In honor of George Romero\u2019s passing I\u2019ll NOT run a full review of his 1981 motorcycle jousting renn faire movie, Knightriders.
I\u2019ll just note that it makes you realize that the guy didn\u2019t consider himself \u201cmaster of zombie horror George Romero\u201d but \u201cmaster of small group dynamics under pressure George Romero\u201d.
I\u2019ll also say that it\u2019s a better example than Xanadu or Heaven\u2019s Gate of how the \u201870s auteur-personal \u201cNew Hollywood\u201d could go off the rails precisely because it\u2019s more intimate and smaller-scale.
The actual \u201cmotorcycle jousting\u201d bit is mostly overlooked, with atrocious stuntwork, Romero says he just tossed the idea in there to get the movie funded. To the extent there\u2019s a throughline at all, it\u2019s the king/troupe leader (Ed Harris in INSANE full-on Method scenery-chewing mode) trying to cleave to some sense of countercultural authenticity in the face of pressures to commercialize.
This is transparently about George\u2019s own quest; if no one tells the king that he\u2019s mated his vision to a flatly absurd style of popcorn entertainment, it\u2019s apparently cause that never occurred to him.
I say TO THE EXTENT there\u2019s a throughline, because the film starts to become near an anthology hamhandedly exploring troupe members\u2019 interiority through disjointed and honestly \u201870s-tropaic mini plots. Like, for a while it looks like \u201ctrouble with a local sheriff\u201d will be a coherent plot but then it just jags into some weird Billy Jack/First Blood thing with him wailing on some second-tier character while a handcuffed Ed Harris emotes, AND THEN drops that entirely for two new third-tier characters doing a rushed \u201ccoming to terms with your sexuality\u201d arc and ONLY LATER, several false endings later, does Harris show up out of nowhere at a fast food restaurant to beat the sheriff up to patrons\u2019 cheers, and then Easy Rider-style drive his motorcycle into a big rig with the mute Native American boy who was possibly also his eagle spirit animal that he\u2019d been seeing in dreams?
And part of this vision quest was aided by the troupe\u2019s doctor, a black voodoo shaman who speaks in Shakespearean jive? (In the commentary Romero is puzzled why Morgan Freeman, fresh off The Electric Company, was insulted to be pitched the role). Or the plot where some local girl latches on to a rider and then it comes out that her dad is abusive and then rather than take her along the rider drops her off at home crying at night because\u2026??? He\u2019s a rebel, he can\u2019t be tied down, it\u2019s never really made clear? And that\u2019s just the end of that plot
Oh also the opening scene fixes on Steven King as a hotdog-eating yokel, that never goes ANYWHERE
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