Lionheart (1987 film)

Lionheart
Lionheart
	Promotional film poster
Directed by	Franklin J. Schaffner
Screenplay by	Menno Meyjes; Richard Outten
Story by	Menno Meyjes
Produced by	Talia Shire; Stanley O'Toole
Starring	Eric Stoltz; Gabriel Byrne
Cinematography	Alec Mills
Edited by	David Bretherton; Richard Haines
Music by	Jerry Goldsmith
Distributed by	Orion Pictures
Release date	August 14, 1987;
Running time	104 minutes
Countries	Hungary; United States
Language	English

Lionheart, also known as Lionheart: The Children's Crusade, is a 1987 adventure film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner and produced by Talia Shire and Stanley O'Toole. Shire's brother, Francis Ford Coppola, initially planned to direct the film but instead opted to be executive producer along with Shire's husband, Jack Schwartzman. The screenplay was written by Menno Meyjes and Richard Outten from a story by Meyjes. The composer Jerry Goldsmith wrote the score. The film was released in August 1987. It was distributed by Orion Pictures.

Plot

Loosely based on the historical Children's Crusade, the story follows Robert Nerra, an exiled young knight, played by Eric Stoltz, who leads a band of orphans to join the Third Crusade with King Richard the Lionheart while protecting the children from the Black Prince (Gabriel Byrne), a disillusioned crusader turned child slave trader (not to be confused with the real-life Edward, the Black Prince).

Cast

Eric Stoltz as Robert Nerra
Gabriel Byrne as Black Prince
Nicola Cowper as Blanche
Dexter Fletcher as Michael
Deborah Moore as Mathilda
Nicholas Clay as Charles De Montfort
Bruce Purchase as Simon Nerra
Neil Dickson as King Richard
Penny Downie as Madelaine
Nadim Sawalha as Selim
John Franklyn-Robbins as The Abbot
Chris Pitt as Odo
Matthew Sim as Hugo
Paul Rhys as Mayor of the Underground City
Sammi Davis as Baptista
Wayne Goddard as Louis
Courtney Roper-Knight as David
Michael Sundin as Bertram
Louise Seacombe as Girl from Plague Village
Patrick Durkin as Fat Peasant
Haluk Bilginer as Merchant
Ralph Michael as William Nerra
Barry Stanton as Duke De Bar
Jan Waters as Duchess De Bar
Ann Firbank as Catatonic Woman

Production

Lionheart was a big budget film. It was filmed in Hungary and Portugal, utilizing several castles and hundreds of Slavic children hired as extras. The film was Schaffner's penultimate film and represented the final collaboration between the director and his friend Jerry Goldsmith (together they previously worked on Planet of the Apes, Patton, Papillon, and The Boys from Brazil).

Music

In 1987 Varèse Sarabande released the soundtrack on two separate albums, with Jerry Goldsmith conducting the Hungarian State Opera Orchestra; in 1994 the label released a one-disc edition as Lionheart: The Epic Symphonic Score featuring all of Volume 1 and six tracks from Volume 2. Then in the summer of 2021, the complete score was released as “The Deluxe Edition” (on two discs).

Volume One

No.	Title	Length
1.	"The Ceremony"	2:42
2.	"Failed Knight"	3:18
3.	"Robert and Blanche"	3:49
4.	"Children in Bondage"	5:02
5.	"The Banner"	5:58
6.	"The Lake"	3:37
7.	"Mathilda"	5:57
8.	"The Wrong Flag"	3:16
9.	"King Richard"	8:34
Total length:		42:13

Volume Two

No.	Title	Length
1.	"The Castle"	1:26
2.	"The Circus"	3:07
3.	"Gates of Paris"	2:09
4.	"The Plague"	5:33
5.	"Final Fight"	3:13
6.	"The Road from Paris"	2:04
7.	"The Dress"	2:23
8.	"Forest Hunt"	7:45
9.	"Paris Underground"	4:09
10.	"Bring Him Back"	2:39
11.	"The Future"	5:45
Total length:		40:12

