Dragonheart was the strange movie where the voice of Sean Connery got higher billing than the rest of the cast, and it still turned out to be something special. It could have ended up as the high-tech sword and sorcery equivalent of the supernatural kung fu flicks, a genre that Hong Kong has done some truly astonishing stuff with, but is usually abysmal. Somehow the writers and director managed to avoid all the obvious pitfalls and make a movie that deal with the Heroic theme in a fresh light. They posit a strange question. What happens when the Mentor fails in his instruction and the potential Hero becomes the most unregenerate of villains? The answer they offer would seem to be that the Mentor has to become the hero himself and undo the evil caused by his blindness in choosing so unwisely. It is a theme and resolution rarely touched upon in mythic structure, the usual sequence is for the embittered mentor to pick up and train another candidate for the Hero's Destiny who then confronts the pupil gone to the bad. This is a totally unexpected answer.

The Mentor here is Bowen, Knight of the Old Code, the code of the Round Table that has long disappeared. Christianity is slowly gaining ground in the British Isles but the old pagan beliefs are still alive, though on the verge of extinction. Bowen is respected for his wisdom and feared as a warrior, but his code is something that is no longer relevant in a cynical world. Bowen's only hope of restoring it is his pupil, Einan, son of the tyrant Freyne. The king is a living refutation of all that Bowen believes in, but he has sense enough, even in the midst of his blood-thirst to wish his son to be something better. Hence the choice of Bowen as his Mentor. Bowen stays out of court politics, and desperately strives to make the Code an unalterable part of his pupils psyche. It is a remarkable litany of duties and attitudes.

"A knight is sworn to valor.
His heart knows only virtue.
His blade defends the helpless.
His might upholds the weak.
His words speak only truth.
His wrath undoes the wicked."

Bowen hopes this will be enough to bring about a regeneration of the Once-ways, the older nobler conception of life and living. Freyne dies in a senseless attack upon a village he is slaughtering because they defy his oppressive taxes. His slayer is a young red haired girl who also, by accident, wounds Einan almost to the point of death. All their destinies are cast together in that one moment of violence. Bowen's sense of justice was secretly satisfied with the first action and he lets her go, but his hope for the future, the king, seemed doomed to die for the evil his father had wrought. The queen, Aislinn, has a desperate expedient in mind to save to the son she bore to a man she never loved. She is of the old blood, learned, intuitive and in connection with the earth energies. Most of all her people were on good terms with the few dragons that still survive, and it is to one of these ancient Worms that she turns for help.

The Dragon is reluctant, for he knows that an evil taint in the blood of the boy has been bequeathed to him by the father. The promise of the Queen and Knight that hey would be responsible for the boy-king reassures him somewhat, and he makes the boy swear that he would learn the Once-ways and forsake blood-thirst. He then shares half his heart with Einan, not a physical organ as such as a luminous opalescent blaze. The grateful Bowen promises the dragon his service at any time it is required and confesses that he had been following the father only for the sake of the son - and what he could be. Everything seems resolved, but everything is destroyed. The Dragon heart makes Einan impervious to fatal wounds, and heals those that he does receive. He becomes intoxicated with power and quickly becomes an even greater menace to his people than his father. The grand symbol of his megalomania is a castle being built with forced labor. Slaughtering people for offences, mostly imagined, becomes his favorite sport until the outraged Bowen finally protests. He is immediately shown his place and he breaks with the king.

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