conjointly. When such cooperation overgrows into ideals of devotion and sacrifice for the higher idea, then it is significant to say about the genuine nature of friendship. In other words, in the story the idea of friendship is presupposed in its transition from opposite direction into real collaboration based on the moral. The knight and the dragon were from the very beginning the sworn enemies. They were fighting until understood their similarities in characters and perspectives which were worth doing right away. The thing is that the evil powers stood against them, and there was no another way for it than to straightforwardly fight.
Fight and brevity are still trite in contemporary society due to the peoples’ inactive attitude to the social relationships. The most of the mankind are rather fit with the amenities for life and have no problem in making efforts for the higher destination of them in life. People seem to be misfit with the ideals for life. Their participation in social relations is so little or unapparent at all. Here comes the main idea of the story which just reminds the viewers about the importance of fortitude. The knight is rather self-confident and purposeful character being an etalon for those who are helpless in making solutions for problems (Ebert 63). The last dragon and the last slayer – they both are unique in their destinies and destinations for life. On the other hand, to win the devotion of dragon the knight should follow the direct line of giving evidence of his sustainability and willingness to fight together against the evil forces.
One more point to understand the relation of the story to contemporary soci9ety is in its plot: the knight tries to make great pains for break the power of the evil and tyrant king. For this purpose, however, the knight did not start finding the army of people, but found the last dragon. Here presents the qualitative approach of the main character. He decided to resolve the problem more rationally. In modern society, people do not always take into account that the purposeful intentions on making improvements are better to reach due to the qualitative approach. In the story the main point is concentrated on the person of the dragon and its condemned destiny because of having shared his heart with a prince who became afterwards a representative of tyranny. Thus, the play of Sean Connery discovers the experienced and rather persuasive attitude of the dragon toward teacher Bowen:
Just so, the film turns out just to be a vehicle for the special effects and Sean Connery’s humorous interpretation of the dragon. Connery makes the dragon the only really likeable (or understandable) character in this film (Hardison para. 5).
In fact, Dragonheart concentrates more glimpses at its relation toward how people were fighting for freedom and justice being within the domain of their direct activities. In this respect the story is peculiar for its relation to the Brave Heart with Mel Gibson (Millar 18). The social affairs and its resolving are identified in both movies. Hence, in Dragonheart and in Brave Heart the relation toward the contemporary society is enclosed in the urge of main characters to maintain freedom and justice evaluated with peoples’ desire for changes and improvements in it.
The romance idea of the character points out that really Bowen searches for balance in everything and in the state power, in particular. This search of teacher Bowen is underlined with particular shaping of the plot. Moreover, the brevity of the knight is also concerned with the magnificence of the dragon. Here comes their primordial point on success. The vents lead to the actual breakdown of evil prince. However, the story seems to have no ending afterwards due to a hint on entire nature of such attitudinal frameworks of main characters which should be projected on ordinary people for them to take a pattern. Bowen and the dragon are implied in the plot and in their coloring, as the most optimal representation of positive characters evaluated (as of the dragon) even from initially negative observation of some of them (Crouch 51). The proverb says: “The devil is not as black as he is painted.” Thus, the story evaluates that peoples’ biases make them inappropriate for finding out solutions. Only a dominant idea of being delicate even with the most dangerous, from the first sight, persons or situations regards the prevalence within individuals.
The last existing dragon is referred to as the last opportunity or chance for Bowen to turn circumstances to their fair circle (New York Magazine 142). In other words, the dragon is a symbol of a decision implemented in practice, as I think. Actually I do really observe this story with a mere extent of irony and reliability in comparison to nowadays. Here the vital problems are described with reference to medieval times, so that to make it easier for a viewer to understand. Summing up, I think that the romance idea in the story is accompanied with the concepts of brevity, courage and devotion of one man for the general purpose of all. Thereupon, teacher Bowen is a great example of how an individual should correctly evaluate the situation and his/her approach to it.
Works cited
Chase, Donald. Years of the Dragon. 1996. Web.
Cohen, Rob. Dragonheart. Movie. 1996.
Crouch, Tanja. One hundred careers in film and television. New York: Barron’s Educational Series, 2003.
Ebert, Roger. Questions for the Movie Answer Man. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing, 1997.
Gibson, Jayel. Dragon Queen: An Ancient Mirrors Tale. Austin, Texas: BookPros, LLC, 2007.
Hardison, Jonathan B. Dragonheart Review. (jbh2m AT sunny DOT urich DOT edu) 1996. Web.
Millar, John. “I’d Put My Shirt on Independence Day.” Daily Record (Glasgow, Scotland) 1996: 18.
New York Magazine. ‘Movies’. 1996.