UKC

so someone forawded me a link to Krull on youtube, and i thought I would watch it for the first time since I was a kid...

Good cheesy fun, with surprisingly high production values in parts. Plot makes no sense whatsoever, but then they rarely do in that kind of film.

The one thing I couldn't get over was that although they made excellent use of the Dolomites for background scenery porn they kept referring to them as "The Granite Mountains"!

In reply to davidbeynon:

Oh, the joys of travelling mattes ...

In reply to davidbeynon:

Is that the film where a character disappears into a swamp and a sinister replacement emerges, designed to trick the rest of the party? I was creeped out by that scene as a child.

In reply to davidbeynon:




Loved it as a kid. Still enjoy it to this day. Bernie Bresslaw's Cyclops gets me every time.

In reply to Alyson:

That's the one.

In reply to davidbeynon:

I spent quite a few months in the vicinity of the Black Fortress, and had the occasional drink with Colwyn and Ynyr. Quite good fun.

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

How big was the model they used for that? The level of detail suggested that it was quite large.

In reply to davidbeynon:

I don't remember seeing the model for that (because we were very busy the whole time in the cutting rooms) but I did get to visit most of the sets.

In reply to davidbeynon:
Krull is awesome, I must have watched it a dozen times between 1988 and 1990 or so
Yes it is about half an hour too long, padded out with unrelenting "travelling somewhere" scenes, and as you say, it makes very little sense (and Lindsay Crouse's overdub of Lysette Anthony's voice is pretty rotten) and the leading man is a bit wooden, BUT its production values are pretty neat and it look gorgeous, has a great score, a variety of interesting characters (it's very good scriptwriting when dividing the action amongst that number of characters doesn't lose the attention span of a 12-year-old Straggler), and a whole spectrum of acting talent ranging from RSC leads all the way down to Tucker out of Grange Hill

I identified mostly with Ergo the Magnificent, of course. Still do. Forever frustrated by my failure to live up to my own ambitions

I think Gordon Stainforth worked on.....oh hang on....!

In reply to Blue Straggler:
It is a lot of fun, and I think I might actually be Ergo the Magnificent

I realised the granite mountains thing actually makes sense in context. Hide in the Dolomites, tell everyone we are going to the Granite Mountains. They will never find us!

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Great to hear that it worked for the 12-year old Straggler (Gosh that makes me feel old.) I think that's the most glowing 'review' of Krull I've ever read! It's v strange how working on a movie changes one's perception of it. There's no correlation between the experience and the finished work. Some movie making experiences are great and the film's crap, and some the exact reverse. Or some, a few, the experience is great and the film's great. I guess on Krull those special effects went on so long - one of the things I had to do was chase them up the whole time, they were so behind schedule - that I got pissed off with it in the end. Best part for me was getting to know the composer, James Horner, and music editor Bob Badami.

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

I thought the transformation effect was really rather good myself. Far better than a lot of the crude computer morphing that was around 15 years later.

In reply to davidbeynon:

Yes, some of the old effects were great because they were so difficult and required so much care, frame by frame. And then, if the optical didn't work there was sometimes a brilliant way round it. Mr. Kubrick was a master at that. Most remarkable I've ever seen was Scatman in the snowcat - done with a mockup in the studio, with no opticals, and no back projection either ... (A tease.)

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

Like the "Stairway to Heaven" scene in A Matter of Life and Death. Filmed in 1946 and still absolutely gorgeous. (I love that film!)

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