We’re off to slay the dragon, the magical dragon of Urland: Dragonslayer (1981)

After last week’s post on Ladyhawke, I'm going even further back for this next movie: 1981.

It is incredible to me that I was just a bit older than my son when I watched this film. Five years before I played D&D, I had absolutely no concept of the game. I might have seen gamebooks in a bookstore, and I knew about Tolkien from my family, but I hadn't read the books yet. I believe I had already seen Excalibur that year, though I can’t recall whether I saw Clash of the Titans before or after—the exact order is fuzzy in my mind. Regardless, 1981 was a stellar year for fantasy films!

I’ll write columns on the other two eventually, but let’s talk about Dragonslayer.

If you haven’t seen the film, here is a succinct summary of the plot, with spoilers for a 45-year-old movie! In the kingdom of Urland, a young apprentice named Galen takes up his master's mission to slay an ancient dragon after the old sorcerer seemingly dies. Arriving in the kingdom, Galen uncovers a rigged lottery where the king sacrifices local girls to the beast while shielding the daughters of the elite. When an initial attempt to seal the dragon's cave fails, Galen must venture directly into the lair armed with a magical amulet and a specially forged spear. The conflict culminates when his master returns for a final stand, leading to a massive aerial battle and the dragon's death. This victory effectively seems to mark the end of the era of magic, leaving Galen to navigate a world where the old powers might have faded away. Or did they?

You can read the movie’s Wikipedia entry if you want to dive in further. Here is the trailer:

I remember being completely amazed by the dragon (which I had forgotten was named Vermithrax Pejorative until writing this!). It looked incredible. Today, with the CGI dragons we see in Game of Thrones or The Hobbit, the effects might look dated to some, but in 1981, they blew my mind. It was the best practical effects dragon I had ever seen.

Look at this battle!

This was my first introduction to so many common gaming tropes as a kid! It was my first memory of virgins being sacrificed to appease an evil force. The idea of a corrupt king sacrificing his subjects to protect the elite shocked me. The character Valerian, a woman disguised as a man to avoid danger, was another concept I first encountered here.

Honestly, the movie was a little complex for eight-year-old me. I got the gist of it but missed a lot of the subtext. I was also expecting a mighty, sword-swinging warrior to fight the dragon, so the characters being sorcerers was a bit of a letdown at the time. Regardless, the final battle was great.

My appreciation for the movie really grew when I rewatched it later on VCR and cable TV. It has so many elements I would eventually find in D&D and other TTRPGs: sorcerers and their apprentices, magical amulets and weapons, a shield made of dragon scales, and magicians returning to life to fulfill a prophecy.

This dragon was not a traditional D&D dragon. It wasn't a highly intelligent, speaking creature; it was a pure force of nature. Still, whenever I thought about the sheer power and majesty of a dragon, this is what came to mind. Vermithrax Pejorative directly inspired some dragons in a region of my homebrew worlds that are just unstoppable beasts of pure destruction.

I did not remember the soundtrack of the movie at all! I put it on while writing this and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. You can listen to it on Spotify or on YouTube.

Something I did not know until I was researching for this column was that SPI published a board game based on the movie in 1981. There is a Wikipedia page for the game, as well as a Board Game Geek entry. The map of Urland below is from that Board Game Geek page.

As far as I can tell, the movie is currently only available to rent on Prime Video and Apple TV. The effects are from 1981, but if you can appreciate that, it is absolutely worth a watch and might inspire your next session!