Knightriders
With good reason, most talk of George Romero focuses on his Living Dead movies, I've no complaint with that, they are all fine movies (particularly Day, which I think is an underrated masterpiece of gore and social commentary) however a special place in my heart will always go to Knightriders, a movie about a jousting motorbike troupe, but much more than that it is a movie about the ideals of Arthurian mythology, the choice of honour over wealth, and a thinly veiled autobiography of George and his place in the Hollywood system. Choosing to live outside of the mainstream George always had total control over his projects, from final cut, to casting choices, to the message he wanted to put across. Likewise, Ed Harris, playing the King Arthur like leader of the troupe, chooses to live this life, not for the glamour and gasoline but for the chance to make a difference, to be able to live his own life, not just be what society expects. His rag tag group of followers, also wish to live this existence, but some are drawn by the promise of top billing and wealth(A nice villainous turn here by make up legend Tom Savini), they venture of to larger shows with better bikes, fancier weapons, where they are the stars, eventually they learn what George knows, that that life offers nothing but hollow rewards, but destiny takes us to many strange places. Unloved by fans of Romero's Zombie movies expecting more entrails and misunderstood by most others as a weird aberration on his resume, Knightriders suffers if anything from it's long run time, but this is a minor quibble, a large cast of mainly Romero regulars make this feel a family affair, and a wonderfully medieval score by Donald Rubenstein is the icing on the cake.
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