Krull

This film was one of those 4 or 5 people in the car kind of things. I think it was me, Scott and Francie (brother and sister), Suzie (I went to school with her older brother), and maybe Devina (Suzie's friend) maybe not, it was quite a while ago and I've slept since then (for what it's worth, Francie doesn't remember it at all, although Scott seems to -- sort of). I do remember that for some reason we took Scott & Francie's car, but I drove (an old Ford Fairmont with bad brakes and iffy power steering), and we went to the Avon to see the afternoon showing of Krull. (ed. note: this happened a very, very long time ago, and it's possible that we all went to see "Metalstorm, the Destruction of Jared Syn" - I can't be sure this long after.)

Krull is a story of a young prince (Ken Marshall) from one group who is supposed to marry a young princess (Lysette Anthony) from another group, in order to end a long running war between the two groups. Oh yeah, there's also some prophecy (isn't there always) that says they'll conquer a planet, and their son will conquer a universe. Oddly enough, for a pair destined to produce a universe conquering son, the technology level of these people seems to be limited to swords and magic (thank goodness for those teleportation spells). The lovely couple are in the middle of the marriage ceremony (something involving fire and water) when The Beast (not just any old beast mind you, but THE Beast) sends his troops in to break things up, and steal the girl (seems The Beast wants in on some of this prophecy business). Both fathers are killed, leaving the young couple as the planet's rulers, so Ken has to go find Lysette and The Beast's magic traveling mountain. With his faithful mentor (Freddie Jones, without the silly Thufir Hawatt makeup he wore in Dune) he sets out to find the Glave. The Glave is a 5 bladed switchblade, that looks like an asterisk, and you throw like a boomerang. After finding the Glave, a bumbling magician (who can only do magic to himself), a bunch of outlaws (who after being promised almost certain death, decide to give up the easy life of crime and go with him anyway), and a Cyclops, they go off searching for Lysette (who's busy telling The Beast that she likes him, but really doesn't think they should get married). After a visit to a blind wizard fails to divulge the location of the magic traveling mountain, they go visit the Widow of the Web (Francesca Annis, in a much less attractive role than the one she had in Dune). Seems, the widow isn't really a widow, because she's married to Freddie (they just don't see much of each other anymore), and she tells him where to go. Unfortunately, Freddie uses all of his time to bring the news to Ken, and with his dying breath tells Ken where to go. So Ken and the traveling freak show find the mountain, (where most of them die), rescue the princess Lysette, kill The Beast, and live (or die as the case may be) happily ever after.

Among the actors in this film, Jones and Annis go on to star in Dune, Robbie Coltrane (an outlaw) goes on to star as a Nun on the Run (with Eric Idle) and Cracker (on A&E), Liam Neeson (another outlaw) plays Irish in High Spirits, German in Shindler's List, Scottish in Rob Roy, and small town American in Leap Of Faith. David Battley (the magician with the bad aim) was in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory before this. Anthony stars in Playboy and watches her career stagnate (her most recent appearance was in the remake of Trilogy of Terror, she had the Karen Black role), And Marshall? I've never seen him since. They made an arcade game based on this movie, which I thought strange, since very few people seemed to have actually seen it. It's a strange blend of fantasy and science fiction, so if you like that sort of thing, go ahead and give it a try.