...it seems like you do your best work when shuffling, flesh-craving reanimated corpses are involved. There's a reason the "Living Dead" tetralogy is the stuff of legend and Romero's 'side-projects' are mostly little-known footnotes within his career--while often artistically innovative and unconventional, efforts like "Monkey Shines," "Bruiser," and "Knightriders" are--at best--tonally uneven experiences. Here we have a modern-day Ren Faire tent community that travels from town to town, putting on jousting competitions (done on motorcycles, natch) and living the medieval lifestyle in a modern world. Romero uses this postmodernist fairy tale to frame a heavy-handed (and overlong) meditation on man's code of honor and what it takes to hang onto it in a world where everybody else is "selling out" to live a life of luxury (yes, an up-and-coming rock band could have easily been substituted for the Ren Faire). The film is ponderous at points (with many sledgehammer-obvious monologues), repetitive at others (while the jousting tournaments are a marvel of slick editing, they don't vary much), and the premise is treated so seriously that at times it's hard not to laugh (and granted, there is a lot of intentional humor as well). Despite all this, Romero's voice does come out in certain dialog scenes, and the production is wonderfully photographed by Michael Gornick; the performances vary (with a young Ed Harris all over the map), but Tom Savini shows some formidable chops as a potential traitor to the cause. The commentary on the 'knights'' displacement in a world given in to modernity meets an uneven end (blatantly ripping off "Easy Rider"), but "Knightriders" is an oddly transfixing--albeit inferior--piece of work.

In between all of the horror from "Dawn Of The Dead" (1978) and "Creepshow" (1982), George Romero directed the ambitious and unusual "Knightriders" (1981). This greatly overlooked film is quite clearly one of Romero's more personal and mature film efforts to date.

A very youthful Ed Harris plays Billy, a self-styled King Arthur-type, who's the "crowned" leader of the Knightriders. This travelling troupe of performers stage jousts (in full armor) while on motorcycles for the entertainment of all the thrill-seeking spectators at county fairs.

As the story goes - Billy tries to persuade his followers to live under an old-fashioned code of honor, but the constant pressure of balancing ideals against realities, and the financial problems of running The Knightriders as a business, inevitably leads to conflicts and trouble.

Yes. "Knightriders" is a bit silly at times. But, all-in-all, it is pretty good entertainment, even though it is a tad long with a running time of 145 minutes.

I think that Romero did a fine job with the "Knightrider's" story, which reflects the choice that many artists make between "pure" expression of their vision (whatever that might be) and a compromise to achieve commercial success.

While not a horror film, Knightriders holds true to one of Romero's main tropes: the struggle to maintain the values of the past against the realities of the modern world. William struggles to lead the group. While constantly injured, he keeps himself front and center. And his dreams are haunted by a black bird.

Bontempi, a new promoter, has new ideas for the traveling troupe. Even after Billy spends the night in jail for refusing to pay off the local cops, several of the knights want new leadership. Even William's queen, Linet, admits that her love for him isn't why she stays with the group.

Turns out Morgan, the leader of the bikers who are dissatisfied with William, wants the crown. As played by Tom Savini, Morgan chews the scenery with raw sexuality and menace, versus the kindly king that William embodies. Morgan isn't afraid to push that air of danger further, fighting unruly crowds after his wins (Stephen King and his wife appear in one the movie's crowd scenes as he was in Pittsburgh writing Creepshow with Romero at the time).

William finally meets the black bird — a rider has the black eagle crest of his chest plate — defeating him but becoming more injured in the process.

Soon, everyone leaves — Morgan and his riders follow Bontempi, as even William's most trusted knight, Alan, leaves with his new girlfriend — who is simply using him to act out against her abusive parents. Alan must come to terms with the fact that he truly loves Billy's queen — shades of Lancelot and Arthur.

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