The quest for justice

After a weekend away in the Midlands and several days of dissection of the Scottish referendum result, this coincided last night with catching the second half of Krull.  Released in 1983, I heard it was meant to be a British riposte to Star Wars (irrespective of the fact that much of the latter was made in England).  David Cameron's unashamed posh boy shtick in the wake of the referendum tied in with the protagonists of Krull.  I was quite struck by how many federates of the hero were killed without so much as a second thought all to ensure that the king gets his rocks off with his damsel in distress and establishes a royal dynastic dominion throughout the galaxy.  Many fall in battle in Star Wars too but the original trilogy at least is far more egalitarian, as people die to throw off the shackles of empire not shore it up and yes, there are princesses, but they engage in a fair bit of the fighting themselves unlike the retrograde Krull.  Aside from the ludicrous plotting and often dubious production values, Krull is an affirmation of the class system, where subordinates know their place to a (kind-hearted) overlord, whereas Star Wars is a stirring search for freedom, elucidating the true meaning of the quest meta-narrative.  Mixing aliens and sword and sorcery does not always a classic make.  As much as anything, Krull's ignorance of the essence of a quest is the cause of its failure.