Movies with MZS: Knightriders
Sunday, September 15, 2024
A raucous, tenderhearted, defiantly eccentric look at the pressures faced by artists and other outsiders, George Romero’s Knightriders stars a young Ed Harris as the leader of a group of role-playing modern knights who ride motorcycles instead of horses. Written and directed by Romero, it was released just three years after the biggest success of his career, 1978’s Dawn of the Dead, and was a commercial as well as critical bomb. But it has become a cult favorite, thanks in large part to its advanced (for the early 1980s) social attitudes about masculine role playing, women’s rights, queerness, police ethics, and the pressure placed on creative people to join a corrupt and reactionary system that they have no choice but to depend on for their livelihood.
Post-screening discussion will include George Romero expert Daniel Kraus (Whalefall) who completed Romero’s unfinished novel The Living Dead as well as the newly published Romero novel Pay the Piper; Movies with MZS host Matt Zoller Seitz, of New York Magazine and RogerEbert.com; and Dominick Nero and Adam Volerich, cohosts of the popular Eye of the Duck film podcast.
- Country USA
- Year 1981
- Running Time 146 minutes
- Format DCP
- Distributor New Amsterdam Entertainment Inc.
- Director George Romero
- Cast Ed Harris, Tom Savini, Gary Lahti, Amy Ingersoll, Christine Forrest
- Accessibility Assistive Listening, T-Coil
IFC Center does not generally provide advisories about subject matter or potentially triggering content in films, as sensitivities vary from person to person. In addition to the synopses, trailers and other links on our website, further information about content and age-appropriateness for specific films can be found on Common Sense Media, IMDb and DoesTheDogDie.com as well as through general internet searches.