THE GREEN KNIGHT (2020)

Because it apparently gets pretty surreal, especially in the latter half. Probably puts off a lot of mainstream viewers, but the critics enjoy its audacity. Apparently it also embraces a lot of the ambiguities of the original poem, so that might not satisfy someone looking for a more conventional adventure story. Myself, it’s the first movie since In the Heights that I’m eager to see in a theater.

sounds pretty good to me… I think I am in, cinemas are showing it here, too

Huh. Now I’ve gone from having no interest to having some interest. There’s not exactly a lot of plot to the poem, so I can’t imagine either a literal adaptation or a Hollywoodised version would be particularly successful, but something that captures the spirit without trying to shoehorn in a conventional plot? That could be something worth watching.

somehow the trailer reminded me of Taintend Grail: Conquest. It has this dark arthurian legend tone…

That’s not true, is it? I mean, there’s a strong problem for the hero, a central challenge to his virtue in the middle, and a pretty satisfying–if a little strange and medieval–ending. Again, definitely ambiguities about what’s good and bad, worthy and unworthy. But I actually think there’s a strong core plot. Granted, it’s been years since I read it.

C+ on cinemascore. Which is the bleeding heart of philistines everywhere.

I loved this. I think? I’m not sure. At the very least, I loved large chunks of it. Don’t know how I feel about it as a whole work.

I too loved this movie. I wasn’t sure I did at first, but I can’t stop thinking about it.

This is a complete inversion of the Arthurian formula, in that it’s about a knight who, beat by beat, fails every test of chivalry and honor put in front of him. What’s amazing about the film is that by inverting that formula, and having Sir Gawain fail these tests, it manages to make the point of the importance of chivalry and honor even more forcefully than the original myth. It’s Elseworlds by way of Excalibur. The Green Knight is the legend of Sir Gawain not as an epic of bravery, but as a cautionary tale. It owes just as much (or more) to Last Temptation of Christ as it does Excalibur, and it’s a better film for it.

What I will say in non-spoiler text is expect this movie to be divisive. It’s going to make Medieval Studies majors just as angry as it is going to make the Marvel fanboys who were mislead by A24’s ballsy marketing into thinking this was going to be another summer action epic.

I will say, the audience in my screening hated it. A couple walked out, and there was audible anger at the final shot.

Same! There were a bunch of walkouts, and at the end, I heard someone saying to their annoyed friend: “Well, it’s not a fucking Marvel movie, dude.” The user reviews on this one are hysterical too. All the right people are angry about this movie, so if you love movies idiots hate, consider that an enthusiastic thumbs up.

I didn’t expect this movie to try my patience as much as it did or to be as challenging to decipher. But the filmmaking was always there to admire even when I was struggling with the plot and its confusing ambiguities. Even though I didn’t love it, I’m glad I saw it on the big screen.

This article answered about 4 of my 600 questions.

That’s an interesting interview, which I think stresses what a good movie it is, in that I disagree with the director’s own interpretation of some of the events—as, apparently, did his star and producer. But many interpretations are valid!

Lowery says: “Morgana’s trick with the Green Knight and the Lady and the bet are all part of an effort to push her layabout son into the world and test his mettle.” This is not my interpretation at all. Morgana’s trick with the Green Knight is a plot to make her son the next King, which is what is shown coming to pass in the extended dream sequence. She summons the Green Knight; she gives Gawain a belt which, she says, will allow him to come back to Camelot without injury, regardless of what happens on his adventure. She is also the voice of the fox who watches over Gawain, and urges him to turn back at the end, before he meets the Green Knight.

Morgana is usually shown in Arthurian legend plotting against Arthur, and trying to put her own son on the throne. My interpretation in The Green Knight is that her scheme is for her son to have an epic off-screen adventure which—regardless of whether or not he conducts that quest with bravery, chivalry, and honor, which are not virtues that Morgana cares about—will make the childless Arthur name Gawain as his successor.

The only thing that can thwart that plan is if Gawain dies, which is why she gives him the belt. When Gawain takes it off before completing the Beheading Game at the end, he effectively embraces the same chivalric virtues he has spent the entire film failing to uphold. It is at that moment that he becomes a knight.

Your interpretation matches my own, and I agree it’s more satisfying than the director’s take.

The commentary in this thread has me very intrigued.

For those interested, I found this translation of the epic poem online. I imported it into google docs so I could change the font size.

I hated the pocorn guy sitting next to me. What kind of person munches his fucking popcorn all the way through this movie??

I loved everything else about it! And the leads Dev Patel and Alicia Vikander are so great.

It is in the tradition of that other Beowulf and Grendel movie, not the animated one (I liked that, too). But the other one had this rough medieval look and feeling, too. I call it “hard fantasy”. My favourite will always and forever be Excalibur, but this one had great atmosphere, too.

This may be the dumbest article I’ve read about a movie.

Yes… Marvel invented telling stories about supporting characters. You wouldn’t have Green Knight without Disney+ Marvel shows.

Idiot.

Sounds like YOU’RE the one doing the Screen Rant!

The author seems to think that Gawain was a minor character in the poem Gawain and the Green Knight.