A long time ago in a country maybe not that far, far away…
There was a short film shown before the release of “Star Wars – The Empire strikes back”. The Film “Black Angel” was produced in 1980 with financial assistance from George Lucas and directed by the art director of Star Wars, Roger Christian. As you can see, its art design and look influenced a few following productions like “Excalibur” and “Legend“. It was the début of the Academy Award winner Christian. He is also known for directing the film “Battle Earth”. Sadly, you will find it on lists of “worst films ever made”.
The knight Sir Maddox returns from a crusade to find out, that his family left and that the people of his homeland are suffering from a sickness. As his journey across this fantastical and mystical realm continues, he meets a beautiful maiden, who appears the moment he is about to drown. She is a prisoner of a black knight. So Sir Maddox confronts her captor, the Black Angel, to free her.
For a long time this film was just a legend on forums, blogs and geek boards. A fantastical story about knights and maidens, swords and armour, good and evil. Some rumours of a few people remembering seeing it in their childhood, but no one was able to track it down, unsurprisingly, because the film was never released. In fact, it was literally lost until one day director Christian got a call from Universal Studios in December 2011. “We found this tin of film labeled Black Angel, and it seems to point to you.” So a myth was busted.
Since I was at the German Fedcon just recently, I decided to talk to a few Star Wars fans about it and to show them the link to “Black Angel” in full length, with a nice introduction from Roger Christian himself. And here it is, for our readers too.
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