I’m so glad I had an opportunity to screen this admittedly niche film at GenCon – North America’s largest table-top gaming convention – with a group of dedicated fans and admirers of the subject. Those not interested in the iconic role-playing game or fantasy art may have a hard time understanding what all the fuss is about. But, for those of us that are interested, Eye of the Beholder: The Art of Dungeons and Dragons is a well made, entertaining, and nostalgic look into what we as fans hold so dearly.
Picture if you will, Christmas Eve, 1990 – Moorhead, Minnesota: A boy of 13 unwraps a strange gift containing a red box. On this box we see the back of a muscular man wielding a giant sword. Standing in front of this fighter is an enormous dragon. The adversaries are locked in deadly combat and only one can survive. Its border can not contain the image as the action jumps right out at you, daring you to become involved.
The box I’ve described, and the picture on it, were part of the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) revised box set, released in 1983. This seemingly insignificant gift, along with the cover art by Larry Elmore, would change my life forever. I had become a gamer and there was no going back. It is now thirty years later, and aside from a handful of breaks now and then, I’ve been playing table-top role-playing games (RPGs) ever since.
What Eye of the Beholder manages is to bring each viewer back to the exact moment they became enthralled with RPGs. What’s amazing is that it does so with almost no effort, as the art itself is transportive and does most of the heavy lifting. It amazed me how many of the wonderful pieces shown in the film I was already familiar with. Watching it, I felt just like that kid in the game stores and comic shops of my youth, gazing at the cover art of D&D campaigns, longing to be a part of their strange and unusual worlds.
Elmore – along with other visionary artists like Jeff Easley, Todd Lockwood, and too many others to name – tell the story of how they came to work at TSR (the game design company responsible for D&D) and the artwork that defined whole generations of gamers. Their accounts are funny and well-told, and by default, supply us with a history of the ‘80s gaming titan on top of the artist’s fantastic tales of mischief and craft.
Formally, there isn’t anything new here, but that hardly matters when there’s so much nostalgic fun on display. Often with these types of documentaries, the “talking head, archival footage, repeat” formula gets old fast. Eye of the Beholder escapes this trap through the sheer wonder of the astounding artwork and a truly endearing cast of characters. With table-top gaming enjoying a surge in popularity in recent years, Eye of the Beholder should be required viewing for both old gamers and anyone new ones jumping into this longstanding and ultra-fun pastime.
James is a writer, record collector, wrestling nerd, and tabletop gamer living with his family in Asheville, North Carolina. He is a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association, the North Carolina Film Critics Association, and contributes to The Daily Orca, Razorcake Magazine, Mountain Xpress, and Asheville Movies.