Wednesday 13 January 2021

DnD Cinema Appendix N




Catching up with what I call Appendix N Cinema that helped form the 80s fantasy look D&D

Silent stuff like Nosferatu, der golem and some of those Russian dragon fighting films or killing german sword order are worth a mention.

Older Harryhausen films like original Sinbad, king kong and gave us some monsters

70s & 80s was the shiz though we had
1 Beastmaster
2 Sword & the Sorcerer
3 Dragonslayer
4 Legend
5 Sinbad Golden VOyage
6 Sinbad Eye of the tiger
7 Lady Hawke
8 Excalibre
9 Conan
10 Conan the Destroyer
11 Red Sonja
12 Krull
13 Hawk the Slayer
14 Willow
15 Labyrinthe
16 Dark Crystal

There are some terrible barbarian ones im not including or have never seen outside a video case in a rural vhs vcr rental in 80s

Im not touching anything from post 80s here cept...

Id Add some good Psuedo History Films
Flesh & Blood
The Last Valley
The Seventh Seal
Troy
Seven Samura
Kingdom of Heaven
Gladiator
Red Cliff
Centurian
master & Commander: Far Side of the World
All the Sharpe's Rifle series/films
Baahubali the beginning and the conclusion films
Ran
Throne of Blood

Sure I will think of more

300 is nasty trash and slander on democracy so nope
Oddly I like the Noah Film - weird gnostic post apocalypse
Lots of giant bug and lizard movies and b sf helped too

Suggestions welcome

9 comments:

  1. I wonder how much of ~80s-90s era games spun up by teens were influenced by cartoon series - I would definitely count He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Galtar and the Golden Lance and Thundarr the Barbarian as inspirations, even before expanding out to steal ideas from other less directly related shows like Mysterious Cities of Gold. Certainly I was spending a lot more time watching those types of shows than any movie.

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  2. Neverending Story (1984)

    The Last Unicorn (1982)

    Black Death (2010)

    Flying Swords of Dragon Gate (2011) -- this is the most D&D film I've ever seen

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    1. neverending story yes
      lots of animation we missed here
      a whole post on animation possible
      even toys that were influential

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  3. Those are good ones. I am probably the only D&D grognard who thinks Hawk the Slayer is too awful to watch. But then again, I would add 13th Warrior to this list as well as Kull the Conqueror. No accounting for taste, or lack thereof.

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    1. i think plenty verge on terrible and helped nobody take genre seriously

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  4. I would like to add Spartacus: Blood and Sand. I understand that it is trashy, exploitative and only got made because 300 performed well at the box office. And I don't care. The characters are consistant, it scratches the sword and sandal itch real good, and Marcus Licinius Crassus is an excellent final villain.

    Also I would like to second The 13th Warrior. I need those missing 20 minutes, but I'm worried they might ruin an otherwise nearly perfect film.

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  5. Monty Python & the Holy Grail - it has certainly inspired many quotes at many tables over the years, if not the same level of silliness

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    Replies
    1. It has influenced gaming but not swords and sorcery

      i was raised on python and goons and mostly people repeating gags verbatim has mostly sucked out all the comedy especially people who don't get joke only the signifier of the joke

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