Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

Once in a great while a film makes one rethink their outlook on life, that causes the viewer to realize he has not been living his life to the fullest.

Knightriders is just that film.

Before I begin the review proper, I'd like to share a story.

Two years ago, I'd ordered Knightriders from an internet site at my father's urging. He had told me that, bar none, Knightriders was one of the best movies he'd seen in a long, long while. I - always one to heed my father's advice - searched and searched for a long while before finding a site that sold this movie. I ordered it without a moment's hesitation and waited patiently for it to arrive.

On my father's birthday in February of 2001, he was told he had cancer and would have, with treatment, a year to live and six months if he opted not to be treated. On one of the days following his birthday, Knightriders finally arrived in my mailbox and I took it upstairs, allowing it to be forgotten on a bookshelf until a couple weeks later, when he died.

Following my father's funeral, my then-girlfriend dropped me off at my house and I trudged into my bedroom and sat on the bed. Glancing at the bookshelf, I saw an unopened package and promptly tore the box to shreds. Knightriders! How could I have forgotten about this? I tore the plastic off the case and put the disc into the DVD player.

Two and a half hours, my outlook on life was changed. I'll explain that statement later. As for now, we move on to the review proper.

Knightriders is the story of traveling Renaissance troupe under the leadership of King William. Not your typical knights, these men ride steeds made of steel, rubber and plastic instead of horses, and use armor made of aluminum, leather and tinfoil instead of the plate and chainmail of old. Their weapons are designed to dismount another rider, but not to hurt.

There are two factions at war with each other within the Camelot: the White Knights, led by Sir Alan, and the Black Knights, led by Sir Morgan. Morgan believes he has paid his dues, desperately wanting to be crowned instead of William. However, neither William (Billy) nor Alan will allow this; they believe Morgan would lead the troupe astray, as is later shown when Morgan disbands takes his fellow Black Knights with him to a television producer named Bontempi.

Bontempi has an interesting idea for the knights: his goal is to put the knights into large stadiums and arenas to sell-out audiences, making loads of cash for everyone involved.

William, of course, will not have this, which leads to the aforementioned departure of the Black Knights.

After spending a week or so on his own, Morgan realizes the error of his ways and takes his knights back to Billy's Camelot, where he is welcomed with open arms. Later, it is decided by Billy himself that there must be a new king, and the way to decide who will be crowned is to hold a tournament. A simple, in-house affair, with no audience, no cameras, no one to witness the battle besides the knights themselves and the rest of the troupe.

I've never felt as strongly about a particular movie as I do Knightriders. It is entirely feasible that I'm biased, given the situation in which I made the purchase; either way, I'm thankful for having watched it.

There were several things I'd learned during the course of Knightriders - primarily learned from Billy's quest for a perfect kingdom through his Camelot. The most important lesson to be learned, I believe, is that nothing is ever going to be perfect. You cannot, no matter how hard you try, live in a perfect world. Some people will always choose to dissent, no matter the consequence and no matter the reason. Some men will leave because they would rather lead instead of follow, and others will leave for apparently no other reason than they have nothing to lose by starting anew.

Billy fought for what he believed to be truth and justice, two things that are forever elusive to most, and, in some ways, he found them. The applause received when he decimates a police officer in a fast food joint days after the officer had beaten one of his friends into submission tells us that, yes, there is, occasionally, a reason to defy authority, to strike back. The instance in which Billy turned his sword over to a child tells us it's all right to relinquish yourself of possessions; what may seem important in one place holds no sway in another. A sword, while a useful tool in the land of Camelot, has no use elsewhere, and, occasionally, giving something you treasure to someone else can be a wonderful thing.

The review title - "I would rather die in a hurricane than to never know the storm," - is taken from a song performed in the movie by a man named Donald Rubinstein. That particular line sums Knightriders up perfectly. My interpretation on that line is this: Sometimes there can be something so beautiful and yet so dangerous, you just have to experience it, though it is entirely possible that - by experiencing said event - you may lose a part of yourself.

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: None of the Above
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older