As swords are raised and the battlefield air flows thick with tension, the participants in a full-scale role-playing game called Darkon shed their mundane identities to assume the role of warrior knight, mystical wizard, or fierce maiden. This is the story of Darkon, a game that allows hundreds of adventure-seeking adults to live out their wildest medieval fantasies. Though, to the majority of Baltimore residents, the paved parking lots and inner-city decay serve as a constant reminder of modern
man's urban aspirations gone awry, a secret world exists in the forests and hills surrounding the city that allows the more imaginative a chance to take a virtual voyage back in time. This is the story of the people who refuse to allow the roles they play from nine to five define their lives, and instead choose to express their true nature through a game that allows them to become the brave hero or cunning strategist that they have always aspired to be. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
By approaching the subject without a sense of ironic distance, Neel and Meyer get at something elemental, a variation of the American Dream at work, in which everyone can live out their life as they see it, even if that's as a medieval elf.
Eloquent and occasionally touching, Darkon is haphazardly photographed but unfailingly generous toward subjects who exhibit an astonishing degree of self-awareness.
Neel and Meyer approach their subjects with open minds. Running around Baltimore in medieval armor isn't everyone's chalice of wine, they seem to be saying -- but who are we to judge?
There should be plenty of material here. But all we see are average men and women looking for an escape from their boring jobs and disappointing home lives.
Empowered as they are, it's hard to take this motley crew seriously when they spit medieval maxims with soccer goals in the background, but the filmmakers approach their subjects with humanity.
The film perceptively addresses the intertwining of fantasy and reality, which eventually seems so pronounced that one senses players are acting out their dreams of either being, or striking back against, bullies.
This full-length movie becomes quite wearing. The players are entitled to dignity and respect, of course, but how many of us would spend 89 minutes at a party listening to one of them talk about Darkon? That's pretty much what you get here.
This low-budget documentary by Luke Meyer and Andrew Neel spends three years chronicling Darkon, a medieval role-playing group whose members dress up in homemade costumes and chase each other around fields in suburban Baltimore.
For all its hipster appeal, it's hard to imagine anyone who would not be charmed by this ode to nonconformity, a humanistic, thoughtful, and entertaining film that won this year's SXSW Film Fest's Audience Award.
You won't leave this film with a full grasp of, say, how a Darkonian knows when he's mortally wounded, but you'll relate to this exuberant subculture more intimately than you'd perhaps expect.
Darkon works as a fascinating and colorful documentary about an endearingly bizarre game and as a "can't wait to see who wins" sports film. (And as a nifty little comedy, too, actually.)
An average doc about the world of LARPing. I would have liked it to cover more of the world of LARPing but it sticks to just one group and it's struggles. There are a few people covered but one more than the others. You get interested in the story but I would have liked to see more of the others.They do get a little
carried away but I think the whole thing looks fun and I wouldn't mind trying it out.
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