At the start of Dragonheart, there’s an interesting quote or three, with most of them in the first few minutes coming from Bowen (played by Dennis Quaid) who serves as the movie’s lead and also the ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ character who must watch as his pupil King Einon descends into wickedness and madness.
The difference is that where Obi-Wan proves himself fairly ineffectual and refuses to stand against Vader past Episode 3, Bowen takes the fight to Einon.
At the start we can see that Bowen is effectively the better fight and swordsman, later Einon almost overtakes him, yet Bowen comes out as the better man. But this as
said it in our podcast discussing this movie is in part due to wisdom and superior experience.In the novel it is revealed interestingly that Bowen is Welsh, and that he has travelled the whole of Christendom (possibly the world). Being Welsh could mean that he’s a descendant of King Arthur (who was in the myths a Celtic King), with Bowen a man entranced by the old myths that in Dragonheart took place approximately four hundred and fifty years or so before his time.
It is akin to a modern man falling in love with the warriors of the 30 Years Wars (an understandable thing to happen, given that the heroes and villains of that era seem much grander than those of our own), with the likes of Bowen however offering one piece of advice to Einon.
‘Fight with your Head not your Heart,’ why is this important? It is important because of how it helps to shape Einon as a character, but also in the practical use this advice has to offer.
Bowen is teaching there how to win a fight. Heart can matter in that it represents motivation, and why someone might fight which is all well and good, or as it seems to be treated by Bowen as passion.
But one shouldn’t follow one’s heart into a battlefield, this is where the head matters most. One should only ever engage in battle of any sort by following one’s head, and the reason for this is that a clear head and strategy and logistics will always win out in war.
The trouble comes when the head doesn’t understand the heart of others. To an extent this is Bowen’s problem as he doesn’t understand that Einon is a psychopath. Brutal and cruel, in such a way that few cinematic villains are, Einon seeks to use and destroy all those around him, his lack of empthay a major factor in what turns most around him against him.
Bowen charmed by this talented and admittedly clever even brilliant student of his comes to think of him as his own son. It is for this reason that he doesn’t see what is right in front of him; Einon is feeding him lie after lie and is full of evil, so that the head does not recognize the heart.
Logical on one hand and romantic on the other, Bowen is a man who tricks himself in some ways into serving what ought to be his own enemies even at that point in the movie. He is rather reminiscent of historic figures such as Akechi Mitsuhide, Ludwig Van Beethoven and even Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa; brilliant but romantic. The first was to betray his liege-lord when he could not handle the brutality and treacherousness of Oda Nobunaga, Beethoven kept pouring money into his brother’s widow out of pity even as she sued him continuously without end thus ruining the money he had carefully arranged for her own son (as the boy’s inheritance even as the youth frittered it away gambling and the like), and Agrippa well now he had the best deal of these three; serving Augustus who always appreciated him and loved him as a brother.
In some ways with his knowledge of engineering, concrete and architecture Bowen is most like Agrippa (who loved the same things). The Welsh warrior and knight is a misguided individual who teaches still an important lesson.
Fight with your head not your heart, because if you seek to win the war of souls and of minds, you might use your head. You must combat with the courage of men long since dead, but with an alliance with reason and faith.
Bowen’s emphasis on the importance of strategy, engineering, and in keeping a level head is something we men must strive after and work towards. To keep one’s level head without fail is a difficult thing that few men quite succeed in doing, with many a defeats throughout history one’s that involved men rushing in without thinking.
That said some intrepidness is necessary to seize victory, with the likes of Bowen being a worn man who struggles at times to behave too impulsively as he calculates, weaves and moves through the movie with the confidence of a man well accustomed to action.
Using one’s head is something many old philosophers have striven to teach, including some such as Sun Tzu and Musashi and of course that famous Princeps Marcus Aurelius.
‘Truth is not what you want it to be; it is what it is. And you must bend to its power or live a lie.’ Musashi once said, and this quote is of the utmost importance now also, with this being a quote that ought to help shape one’s life and help a person to keep a level head in the face of life’s many vicissitudes.
Well said. Very underrated film. One of my childhood favorites. It seems like it's definitely worth a re-watch as there was much more going on there than my child mind was able to pick up on.
Bravo! Bowen is a favorite character! Dragon Heart is a cherished favorite movie!
There are many gems contained therein.