7 / 10
Dragonheart is the film with the best dragon performance in cinema history and a thoroughly average everything else around it. Rob Cohen directed. Dennis Quaid plays Bowen, a former knight of the old code who hunts dragons for a living after his pupil grew up to be a tyrant. Sean Connery voices Draco, the last dragon, who gave half his heart to the boy who grew up to be the tyrant and now has to figure out what to do about that. David Thewlis plays King Einon. Pete Postlethwaite plays Brother Gilbert, a monk who travels with Bowen. Dina Meyer plays the love interest. Julie Christie plays the queen.
The film made approximately one hundred and fifteen million dollars worldwide on a fifty-seven million dollar budget. It was a moderate commercial success and a financial disappointment given the production cost. The dragon effects, by Industrial Light & Magic, were nominated for an Academy Award and have aged remarkably well. The script is the limiting factor.
The Dragon
Sean Connery’s vocal performance as Draco is the foundation of the film. The character is a centuries-old dragon who has been carrying guilt over a single mistake for most of his long life. Connery plays him as a Scottish nobleman wearing reptilian skin. The dignity is real. The exhaustion is real. The decision to share his heart with a dying boy and watch the boy grow up to be a monster is the central tragedy and Connery understands the weight of it.
The ILM animation gives Connery’s vocal work a physical face. Draco’s expressions are subtle. He smiles. He grimaces. He looks tired. The combination of the animation and the voice produces a character who has more interior life than any of the human performers around him.
For Writers
A non-human character can carry a story if the writer treats them as a person rather than as a creature. Draco has a backstory, regrets, relationships, and goals. He is a character first and a dragon second. The lesson is that fantasy creatures need the same care as human characters. They cannot be impressive because they are large. They have to be interesting because they have specific lives. Spend the effort on their interior. The audience will accept anything if the interior is real.
The Human Plot
The human plot is the film’s problem. Dennis Quaid is fine but the script does not give him much to work with. Bowen is a stock disillusioned knight. The romance with Kara is functional but never finds its footing. The peasants Bowen and Draco fleece in their scam-hunting routine are funny but never become characters. The third-act revolt against the tyrant Einon has the shape of a satisfying climax without the specific weight that would have made it land.
David Thewlis as Einon is the most interesting human performance, but the role is structurally constrained. Einon has half a dragon’s heart in his chest. Killing Einon will kill Draco. The plot collapses into the inevitable question of whether Draco will accept his own death to end the tyrant. The audience can see this coming from the first reel. The film does not surprise.
For Writers
A predictable ending is acceptable if the journey to the ending is compelling. Dragonheart’s ending is signaled from the first act. The audience knows Draco will sacrifice himself. The middle does not do enough work to make the ending land harder. The lesson is that predictable endings need extraordinary middles. If the reader can guess the destination, the route has to be unexpectedly rich. Dragonheart’s route is too thin to redeem the predictable arrival.
The Climax
The climactic scene is the moment Draco gives up the rest of his heart so that killing him will kill the tyrant inside Einon. Bowen has to drive the knife. Draco accepts it. The film handles this scene with more grace than the rest of the runtime suggests it would. Connery’s vocal work in the final exchange is genuinely moving. The animation of Draco’s last moments is the production’s best work.
What follows after Draco’s death is conventional fantasy resolution. The peasants free the kingdom. Bowen wins the girl. Brother Gilbert composes a poem. The actual emotional weight of the ending is the loss of the dragon, and the film does not stay with that loss long enough.
For Writers
A film’s emotional weight is usually concentrated in one element. The film should respect that concentration in its final minutes. Dragonheart’s weight is the loss of Draco. The final scenes give the audience the conventional resolution beats and only briefly mourn the dragon. The lesson is to end where the weight is, not where the structural convention says to end. Genre conventions are not commandments. They are defaults you can override when the specific story requires it.
Craft Note
Rob Cohen directed. Charles Edward Pogue wrote, story by Pogue and Patrick Read Johnson. Dennis Quaid as Bowen. Sean Connery as the voice of Draco. David Thewlis as Einon. Pete Postlethwaite as Brother Gilbert. Dina Meyer as Kara. Julie Christie as Queen Aislinn. Industrial Light & Magic produced the dragon effects. Randy Edelman composed the score. Released May 1996. Approximately fifty-seven million dollar budget. One hundred and fifteen million worldwide gross. Academy Award nomination for Visual Effects.
The Verdict
7/10. The dragon is great. Everything else is okay. Sean Connery’s vocal work and ILM’s animation produce one of the best fantasy creatures ever filmed. The human script does not match. Worth watching for Draco. Skip if you need the rest of the film to be at the dragon’s level.
FAQ
How is the dragon animation?
Excellent for 1996 and still excellent thirty years later. ILM’s work on Draco was nominated for an Academy Award.
Did Sean Connery really voice the dragon?
Yes. He delivered most of his dialogue from the recording studio, with some sessions conducted while watching animation playback to time his delivery.
Are there sequels?
Yes. Several. None of them are good. The direct-to-video sequels lack Connery and most of the production craft of the original.
Is it a children’s film?
PG-13. The action sequences and the death scene are intense. Older children can handle it. Younger children may find Draco’s death upsetting.
How does it compare to other dragon films?
Dragonheart’s dragon is the best fantasy dragon in mainstream live-action cinema. Smaug in The Hobbit films is technically impressive. Toothless in How to Train Your Dragon is more lovable. Draco has the strongest character work.
Is Dennis Quaid any good?
Quaid is fine. The role does not give him much to work with. He is not the problem.
Should I watch this?
Yes, for the dragon. Manage expectations for the rest.