Film Review: A Knight's Tale (2001)
There are films that were criticised decades ago for one reason and are likely to be criticised now for another. One such example can be provided by A Knight's Tale, a 2001 period adventure film directed by Brian Helgeland which has content some of today's critics might find problematic, but in its time it gained infamy over something that didn't have anything to do with its content at all.
The plot is set in 14th Century Europe and the protagonist, played by Heath Ledger, is William Thatcher, one of the squires in the entourage of an elderly knight Sir Ector (played by Nick Brimble). When his master dies just as he was about to win a tournament, Thatcher decides to impersonate him in order to get the prize for himself and his friends. What was supposed to be a temporary measure soon turns into a successful career because William actually has talent for jousting and various martial arts. As time goes by, he begins to dream of glory and Jocelyn (played by Shannyn Sossamon), a beautiful noblewoman with whom he has fallen in love. He isn't deterred by his commoner background that bans him from actually taking part in tournaments nor by rivalry with the arrogant Count Adhemar (played by Rufus Sewell).
Many critics today would attack A Knight's Tale as a Netflix-like rape of history, mainly because of the anachronistic use of modern rock songs in the soundtrack and the casting of Shannyn Sossamon whose exotic Asian features don't fit that well into the aesthetic standards of medieval Europe. In its time, however, this film gained infamy for being promoted by Columbia Pictures in a shamefully deceitful way – by publishing rave reviews written by its fake critic under the pen name "David Manning". The real critics were less enthusiastic, although A Knight's Tale had good results at the box office. Some of the critics compared this film with Ridley Scott's Gladiator, mainly because of the similar motive of a protagonist being involved in the ancient equivalent of a modern professional sport. Those two films are, however, very different, mainly because Helgeland, who also wrote the script, used light humour instead of pathos and melodrama. Heath Ledger, who was just starting his quick ascent into Hollywood stardom, doesn't deliver a particularly memorable performance, and even less can be said of Sossamon in a rather thankless role. The impression is, however, improved by a small but effective band of character actors who play supporting characters like Rufus Sewell as the villain, Mark Addy and Alan Tudyk as William's sidekicks and the charming Laura Fraser as a woman blacksmith. But everyone of them is overshadowed by Paul Bettany in the role of Geoffrey Chaucer, the famous medieval writer whose Canterbury Tales served as inspiration for Helgeland's script. Bettany delivers a very good performance of a very flawed and semi-humorous character who gives a specific flavour to the story. The mix of period adventure, deliberate anachronism and humour works very well, resulting in A Knight's Tale being significantly better film than its reputation might suggest.
RATING: 7/10 (+++)
Blog in Croatian https://draxblog.com
Blog in English https://draxreview.wordpress.com/
Leofinance blog https://leofinance.io/@drax.leo
Cent profile https://beta.cent.co/@drax
Minds profile https://www.minds.com/drax_rp_nc
Uptrennd profile https://www.uptrennd.com/user/MTYzNA
Unstoppable Domains: https://unstoppabledomains.com/?ref=3fc23fc42c1b417
Hiveonboard: https://hiveonboard.com?ref=drax
Bitcoin Lightning HIVE donations: https://v4v.app/v1/lnurlp/qrcode/drax
Rising Star game: https://www.risingstargame.com?referrer=drax
1Inch: https://1inch.exchange/#/r/0x83823d8CCB74F828148258BB4457642124b1328e
BTC donations: 1EWxiMiP6iiG9rger3NuUSd6HByaxQWafG
ETH donations: 0xB305F144323b99e6f8b1d66f5D7DE78B498C32A7
