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1981’s Dragonslayer is a somewhat forgotten fantasy film, mostly because the most interesting thing about it is the dragon, whose design has been so influential that pretty much every dragon since then has been at least partially based on it, from Reign of Fire to The Hobbit to Game of Thrones.
The biggest problem with the film, for me, is that it takes too damn long to get to the dragon itself and none of the human characters are particularly compelling. This edit aims to speed things up a bit, trim some of the more annoying bit with your protagonists to hopefully make us care about them more.
Most of the cuts are at the beginnng. A lot of them are micro-cuts here and there to improve the sluggish pace, but others are just plain unnecessary. Much like Marcia Lucas realised in the early cuts of Star Wars, we don’t need nearly as many scenes with Galen at the start before he takes up his quest. I’ve also trimmed a few instances of Valerian being a dummy. She’s an interesting character so I’d rather audiences be rooting for her rather than rolling their eyes at her.
The theatrical cut was 1hr 49min, mine is 1hr 37min (although I may try shaving off a few more minutes after test-screening it a few times with my classes). This is for my ESL students so it has hardcoded English subtitles. An ESL reader adaptation of the film is also included.
The movie is in the same folder as all my other edits. If you don’t already have the link, please send me a Private Message. As always, suggestions are welcome.