Lionheart: The Epic Symphonic Score

No.	Title	Length
1.	"The Ceremony"	2:42
2.	"Failed Knight"	3:18
3.	"The Circus"	3:07
4.	"Robert and Blanche"	3:49
5.	"Children in Bondage"	5:02
6.	"The Road from Paris"	2:04
7.	"The Lake"	3:37
8.	"The Banner"	5:58
9.	"The Castle"	1:26
10.	"Mathilda"	5:57
11.	"The Wrong Flag"	3:16
12.	"The Dress"	2:23
13.	"Forest Hunt"	7:45
14.	"Final Fight"	3:13
15.	"King Richard"	8:34
Total length:		62:11

Lionheart: The Deluxe Edition-Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Disc I

No.	Title	Length
1.	"The Castle (Main Title)"	1:26
2.	"The Ceremony"	2:49
3.	"Bring Him Back"	2:39
4.	"Failed Knight"	3:21
5.	"The Circus"	3:07
6.	"Robert and Blanche"	3:49
7.	"Bondage*"	1:51
8.	"Black Prince*"	1:55
Total length:		20:57

Disc II

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Children In Bondage"	5:02
2.	"The Future"	1:58
3.	"Gates Of Paris"	2:09
4.	"Paris Underground"	4:09
5.	"The Road from Paris"	2:04
6.	"The Banner/The New Court"	5:58
7.	"The Dress"	2:23
8.	"Mathilda"	5:57
9.	"The Plague"	5:33
10.	"Forest Hunt"	7:45
11.	"The Lake"	3:37
12.	"The Wrong Flag"	3:16
13.	"Final Fight"	3:13
14.	"King Richard/End Title (Robert's Theme)"	8:34
Total length:		61:41

previously unreleased bonus tracks sourced from reference materials as original master tapes were unavailable

Release

The distributor, Orion Pictures, delayed its theatrical release but when the film was finally shown in August 1987 in Canada, the limited release garnered negative reviews. Therefore, the movie was largely unseen until being shown on pay television and finally released on VHS tape and DVD.

Leonard Maltin's initial review was anything but complimentary: "A weak script does in this spiritless saga...Intended for kids, but too silly and boring to engage them." Maltin later saw the film again, and changed his rating from "BOMB" to 3-out-of-a-possible-4 stars: "Richly produced, well-acted, with a superb Jerry Goldsmith score; it's a shame this sincere, if slight, film received almost no theatrical release."^[1] Variety's reviewer watched the film at the Cineplex Odeon Canada Square theatre in Toronto on August 18, 1987. The review appeared in the August 26, 1987 issue describing the movie as "a flaccid, limp kiddie adventure yarn with little of its intended grand epic sweep realized" and accurately predicted that the movie "should head straight for the home video shelves".^[2]^[3]

Home media

Warner Home Video brought out a VHS tape in July 1994 and issued a DVD in December 2009 on the Warner Archives label.

References

^ Maltin, Leonard. Leonard Maltin's 2009 Video Guide. p. 807
^ Variety's Film Reviews 1987-1988, volume 20. R.R. Bowker, 1991, unpaged but see August 26, 1987.
^ "Lionheart". Variety. December 31, 1986. Retrieved November 22, 2011.

External links

Lionheart at IMDb
Lionheart at Rotten Tomatoes

[1] Maltin, Leonard. Leonard Maltin's 2009 Video Guide. p. 807

[2] Variety's Film Reviews 1987-1988, volume 20. R.R. Bowker, 1991, unpaged but see August 26, 1987.

[3] "Lionheart". Variety. December 31, 1986. Retrieved November 22, 2011.

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v t e Films directed by Franklin J. Schaffner
Features	The Stripper (1963) The Best Man (1964) The War Lord (1965) The Double Man (1967) Planet of the Apes (1968) Patton (1970) Nicholas and Alexandra (1971) Papillon (1973) Islands in the Stream (1977) The Boys from Brazil (1978) Sphinx (1981) Yes, Giorgio (1982) Lionheart (1987) Welcome Home (1989)
TV	Jane Eyre (1949) Miss Hargreaves (1952) The Strike (1954) Twelve Angry Men (1954) Seven Against the Wall (1958) The Right Hand Man (1958) Cry Vengeance! (1961) A Tour of the White House with Mrs. John F. Kennedy (1962) Legend of Lylah Clare (1963)