In between all of the horror from "Dawn Of The Dead" (1978) and "Creepshow" (1982),George Romero directed the ambitious and unusual "Knightriders" (1981). This greatly overlooked film is quite clearly one of Romero's more personal and mature film efforts to date.

A very youthful Ed Harris plays Billy, a self-styled King Arthur-type, who's the "crowned" leader of the Knightriders. This travelling troupe of performers stage jousts (in full armor) while on motorcycles for the entertainment of all the thrill-seeking spectators at county fairs.

As the story goes - Billy tries to persuade his followers to live under an old-fashioned code of honor, but the constant pressure of balancing ideals against realities, and the financial problems of running The Knightriders as a business, inevitably leads to conflicts and trouble.

Yes. "Knightriders" is a bit silly at times. But, all-in-all, it is pretty good entertainment, even though it is a tad long with a running time of 145 minutes.

I think that Romero did a fine job with the "Knightrider's" story, which reflects the choice that many artists make between "pure" expression of their vision (whatever that might be) and a compromise to achieve commercial success.

While not a horror film, Knightriders holds true to one of Romero's main tropes: the struggle to maintain the values of the past against the realities of the modern world. William struggles to lead the group. While constantly injured, he keeps himself front and center. And his dreams are haunted by a black bird.

Bontempi, a new promoter, has new ideas for the traveling troupe. Even after Billy spends the night in jail for refusing to pay off the local cops, several of the knights want new leadership. Even William's queen, Linet, admits that her love for him isn't why she stays with the group.

Turns out Morgan, the leader of the bikers who are dissatisfied with William, wants the crown. As played by Tom Savini, Morgan chews the scenery with raw sexuality and menace, versus the kindly king that William embodies. Morgan isn't afraid to push that air of danger further, fighting unruly crowds after his wins (Stephen King and his wife appear in one the movie's crowd scenes as he was in Pittsburgh writing Creepshow with Romero at the time).

William finally meets the black bird — a rider has the black eagle crest of his chest plate — defeating him but becoming more injured in the process.

Soon, everyone leaves — Morgan and his riders follow Bontempi, as even William's most trusted knight, Alan, leaves with his new girlfriend — who is simply using him to act out against her abusive parents. Alan must come to terms with the fact that he truly loves Billy's queen — shades of Lancelot and Arthur.

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George Romero - you may know him as the master of zombie movies. Maybe that is not what you call him (maybe Fulci is your master),maybe you don't know him at all. Whatever the case, this is a ... showcase that he could do more. And while he has shown it in other instances, it is imperative to remind people of that from time to time.

So if you are into play pretend - well watching movies in general should mean you are into it. So some things in the movie may not have aged as good as others, but the overall theme of the movie and what it tries to convey story wise still live on and work more than nicely. We dive into a microcosm ... a world that we may not be entirely familiar with (though there have been so many fares since then, whom apparently took some of the ideas depicted here) ... but at least some of us would love to live in that world.

Now casting wise, there are quite a few (Romero) familiar faces here, from some of his other movies. But we also get Ed Harris in one of his first major roles. The intensity, the screen presence ... everything is there. And while it is fantastic to see, I'm also a bit sad that Romero never seemed to have the chance to work with big time actors. Just because it would change the perception some have of his work, not that the ones he worked with were bad in what they did and some still do.

So no horror in that sense, but still a lot of action, but even more fantasy and a community of people that may have their differences but still are strong together - with one to rule them all