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Once courageous Knights roam the land,
searching for adventure, ready to brave any

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challenge. Night Riders. The Knight
is a fighting machine, disciplined in mind

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apart, and noble to the death. Night Riders and action, adventure,

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romance, heraldry, pageantry and magic
that he got to do with the soul,

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one of those old god destiny night
Riders. They ride for the crown,

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they fight for Hunter. That kid
thinks I'm Evil Knevil. That kid

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thinks you're William the Night. You're
his hero. I'm not trying to be

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a hero. I'm fighting the dragon, following a dream as far as it

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will take them, because a legend
lives as long as someone believes. This

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isn't just a roadside carne anymore.
Not for some of us. It's a

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lot more than that. It's a
whole lot more. You know that,

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Morgan, You guys is most fun
I got in my life. I just

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don't see all break up. You
think it's breaking up. It's money,

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Billy. It's all we'll do is
money. Money makes the world go around,

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even your work. Small town jails
is uncomfortable places, damn uncomfortable.

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Throw down the gauntlet, take up
the challenge, a new age begins romance

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and adventure Live Nightwriters, the legend
is born. Renaissance fairs have long been

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a part of American culture. It
attracts millions of people every year across the

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nation. In many feel it is
one of the inspirations for comic book conventions

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and cosplay for this week's Romero film. The fare is seen as an allegory

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for the ultimate divisiveness of society and
what truly makes Romero one of the greatest

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filmmakers. Night Riders, which was
released in nineteen eighty one, introduces us

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to a traveling troop whose participants joust
on motorcycles in battles to determine the king

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of the group. The group has
two differing views. That of the leader,

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King William, who this is his
life. To him, there is

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no other way to live. Then
there is Sir Morgan, the chief rival

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of King William, played by longtime
Romero collaborator and horror special effects guru Tom

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Savini in the battles, who looks
at the troop as a business in entertainment

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and wants to see the group becomes
something bigger to generate more money. This

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film goes against the pale of films
that George A. Romero is known for

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horror, I feel it is best
to start this review with an explanation from

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the man of honor this month himself. In our first two clips, Romero

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explains how Night Riders came to be, and then his thoughts on the film

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and how he felt his fans would
respond to it. Sadly, Romero has

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often had an unfathomable self depreciating view
of his work, and it comes out

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in our second clip. It was
funny. I had written a script about

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basically the same story, but I
had them on horseback. I modeled it

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after there was a group called Society
for Creative Anachronism that stages these jousts,

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and I was pitching it around and
it was actually sam Arkoff. We pitched

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it to sam Arkoff and he said, he, I'll tell you what.

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Put the guys on motorcycles, and
maybe I'm interested in typical sam Arkoff's style.

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And I just I fumed over that, you know, for months,

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and then finally I I had the
script basically, and I finally came around

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to seeing, you know, maybe
that's not so crazy and it would modernize

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it and bring it up to date, and so I decided to go with

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it. And all I basically did
was rewrite the script and Sawahassan and he

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gave us a three picture deal,
but he said one of them must be

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sequel to Dawn and so fab So
we wound up under that deal doing Night

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Riders, Creep Show, and Day
of the Day. And I never had

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so much freedom ever in my life, my career whenever I mean salad basically

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let us make the movies. I
really felt when when I was making the

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film that it was important. It
was important to me. That meant that

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I put my best into it.
So I just I know that I was

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sort of at my best when I
was on that set. And now how

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we're Meryl felt his fans would react
to this change. No, I have

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forever in my career tried to look
for something new that I could do.

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I've always wanted to make Tarzan of
the Apes, I mean, you know,

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and yet I'm stuck in this sort
of niche with horror. I don't

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know that anyone who is a fan
of my horror work, my zombie films

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is going to look at Night Writers
and get much out of it. Only

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I think people that are either personally
interested in me or in interested in what

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makes me tick. Maybe, but
I think basically fans today audiences will react.

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General audience will react pretty much the
way they did back then, which

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is not respond very positively. I
feel, and many film critics agree,

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that William, who is played by
Ed Harris in this film, is in

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a way a characterization of Romero,
a man that has a vision in a

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way he chooses to live his life
and do things. Romero, for most

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of his career had that same ethos
that his films would be done his way,

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and if it meant not having major
studio support or big budgets, then

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so be it. That is evident
in our next clip, over a camp

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fire, William is speaking with Steve, the Troop's legal representative. Why I

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chose the scene is I want you
to hear William's dismissiveness over getting TV executives

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involved. And then at the end
one of William's loyal members makes a case

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for him to consider taking the deal. If that wants to handle us,

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what do you mean he wants to
handle us? I thought, that's what

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you did. Yeah, I can
get you in alarms. I can get

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you in the Brower. You but
I don't know the big circuit. I'd

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still be with you for legal and
all the big circuit. You're gonna pull

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fifteen k out of Brower. You
can pull thirty or forty out of some

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of these big county fairs. Hell, Billy, I can't even get those

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folks on the telephone. They book
acts from guys like this guy that they've

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been dealing with all along. We're
not an act. Well, neither's bull

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rope. And you know what I
mean. You do three or four of

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these big gigs of summer, you
can do whatever the hell you wanted for

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the rest of the year. Tell
this guy's talking about setting up with all

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fantsy new costumes. He's even talking
about setting up some deal with some cycle

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man. In fact, I'm surprised
you even brought this guy around, Steve.

