Franklin J. Schaffner was a very versatile director, but the films that earned him a place in film history books were “larger-than-life” epics like Planet of the Apes, Patton and Papillon. His penultimate film, 1987 historic adventure Lionheart, was supposed to be in the same league with those great hits, but its fate turned out to be quite different. Due to complicated set of business and other circumstances, Lionheart failed to got proper cinema distribution and was, for all practical purposes, relegated to “straight-to-video” status, ultimately making it unusually obscure title by someone with such high reputation as Schaffner.
The plot begins in Northern France during late 11th Century. Protagonist, played by Eric Stoltz, is Robert Nerra, young nobleman who has just been knighted and dreams of joining Third Crusade led by English king Richard the Lionheart. His father and suzerain Simon (played by Bruce Purchase) has different ideas and wants Robert to join him in campaign against neighbouring warlord. During the chaotic battle Richard’s beloved uncle and mentor Charles de Monfort (played by Nicholas Clay) gets killed and Robert, out of fear and disgust, leaves battlefield. He stumbles on Michael (played by Dexter Fletcher) and Blanche (played by Nicola Cowper), duo of renegade travelling entertainers, with whom he seeks shelter in nearby monastery and learns about Black Prince (played by Gabriel Byrne), disgruntled former crusader who turned to hunting down children and selling them as slaves to the same Muslims he had been fighting against, which is his personal vengeance against God. The band finds group of orphaned children in the city underground and Robert decides to protect them during the journey aimed at joining King Richard and his crusade.
Lionheart had some very respected names involved in production, which included Francis Ford Coppola and his sister Talia Shire. Schaffner used locations in Hungary and Portugal, which allowed use of medieval buildings for locations, as well as large number of extras from local orphanages, as well as young Hungarian circus artists. This allowed Lionheart, for the most part, to look like genuine historical epic, although cinematography by Alec Mills is at times too grey and not appealing for what was supposed to be recreation of interesting historical period. Schaffner, who had previous experience with medieval epics in The War Lord two decades earlier, directs effective combat scenes. But the best thing about this film and for some the only thing this film is known is the musical score by Schaffner’s friend and long-time collaborator Jerry Goldsmith, which ranks about the most effective and popular in his long and prolific career.
Unfortunately, such resources have been used for clearly subpar script. Dutch writer Menno Meyjes originally envisioned trilogy of film depicting with Crusades, with second part being dedicated to Richard the Lionheart’s famous opponent Saladin and depicting the era from Muslim point of view. The main inspiration for the plot was Children’s Crusade, the event that actually happened few decades later and had less happier ending than the one depicted in this film. There are, however, many details that would enrage scholars of medieval history, like Richard the Lionheart being named as “Richard II” instead of “Richard I”. While the lack of historical accuracy can be forgiven in what is in essence work of fiction, some other sloppy details can’t. This is mainly due to poor characterisation of Robert’s followers who appear too briefly to be properly introduced, and the obligatory romance between Robert and Blanche is ruined with lack of chemistry between Stoltz and Cowper. Another interesting character, tomboyish noblewoman and aspiring knight Mathilda (played by Deborah Moore) is introduced too late. Film has serious issues with pacing and simply runs too long, especially for younger viewers for whom it was obviously made. Casting also leaves much to be desired, with Stoltz being bland and uncharismatic and easily overshadowed by Byrne who plays very complex and believable villain. Adequate direction and Goldsmith’s music make this film watchable, but not enough to suppress disappointment among those who expected something more from director of Schaffner’s reputation.
RATING: 5/10 (++)
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Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/78028-lionheart Critic: AA
