DragonHeart
Short description
DragonHeart is a fantasy adventure set in a distant past, when dragons still flew. A knight named Bowen trains a young prince, Einon, who is gravely wounded while fighting against his own father's tyranny. To save the boy, a dragon named Draco gives him part of his own heart. Einon grows into a cruel king, and Bowen, convinced that the dragon's gift poisoned his student, sets out to hunt down and destroy the last of the dragons. When he finally confronts Draco, Bowen learns that the two of them are bound together: killing the king would also mean the dragon's death. The film follows the uneasy partnership that grows between the knight and the creature as they turn against the ruler they both once served.
Rob Cohen directed the film, which followed his 1993 debut Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story and sits third in the list of his directed features, arriving between that film and Daylight the same year. Dennis Quaid plays Bowen, Sean Connery voices Draco, and David Thewlis plays King Einon, with Dina Meyer, Pete Postlethwaite and Jason Isaacs in supporting roles. Charles Edward Pogue and Patrick Read Johnson wrote the screenplay, and Raffaella De Laurentiis produced.
Released in May 1996, the film cost about 57 million dollars and took roughly 115 million dollars worldwide, a modest return against its budget. On IMDb it holds 6.4/10 from around 106,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.6/10 from over two thousand votes. A critics' rating of 5.6/10 from 29 reviews places it below the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Excerpts from the musical theme of the film “Dragonheart,” “To The Stars,” were used in numerous trailers for other films and even during the broadcast of the 1997 Academy Awards ceremony. The film's main musical theme was also used as an intro during the American broadcast of the 2004 Olympic Games.
- Dennis Quaid broke a finger in a fight with David Thulis and spent the last two weeks of filming in a cast.
- Liam Neeson was initially considered for the role of Bowden, but the idea was abandoned, as they decided he wouldn't be convincing as an action hero.
- Over 200 photographs of Sean Connery with various facial expressions were taken, and these pictures, along with a recording of his voice, helped in creating the image of Draco.
- Director Rob Cohen wanted the fighting style of the hero played by Dennis Quaid to have an Eastern influence, so Kiyoshi Yamasaki was invited to train him.
- Filming in Slovakia took 5.5 months, and post-production took 15 months.
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