Whatever you think of Star Knight – good or bad – the one thing that cannot be denied is this is a very strange movie. Its combination of a medieval yarn with science fiction is somewhat odd and surely must be a result of the writers simply combining two popular genres of the day - the fantasy action flick with Spielbergian sci-fi. It's a concoction that needless to say doesn't work all that well. Set in medieval Europe, the story revolves around the appearance of a 'dragon'. Turns out it's actually a spaceship but the locals of course never understand this. On board the ship is a spacesuit clad alien, who is the star knight of the title. It's a very silly story to be honest.
Other than the strange narrative, the second aspect that marks this one out is its very interesting cast. Well, it's interesting on paper at least. Specifically the combination of Klaus Kinski with Harvey Keitel is something that should catch the interest of most cult movie fans (although I don't actually remember them both appearing on screen at the same time though). Kinski plays an alchemist and is unfortunately dubbed, while Keitel is a knight and amusingly is not dubbed, seeing as his New York accent could not be more inappropriate for a medieval character. The 80's was a bit of a graveyard for a lot of film stars who rose to prominence in the 70's and this film indicates the strange places Keitel went in this decade before his re-emergence in the early 90's.
Despite all of the factors above, Star Knight is unfortunately a pretty weak effort. Its eccentricities never make up for the general lameness of events depicted. It seems to in fact, be a comedy as well but not a very funny one to be honest. Production values aren't bad though with handsome period detail and alright special effects of the spaceship. But despite this and its original aspects, it's still not terribly good fun.
