Movie – The Green Knight

Movies Aug 3, 2021

Overview:

The Green Knight is another one of the old folktales and stories related to King Arthur. The Green Knight focuses on King Arthurs nephew Gawain. Gawain is a one who has been growing up with feelings of not being able to accomplish what he is setting out to do. He has ambitions but feels he is not able to complete them. During a Christmas dining with other legends around him The Green Knight comes in with a game that is pretty simple on the surface. One knight is to strike him to gain his axe but in return, the next Christmas the knight who strikes him is to come to his chapel and receive an equivalent blow back. It is bound by simple terms but the mental aspect of it tolls heavy as Gawains blow was chopping off The Green Knights head. Gawains equivalent blow would be to lose his life.

Gawains journey begins on his travels to this Green Chapel. Along the way there are several challenges he is faced with that vary greatly. Along his entire journey the thought of his life being lsot is weighing on him greatly as he believes to know how it will end. He puts his honor in question the entire time. Wanting to give up several times and turn away from the game he had accepted.

Each challenge posed to him brings forth different thoughts and emotions inside Gawain. From having everything stolen away and starving to lust. He is alone the entire time on his journey making it harder for him since he could have given up at any time but lost his personal honor by doing so by not keeping to his word. By the end of the film when confronted by the equivalent blow, we are shown one more alt route of what was to come if he was not true to his word and self.

Visuals/Music:

Visuals throughout were pretty good with well taken shots of every character. The main downside I would say is the dynamic range at times making things a bit hard to see clearly. That could have been due to the theater room playing it so would say it might be a mute point but not too sure until it comes on bd release. Other than that the cgi is decent and most of the time blends into the world with only a few scenes where it can break immersion.

Music is a bit 2 sided, at times it matches real well but at the same time the films pacing can make the music feel off. It’s a very slow paced film due to being based off an epic tale from the past that has probably been padded out and changed over the years to what we see today. Overall id say the music is good enough though and hold to what the film is going for.

Final Thoughts:

For those interested in Arthurian tales and epics, would recommend it but for majority of people who just want action, fights and Tom Clancy style action then give it a pass. It’s a slower tales told through the film with long hang times on scenes that most would not do in modern film to appease masses. It’s a good film that illustrates the tale adequately though but can feel quite boring at times due to its pacing, but the pacing is like this for a reason.