brilliant actors, brilliant editing

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

"Black Angel" is a 27-minute movie from 1980, so this one is already almost 40 years old. It was written and directed by Roger Christian, a 2-time Oscar nominee in art direction and he won the trophy once for his work on George Lucas' Star Wars. But this one here has really not much in common with this saga, except the fact that they are both fantasy films. This one here has a lot more to do with knights and princesses than with extraterrestrials as we follow the ways of a man named Maddox and what happens when a supernatural appearance saves him from drowning. The consequence is that he goes up against a dark knight (no pun intended!) and the outcome is somewhat interesting for a change as an ending like this is nothing you see in medieval films very frequently. If you can call this one medieval, that is. It's probably set in a different time and space perhaps. Anyway, Christian was a much more prolific filmmaker than most people know, but honestly judging from this one here I am not too mad that I am not really aware of his work either. The film had some lengths, even for a movie under half an hour, and is never as artistically impactful as I would have expected it looking at who's the man in charge. Story-wise, there is also nothing really memorable except the ending. I read that this film here may be turned into a new movie at some point in the near future, but it's all very vague. Cannot say yet if I have an interest in checking that one out if it does. Christian is still making films these days, so there is a possibility he could be directing here too. Being in the mid-70s should not keep him away. Back to this one here, I thought the uninteresting is more frequent than the interesting eventually and that's why I have to give it a thumbs-down. Not recommended.

"Black Angel" was never on my radar back in 1980 - mostly because I was in utero, but also because it didn't play in the U.S. But I'm a sucker happy stories of lost media being rediscovered, and this short film is also tied to "Star Wars" history; so it's right in my wheelhouse.It's just a simple sword-n-sorcery tale of a brave knight traveling through his plague-stricken land and ultimately doing battle with a demonic wraith, but this is all about the ethereal fogs and Scottish locales that really suck you into this world. All sorts of stuff to really draw your eye. This thing's got killer atmosphere and it's a rock solid story.7/10

i remember it with empire strikes back but i saw it in London as well playing in front of firefox, i remember about 2 seconds of this film but so want to see it again, lets hope it turns up somewhere :)... The only part i remember is a long shot of the knight on a horse facing some sort of enemy, and the knight drowning but apart from that, nothing at all, i know i need to see this again as it made a lasting impression on me as a kid, if anyone has the rights to this small lost masterpiece then do the right and honourable thing, release it as an extra with something else i think it would do well on a DVD, I for one would go out and get it just for that extra...

...Then it better at least be good!I saw this short...countless times, as it was released in the UK spliced onto the front of "The Empire Strikes Back". I must have viewed this about 30 times, as a consequence.This short film, which had a Princess held in thrall to a supernatural creation, sticks in my memory long after other shorts have been been long forgotten.Medieval in tone and filmed on wind-blasted landscapes, watery glades, anddecrepit turrets, I remember the Princess phrase to the hero: "I am bound, to the Black Angel", as if it were yesterday.I'd love a copy of this movie!