6.8 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Knightriders is the story of a troupe of motorcyclists who are members of a traveling Renaissance Faire. They move from town to town staging full medieval jousting tournaments with combatants in suits of armor, wielding lances, battle-axes, maces and broadswords. The spectacle of this magnificent pageant soon garners national attention much to the dismay of the current king of this Camelot.
Starring: Ed Harris, Tom Savini, Gary Lahti, Amy Ingersoll, Patricia TallmanAdventure | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.84:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono
English SDH
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
With the recent mass media coverage of the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy, there have been a lot of references to the iconic Lerner and Loewe musical Camelot. Camelot opened on Broadway in 1960, just a few weeks after Kennedy had won the election by a razor thin margin. The musical’s depiction of a young (and glamorous) leader with an equally young (and even more glamorous) wife ushering in an era of peace, respect and newfound humanism seemed to mirror what was happening in the White House. After Kennedy’s horrific murder, the title song’s already melancholic stanza “Don’t let it be forgot, that once there was a spot, for one brief shining moment that was known as Camelot,” seemed to be a fitting epitaph for the heart wrenchingly curtailed time Kennedy served in office. The Kennedy mythos helped to reinvigorate interest in Arthurian legends, and even though the 1967 film of Camelot was a spectacular bomb (by then the country’s mood had changed significantly from the hopeful days of the early sixties), an abiding fascination with all things Round Table seemed to have developed an indelible hold on the American (and perhaps even the global) imagination. It probably goes without saying that none of the recent Kennedy assassination coverage deigned to mention the rather odd 1981 George A. Romero film Knightriders, a film which, despite its patently bizarre premise (which will be detailed below), concerns in its own way the disconnect between ancient Arthurian ideals and the environment of the modern day world.
Knightriders is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Shout! Factory with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.84:1. I'm not sure if Shout! utilized the same master that was used for the British release by Arrow which was reviewed by my colleague Dr. Svet Atanasov, but a cursory comparison of the screenshots suggest that if it wasn't, there's no appreciable difference between the two. Anyone who owned the old Anchor Bay DVD of this title is in for a rather startling surprise, as what was once a washed out, dirty brown looking outing is suddenly relatively alive with color and a much sharper, better defined image. Some viewers may initially freak out by the really soft opening shots (see screenshot 6), but these are part of an extended optical featuring the film's credits. Once that element is passed, things improve markedly, and the rest of the presentation, while not razor sharp by today's standards, is naturally filmic and clear looking. There's virtually no damage at all in the elements utilized for this transfer, and there are likewise no obvious compression artifacts. This is another Shout! release that does have a somewhat finer grain structure than might be expected, but the opticals especially show that no overly aggressive denoising has been done to this release.
Knightriders's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track (delivered via DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0) probably won't have the kick that many might expect from a film with such ubiquitous motorcycles, but Romero himself complains that there simply wasn't enough money to do a really thorough recording and foley job on the film. That said, what's here is certainly adequate, if not quite as forceful as might be hoped under optimal conditions. Dialogue is cleanly presented, and while the roar of the motorcycles never really provides a floorboard rattling experience, it's relatively palpable at times. Special mention must be made of the really wonderful score by Donald Rubinstein, which sounds great in this lossless format.
I'm not immune to Knightriders' flaws, but there's something so inherently distinctive (some may prefer the word bizarre) about the film that I've always had a certain soft spot in my heart for it. Personally I think things would have been improved with some fairly liberal trimming, and perhaps a bit more emphasis on the Billy-Morgan dispute, but Romero offers one of his most unusual productions here, and fans of the writer-director really should check this film out, as it is about as far away from zombie-land as it's possible to get. This Blu-ray boasts solid technical merits and comes with excellent supplements. Recommended.
Retro VHS Collection
1984
1982
1981
Ator l'invincibile
1982
Le avventure dell'incredibile Ercole
1985
2020
2018
1995
1982
Kung Fu Cannibals
1982
El espanto surge de la tumba
1973
1982
Special Edition
1986
Terror Beach
1975
1986
I Come in Peace
1990
1983
2005
Phantom of the Subway | Standard Edition
1976
2017