8/31/2023 0 Comments Medieval fantasy movies“The Green Knight” is a wildly compelling film, one that is happy to rely on a wildly-varied cinematographic sense of place and time Lowery runs aesthetically amok – in a controlled fashion – utilizing color and light in idiosyncratic and engaging ways. Such is his destiny, even as fear creeps in and he starts to doubt his ability to follow through on the terms of this magical, ineffable arrangement. He is forced again and again to choose, the forking paths nevertheless steering him inexorably to the final confrontation that he fears so deeply, yet cannot flee. ![]() We see verdant forests and blasted landscapes as he encounters ghosts and brigands, animal guides and distant creatures that defy description. What follows is a surreal and hallucinatory journey across the countryside as Gawain makes his way toward his destiny. Finally, with much trepidation and only after an admonishment from the King, Gawain sets off to locate the Green Chapel, the place the Green Knight has declared will play host to the fulfillment of their game. Gawain’s acclaim grows even as his anxiety about facing the knight increases. Confusion becomes fear when the decapitated Knight rises, takes up his head and rides laughing into the night after shouting a reminder of the terms of the “game.”Ī year passes. A nervous and confused Gawain strikes, severing the Knight’s head from his body. The Knight in turn lowers his weapons and offers his exposed neck. Amid nervous murmurs, Gawain accepts the challenge. The Knight offers up a challenge – a game of sorts – wherein he invites any of the warriors present to step to him any blow they land will be returned in kind in one year’s time. Meanwhile, Gawain’s mother and her associates perform some sort of ritual – one that leads to the sudden appearance at court of a mysterious supernatural being calling itself the Green Knight (Ralph Ineson, “Gunpowder Milkshake”). ![]() He wakes in a brothel on Christmas morning, alongside his regular lover Essel (Alicia Vickander, “The Glorias”), before rushing home to change before the Yuletide feast he receives a rebuke from his mother (Sarita Choudhury, “After Yang”) for his trouble.Īs Gawain sits at the feast, alongside the realm’s many knights, the King (Sean Harris, “The Banishing”) and Queen (Kate Dickie, “Wildfire”) invite him to sit with them. Gawain (Patel) is the nephew of the King. It is a story of the difference between responsibility and obligation, between honor and shame, all playing out through the eyes of a lone knight on a quest whose seeming purpose slowly crumbles with each step forward. It is a fantastic and strange tale of a man set upon a journey he doesn’t fully understand, victimized by his own hubris even as he ventures through a world that is steadily shifting around him. That’s mostly because it is also one of the most actively weird mainstream releases I’ve seen in some time – and that’s a good thing. The central performance is exquisite, which is key – anything less than excellence from your lead and this film simply collapses under its own weight. What I got was a sumptuous visual feast, an aesthetic wonder it’s truly beautiful to look at. It’s based on the 14th century chivalric romance “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” but beyond that and the knowledge that the wonderful Dev Patel stars, all I knew was what I half-remembered from having read the original text some 30 years ago. ![]() Writer-director David Lowery’s new film “The Green Knight” was just such a rewarding experience for me. So when the opportunity arises, it can be really rewarding. In this day of franchise fodder and omnipresent trailers, it can sometimes be tough to go into a film with little in the way of preconception.
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