Knightriders
Director: George A. Romero
Come on. It's a fake; it's all a fake. They try to make it look tough.
They try to make it look dangerous. – Hoagie Man
See magic ain't got nothing to do with organs and glands and busted
necks. Magic got to do with the soul,
man. Only the soul's got destiny. –Merlin
Don't forget to pick up a helmet. It's the thing that looks like your
head, only it's got a chinstrap. –Tuck
You gotta have guts to do what we do baby. That's basic number one. –Rocky
There can only be one king, Morgan. –Alan
What the Netflix envelope told me about this one:
Billy (Ed Harris) leads a group of traveling performers who portray knights on motorcycles – an act that's quickly falling apart due to personal problems with members of the group, including Billy himself, who is beginning to confuse his shows with reality. As Billy loses control, cast members fall away from the troupe one by one, leading Billy on a quest to redeem himself and reunite the group – a mission that might lead to his own demise.
As I watch these 30@30 movies, I keep my computer open to a blank Word doc
to capture the quotes I like and to record a few notes as things catch my eye
or make me think. For this particular movie, I ended up with a lot of
one-sentence observations that did me more or less no good as I tried to come up
with a viewpoint for this post. Let me share a few:
- Stephen King made a cameo as "Hoagie Man" (according to the credits), a spectator at the first battle! Oh, "Hoagie Man's Wife" was played by Stephen King's own wife, Tabitha.
- Brother Blue (Merlin) is apparently best known as a storyteller. I could see that.
- Showing the camaraderie among the actors and crew after the show is over is a nice touch.
- I didn't expect this movie to cover the issue of being gay, but it just did!
- Billy went to jail with Bagman. And holy shit they beat up Bagman!
- Domestic violence, too? This movie covers a lot more than I thought it would!
- In the end… is Billy left without a crown AND without a queen? Linet belongs to Alan? And then Billy leaves altogether? And with the Black Bird apparently…
- Billy got hit by a truck! What the…
So I could talk about Stephen King or Brother Blue, homosexuality or
domestic violence, police brutality, camaraderie, black birds or death by
truck. But, really, none of those topics would really suit the movie.
The movie had an odd premise: a group of traveling motorcyclists
dressing and acting as King Arthur and his court experience their own sort of
familial drama. It's a movie about the dynamics of a group – there is always a
leader and there is typically someone else who wants to become the leader – and
about loyalty. It's about choosing sides and choosing friends. I guess maybe
it's even about forgiving a friend who wrongs you.
Morgan – a character, by the way, that I despised from the first moment he
popped up onscreen – breaks away from the troupe in pursuit of personal fame
and riches. He also abandons his on-again/off-again girlfriend mechanic in
pursuit of a chicer, more sophisticated snake of a woman. And yet, when he
returns to the troupe, both Billy and Angie accept him back. I assume they
think he's a changed man; but if you ask me, he'll take off again as soon as
something shinier comes along! That part of the movie – lesson in forgiveness
that it may have been intended – annoyed me.
I didn't feel Morgan deserved forgiveness or earned their trust. He was
still slimy and dirty and it always seemed he had one scheme or another going
on. I suppose if I read what I wrote above – the part about this being a
family-like group – it makes sense. Your brother, sister, mother, father, etc.
often gets the benefit of the doubt, over and over again. With family members,
you tend to accept their faults and overlook their wrongdoings in your
unconditional love for them. And if Morgan were my brother, perhaps I'd have
forgiven him too… even though he doesn't deserve it! Maybe it was a flaw on the writer or director's part for not making me as the viewer connect enough with the good qualities living inside Morgan's character. Or maybe it's my fault for overlooking them.
And then there's the ending. Billy leaves the troupe – after crowning
Morgan as his successor – with the Indian who represents the black bird in his
dreams, and he seeks out the cop who beat up Bagman. After giving him a
thrashing, Billy begins his contemplative ride off into the sunset…
or so I'd thought. He seems quite out of it (presumably because of his injury)
and is killed by a truck crashing into him. Just like that… cut to the funeral
scene. I understand it and yet I don't particularly like it. I get that, after
he has moved on from his art, his passion, his life, there's really nowhere
else for him to go, and nothing else for him to do other than ride off into
that ETERNAL sunset. Still, I couldn't help but feel he deserved a better end.
My takeaway: Sometimes forgiveness among friends is something you can
only understand from the inside. And never ride a motorcycle while injured down
the middle of the road, even if you THINK there are no trucks nearby!
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