Once I decide that I like a director or an actor, I will watch any film that that person has made regardless of whether or not I am interested in the subject. I love Destin Daniel Cretton. He has a sensitive and nuanced perspective and a heart for forgotten children so I decided to watch his first feature film that he co-directed with Lowell Frank, Drakmar: A Vassal’s Journey. It is a documentary about Colin Taylor, who was fourteen years old when it was shot in 2004 through 2005.
Cretton and Frank allow Taylor to set the film’s agenda, which means focusing on his favorite pastime, being a medieval re-enactor, specifically being a squire to a knight, who is preparing him to one day be a knight. As the film unfolds, we discover that he had difficulty adjusting to high school, and his father left home ages ago. His brother remembers his father, tries to temper his little brother’s understandable rage at his absence and probably fears that his brother’s rage will hamper any attempts at reconciliation. The knight consciously understands that he is a father figure, welcomes the responsibility, and ready to defend his ward if necessary. Cretton literally becomes a part of the quest to locate the father with mixed results. There are cats.
While Drakmar: A Vassal’s Journey has universal themes like growing pains, finding acceptance, discovering your identity and reconciling with your past, because the re-enactor’s life is completely alien to me, I could not lose myself in the film as I did when watching Cretton’s other films: Short Term 12 and The Glass Castle. As the film devotes more time to the search for the father and less to medieval times, I got more interested in the documentary, and when it ended, even though I understand that it is unreasonable for Taylor to spend the rest of his life under a camera’s glare, I wanted to know what happened to him.
The special features do provide a glimpse of how he is doing, and he seemed to be well. He grew into an attractive young man who struck more of a balance between his real and fantasy life and was doing well in school. By now, he would be in his late twenties, and hopefully he is still a wonderful human being. Best wishes, Taylor!
Drakmar: A Vassal’s Journey is not a must see film, but if you are a Cretton fan and a completist like me or if you do find the subject matter interesting, then definitely check it out.