Review of The Green Knight (2021) by Nomme_Du_Pleume — 08 Aug 2021

This will be a spoiler-free review.

That might seem like a silly precaution for a film based on a medieval story from the 14th century, but The Green Knight by David Lowery takes enough divergence from the source material that it may beThis will be a spoiler-free review.

That might seem like a silly precaution for a film based on a medieval story from the 14th century, but The Green Knight by David Lowery takes enough divergence from the source material that it may be best to watch the film with eyes as fresh as possible. On the other hand, the marketing of the film seems to have set audience expectations for disappointment. On my viewing, several people walked out of the film in frustration, and a couple to the right scoffed in disgust when the film ended. Although the trailer for the film does betrays some weirdness, audiences might be forgiven for expecting more action and whimsy akin to Terry Gilliam’s ‘The Brothers Grimm’, but this is not an action film, nor is the weirdness and surreal imagery of the film intended to suck the viewer into a fantastical setting and story. |.

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Instead, the components of the film are intended as an exploration of morality and masculinity. Coupled with the casting of Dev Patel as Gawain, this has been ‘divisive’ among some moviegoers; a certain type of person views ‘revision’ of the knight-errant as an attack on masculinity and Western Culture. However, in advance of viewing The Green Knight I did read Tolkien’s translation of the original poem. |.

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Although there are some narrative alterations, the major changes were in expanding the original tale, itself not exactly short. The original story has many interpretations, but to preserve some of the surprises of the film I will not get into detail on this beyond mentioning one aspect of both the story and the film. Scholars have discussed whether the Green Knight might not have ties to the Green Man of ancient, pagan times, and the time period of the story and the film is firmly centered around Christmas as well. Both pagan and religious iconography and virtue intertwine in the story, as both stories are about humility and “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” principles. Where The Green Knight (2021) diverges from the source material is in characterizing the struggle towards this virtue, showing the inner conflict, the duplicity with oneself and others, and the anxiety produced when striving towards a greatness that we know internally is ephemeral even when achieved. |.

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The changes from the original tale are inspired and interesting, and usually character focused. There are some other weak points in the retelling, however, namely with the CGI, which is not seamless and breaks immersion several times through weak animation. We accept that a duck fighting a goat has to be CGI, but it would be good if that wasn’t our only thought during a scene. Additionally, I found the scoring a bit unremarkable. |.

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A great deal of the movie is without dialogue, so careful editing and performance does heavy lifting throughout much of the film. Dev Patel plays Gawain like a college freshman on his first unsupervised visit out of town, which is to say, perfectly. Sean Harris plays King Arthur with the wisdom of his years in his voice and body language, and the affection he shows in the film is immediately believable. Anais Rizzo has a powerful monologue in the third act which also serves as it’s own commentary on the original story. There is substance here, something to reflect on and question, if you don’t reject the invitation to do so completely. I highly recommend the film.