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Well, damn it. There,
I'm just trying to help you along.

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You guys, is most funny I
get in my life. I just

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don't see y'all break up. Damn
it, Billy, y'all Stone broke most

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of the time, and then you're
taking every damn long hair that knows how

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to make a pair of sandals and
you want to pick up the Blue Cross

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tab. Do you have the slightest
idea with gas is selling for or two

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by fors or Hamburger or anything else
you think it's breaking up. It's money,

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billy. It's all we do with
money. Money makes the world go

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around, even your world. No, it's just getting too tough. It's

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tough to buy the code. I
mean, it's real hard to live for

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something that you believe in. People
tried it and then they get tired of

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it, like they get tired of
their diets or exercise, or their marriage,

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when their kids on their job with
themselves, when they get tired of

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their God. You can keep the
money you make up the sick world,

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Lord, I don't want any part
of it. Anybody wants to live more

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for themselves. It doesn't belong with
us. Let me go out and buy

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some pimpy psychiatrists. Favor Back says
it's okay. Don't ask me to say

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it's okay. It's not okay.
Once I was in a jail in Alabama

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and I got my ass kicked,
just like I did last night, only

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then it was because I was in
there. Well, I woke up in

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the morning, and I didn't even
have an energy enough to lick my wounds.

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I found out I'd given up,
So I tried to kill myself,

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try to cut my wrist with a
bed spring. See, I found out

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like giving up on it all because
of where I was, what was all

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around me. Well, last night
I get my ass kicked. I came

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up laughing because nah, I'm in
Camelot. God. See the way I

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see it is this, you got
two separate fights, the one for truth

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and justice and the American way of
life and all that that's gotta take a

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back seat to the one per stay
and alive. You gotta stay alive.

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You can have the most beautiful ideals
in the whole world, and if you

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die, your ideals are gonna die
with you. The important thing is we

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got to stay together. We got
to keep the truth together. And if

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keeping the Troup going means it we
have to take some of this promoter's money,

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well then I say let's take it
and get some sleep. As I

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mentioned in the opening, at the
crux of this film is the conflict between

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William and Morgan. Many film critics
have analyzed this film and tried to find

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the metaphor to it. What is
the major conflict or what does the conflict

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stand for? That is something that
Ramero is known for. I feel it

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is simple. It is the battle
between those that simply want to live their

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life the way they want without compromise
and interference, the side of William,

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and then the side of making it
big, being successful, wealthy, in

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quote unquote normal, the side of
Morgan. Our next clip shows this as

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William and Morgan have a heated argument
over joining with a television executive. Again,

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at the conclusion of this scene,
I want you to hear the two

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TV execs joking and salivating at the
drama as this group, or some would

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say family, splinters in two different
directions to get your food and your supplies.

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And it is right that everybody gets
the same. On spending money,

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all the decisions are made here,
but the merchants they're like serfs. You

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know. Only the Knights can make
decisions. The King makes the final decision.

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On the advice of the knights.
We can all take it a little

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more cash if we didn't spend so
much on weapons at less himself. Oh

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yeah, the gods damn knights have
cush My god, he's hurt I mean,

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we all understand their big brave manchos, but things are getting out ahead.

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They don't care what they smash up. We blow five bikes a week,

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parts cost the fortune and those lances. Then they let the town he's

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ride with the stuff. How you
look? You all like it got out?

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Do you think the people? You
think the people show up in a

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play your part? Damn jewelry,
your parts of corn? What't you gonna

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sell them some shopping mall somewhere.
I just spend last night in jail with

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the man who God has had braid
and for something they believed there and if

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they don't believe it, they didn't
get the hell out of here. But

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brother, you don't even know we
were talking about. All we were saying

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is just like, what is this? What is this a council meeting?

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Huh? This is a council meeting. You can't have a council meeting without

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everybody being here. You cannot have
a car to mee they without everyone being

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here. Let's go shove you a
back damn council meeting. Yeah yeah,

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that's that's a twenty dollars fine.
That is a twenty dollar fine, you

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companion, right, now you can
get your ass right out of here.

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Oh man, we're already gone,
bully, Hey, Billy, We're just

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trying to get some things together for
you. Man, where's none? Well,

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it's not here. I'm not here. I'm not here. You know

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who's you know? Where's tuck?
Where the hell is stuck? Now,

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this is a picture I'd like to
get my photographer caught with their pants down

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to that. At this point,
I feel it goes without saying that I'm

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a major fan of Romero's work.
Through the years, I have the been

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able to explain exactly why or go
into major detail other than I know he

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makes great films and such. But
what I have learned through my years of

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watching his films is that it is
his independence. He never compromised. That

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is what I want from a director. I want someone that, no matter

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what, they stick to what they
feel as best. To me. That

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is what makes his films, as
well as those done by John Carpenter,

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Quentin Tarantino, and Sergio Leone great, and those are some of my other

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favorite directors. It is because their
vision is always what is put on film,

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and anything less is a compromise.
They are unwilling to make much like

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King William, and that is truly
heroic and worthy of the crown. I

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hope you join me next week when
we continue our month long tribute to George

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A. Romero, we will look
at one of his genre bending films,

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the nineteen seventy eight release Martin for
WMNH and Matt Connerton Unleashed. This has

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been a classic film review with Eric
Pilcher