Roll For Cinematography!
An ongoing series of film reviews with focus on what can be used to inform and inspire your roleplaying game experience.
Part I of a film review series. I’ll be looking at films that are relevant to gamers, are a bit unique and off the main road, and can be mined for ideas for games.
Today’s Review: Black Angel
1980 • PG • 25 minutes
Director: Roger Christian
Writer: Roger Christian
Cast: Tony Vogel, James Gibb, John Young, Patricia Christian
In 1980 movie goers in the UK who went to see the Empire Strikes Back got an added bonus, their film was preceded by an original short film called Black Angel. Written and directed by designer Roger Christian, who had worked on Star Wars, Black Angel was born of a desire to direct and a pitch made to George Lucas. Christian was given 25,000 pounds, a short timeline, and canisters of film reel “ends” and sent to Scotland to make his movie.
Black Angel is a dark tale of chivalry, loss, and death told in a dream like fugue-state. A crusader knight, returning to his home finds his family gone, his holdings in ruin, and those that remain sick with some kind of plague. The knight departs in search of his family and falls into a river and as he is drowning sees a maiden in white. The maiden tells him she is bound to the Black Angel. Filled with zealous chivalry the knight travels the countryside to find this Black Angel and free the maiden.
The dialogue is sparse in this film, giving few clues to our protagonist knight’s backstory, but through the visuals and evocative Scottish scenery we are able to follow along and become emotionally invested in the knight’s new found quest. Shot in natural light, the filmmakers actually explain in a making of vignette that they threw away their light meter and trusted their instincts. It paid off. We move through stone ruins, rivers, rolling green hills, and of course, dark forests all the while the cool blues and greens of the natural light create a mysterious quality to the story.
Our protagonist arrives already world weary and it only gets worse for him. A few sick (are they villagers?servants?) folk amidst ruins that we are led to believe may have been the knight’s home tell us that things have gone badly while the knight was away. In a mix of anger and frustration he storms off to get his family? revenge? answers? We don’t know exactly what, but we know these actions, the actions of the classic questing knight. When he encounters the maiden in white, having asked death to save him from drowning and take her instead, she only tells him that she is bound to the Black Angel. The Arthurian Lady in the Lake figure is very clearly represented in this character. Determined to rescue his savior, the knight travels across harsh terrain intending to free her from the Black Angel. The travel is patched together and how much time is passing is unclear, which was likely intentional. The knight encounters a man of the woods, a cackling figure that strikes a very ancient pagan chord. He demands the man take him to the Black Angel citing his honor and debt to the maiden. Is the old man the Black Angel in another form? Perhaps. The knight has had the choice how to proceed through the whole story, the maiden, the old man, and eventually the Black Angel only respond to his insistence. Eventually the final confrontation occurs. The Black Angel, looking something like a cross between a Nazgul and the classic black knight is awaiting him when he arrives. The battle is shot, in part, using a stepped frame technique that lends the action a strange dreamlike quality. Cobwebs adorn the Black Angel’s weapons and as they fight the effects team released cobwebs in the air making for a vey otherworldly atmosphere. The knight fights bravely, but he realizes he can’t match the supernatural prowess of his opponent. He asks the Black Angel to spare the child and take his life instead then lunges, falling to one last blow, however, he is then transported to the river where he drowns as if nothing after falling in the river had ever happened.
Saying the Black Angel was a representation of death is obvious, but there it is. Like a lot of good art though, there are many blanks the viewer is left to fill in on their own. It isn’t actually stated in the film that the knight is a crusader, but it makes sense. Was the child just a representation of the family the knight lost? Perhaps. Was everything after he fell in the river just a dream before death? Seems likely, but that is up to the individual viewer. Like most short films, the story runs on visuals and emotional connections rather than exposition and character development and that’s ok.
Here’s how I know Black Angel is a good film, it left me thinking about it and wanting more. Not wanting more in a bad way, in a celebratory way, like, “this is great, I want to know more about this world and these characters!” There was a plan to crowd fund a full length film based around this story when the lost negative was rediscovered around 2014, but that effort appears to have failed sadly. Possibly it’s for the better though, we have seen other beloved works revived and reimagined only to find the new versions lack the original magic. Born from a desire to direct, a simple story idea, and the creativity of a tight budget, this was indeed magic.
Is it Gameable?
Yes, but, with a lot of customization. The story is written as one protagonist essentially confronting loss and eventually dying. A larger story would need to be made of this to adjust to a party of characters. Perhaps this would be a story for a character that is going to be retired from the campaign. Another way to use it would be to drop the death analogy completely, make the Black Angel an actual evil knight of great power or perhaps some sort of demi-god or dark force taken form that has actually taken he maiden captive. The film has many dreamlike scenes and this shouldn’t be ignored in a game, perhaps rolls should be made for disorientation in the woods or fear or dread effects invoked when confronting the Black Angel. The maiden could be replaced with a known NPC or could be revealed later to be the secret mastermind, the Black Angel only a puppet. Tying this to the characters’ past I think would add a lot of weight, maybe it takes place in a high level campaign when the characters return to where it all started so long ago. There’s a poetry and symbolism in this story that I think could enrich a role play experience and I’d strongly recommend giving it a watch to see if you find inspiration like I did.
The Black Angel
Here’s a possible interpretation of the Black Angel (assuming he isn’t actually Death) as a villain using Dragonbane stats.
Ferocity: 2 Size: Normal Move: 10 Armor: 4 Hit Points: 50 Resistance: Half damage from non-magical weapons. Gear: Long spear, Broadsword, Old Half Plate and Chain covered in cobwebs
Monster Attacks:
d6 ATTACK
1 Aura of Death: The wind whips up, the dark empty eyes of the Dark Angel gaze at the players, peering into their souls, everyone within 10 meters suffers a fear attack.
2 Moving Through Time and Space: The Black Angel seems to move irregularly, skipping through space in a disjointed fashion, he appears next a character attacking him with his broadsword, they suffer weapon damage and then the Black Angel returns to where it was originally standing.
3 Only What You Bring With You: A characters weapon disappears from their hand and reappears in the Black Angels hand, he hurls it at them. Dodge or take weapon damage.
4 Dream Dreamer: The Black Knight points its spear at a character and forces them into a dream like state. For 1d4 rounds the character hallucinates dark figures and strange flora and fauna. They can move about at random and should be role played as delusional.
5 See Your Death: The last character to attack the Black Angel or a random one if none have attacked yet is pulled to the Black Angel, gazing into its empty eye’s they see a scene of what they feel might be their death. They are then flung back to where they had been standing, suffer a fear attack and take a condition.
6 I Am Everywhere: In rapid succession the Black Angel appears next to each character, one after another, makes an attack on them with its spear then returns to where it had been standing.
It was almost an outline of a film, or a pitch. There could be so much backstory there, but beautiful and evocative scenery.