A Knight’s Tale (2001)

This review includes full spoilers. Proceed accordingly. For other movie reviews from me, click HERE:

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Rating: PG-13
Director: Brian Helgeland
Writers: Brian Helgeland
Stars: Heath Ledger, Mark Addy, Alan Tudyk, Rufus Sewell, Shannyn Sossamon, Paul Bettany, Laura Fraser
Release Date: May 11, 2001 (United States)
Run time: 2 hours, 12 minutes

THE PLOT:

(via wiki)

At a jousting tournament in 14th-century Europe, squires William Thatcher, Roland, and Wat discover that their master, Sir Ector, has died. With one more pass, he could have won the tournament. Destitute, William wears Sir Ector’s armour to impersonate him, taking the prize.

Although only nobles are allowed in tournaments, William is inspired to compete and win more prizes. Roland and Wat would rather take their winnings and leave, but William convinces them to stay and help him train. While traveling, they encounter a young Geoffrey Chaucer, who is also destitute and agrees to forge a patent of nobility so William can enter, assuming the name of “Sir Ulrich von Liechtenstein” from Gelderland. But William is brought before Simon the Summoner and Peter the Pardoner: Chaucer has a gambling problem and is in their debt. William demands Chaucer be released and promises payment.

During the competition, William’s armour is badly damaged; he goads Kate, a female blacksmith, into repairing it without payment. He wins the tournament’s sword event, enabling him to pay Chaucer’s debt. In the joust, he faces Sir Thomas Colville, who withdraws from the tournament after being injured by William, though they exchange a ceremonial pass so that Colville can retain the honour of never having failed to complete a match.

The proceedings are observed by Jocelyn, a noblewoman with whom William has become infatuated, and Count Adhemar of Anjou, a rival both in the joust and for Jocelyn’s heart. In the final joust, Adhemar defeats William. William vows revenge, but Adhemar taunts him, “You have been weighed, you have been measured, and you have been found wanting.“

Kate joins William’s party and forges new lightweight armour. In the following tournament, Adhemar and William are both assigned to tilt against Sir Thomas Colville, but they learn that he is actually Prince Edward, the heir apparent to the English throne. Unwilling to risk harming him, Adhemar withdraws; but William chooses to joust against Edward anyway and then addresses him by name, further earning his respect.

Adhemar is called away to the Battle of Poitiers, and William achieves several victories in his absence. William proves his love for Jocelyn by complying when she first asks him to deliberately lose (in contrast to knights who promise to win “in her name”), and then, just before he would be eliminated, to win the tournament after all.

The group travels to London for the World Championship. William recalls leaving his father to squire for Sir Ector and learn to become a knight, hoping to “change his stars”. Adhemar has also arrived in London and announces that he is in negotiations with Jocelyn’s father for her hand in marriage. William dominates at the tournament, but is seen visiting his now-blind father. Adhemar alerts the authorities to William’s true identity.

William is arrested and placed in the pillory, but is defended from the hostile crowd by his friends. Just as the mob reaches its frenzy, Prince Edward reveals himself. He acknowledges William’s honour and ability to inspire his friends’ dedication that is in the best traditions of knighthood. Edward then announces that William is in fact descended from an ancient noble family, and knights him “Sir William”. He asserts that as Prince-royal, his declaration is “beyond contestation”.

William returns to the tournament to face Adhemar in the final match, but Adhemar cheats with an illegally sharpened lance, seriously injuring William. Entering the final pass, William is losing by two lances and must unhorse Adhemar to win. He demands to be stripped of his armour while Chaucer buys time by performing the introduction of William that he omitted earlier. William, unable to hold the lance due to his injuries, asks Wat to strap it to his arm.

Finally, William tilts against Adhemar, with his father and Jocelyn in attendance. Bellowing his true name as he charges, he knocks him to the ground with a crushing blow; Adhemar experiences a vision of William and his friends mockingly telling him that he has been “weighed, measured, and found wanting”. With this final blow, William wins the world championship. In the ensuing celebration, as Jocelyn and William embrace, Chaucer remarks that he should write an account of these events.

My Review

This movie really shouldn’t work. It’s an anachronistic blend of the 20th century and Medieval times (musically, linguistically, and culturally.) And then, once you get beyond that, it has a relatively predictable sports movie plot. The underdog works hard, montages well, finds a supportive group of friends, finds love, overcomes a cheating villain, and then becomes a champion – with everyone living happily ever after. Nevertheless, I love A Knight’s Tale. If the plot is predictable, that’s because when well executed the formula is satisfying. You don’t have to hate a fairy tale just because it finds a new way to affirm the same good moral lessons. The anachronisms make the story fun without taking you out of the story. I got used to them quickly and then stopped noticing them altogether. Besides, orchestral music in place of classic rock music would also be anachronistic The biggest reason that this movie works though is that it delivers tremendous, heartfelt performances from really talented actors and actresses.

Let’s actually start with just a look at the cast. It’s pretty incredible that so many highly acclaimed actors were in one film. The four main characters were played by Heath Ledger, Alan Tudyk, Mark Addy, and Paul Bettany, with each of the four still in the launch faze of their stardom. They all gave outstanding performances here, too, and you can make the case that this movie launched all four of them to greater heights. Ledger grounded the movie emotionally, effectively selling William as a would-be knight and as a relatable but great human character. Bettany in particular elevated the material into something that felt vaguely Shakespeare adjacent, walking a line wherein his words were both comedy and sincere. One of my other favorite performances was from Rufus Sewell, the villainous Adhemar. A hero is often only as good as his villain and Sewell sold his role well, from the petty way he cared about “Sir Ulric” having success in jousting tournaments (despite having concerns which should have been much weightier), to the creepy way he talked about Josslyn as if she were a trophy. He didn’t make the mistake of overselling his wickedness. He came across as restrained, which actually added to the sense of unease I felt every time he was on the screen.

To be blunt, I’m not sure if this movie would have worked at all with lesser performers. Fortunately, we never need to know whether that’s true or not.

That’s not to say that the screenplay was bad. It wasn’t at all. This movie is one of the most quotable films from the early 2000s. My MySpace bio used to be filled with quotes borrowed from Bettany’s Chaucer. Did I once spend a year in silence just to better understand the sound of a whisper? My digital footprint used to make such claims. However perfectly Bettany delivered those lines, writer/director Brian Helgeland deserves credit for penning them.

The story is also filled with heart. The scene of William parting from his dad and then their subsequent reunion was a tear-jerker. The love story was Shakespearean in the sense that it sold a lot of its emotional turbulence very effectively even if those feelings were of the unwise and young variety. Other than the story of William seeing his father again, I was probably most touched by the scene of the Prince knighting William. William and the Prince’s prior interactions, which were sold earlier in the moment as evidence of William’s noble character but not as more than that, paid off unexpectedly and powerfully.

A Knight’s Tale is maybe best remembered for its soundtrack. The classic rock anthems worked, once you got used to them. However, one thing I think the film did really well was intermingling some traditional medieval sounds with rock music sounds, during the orchestral scoring. That helped to smooth over the back and forth between the jock jams and the weightier orchestral pieces during the film’s more emotional scenes.

The really great orchestral piece that plays while William is being knighted is called Fratres, by Arvo Part, an Estonian composer. You might know it better from its use in “There Will Be Blood.” I’ll link it below. It’s incredible that this was in the same movie soundtrack as “The Boys are Back in Town” by Thin Lizzy and it blended together and made sense.

If I have any gripes with the movie, it’s that it takes several unnecessary swipes at Medieval Christianity. Why does William need to blaspheme by saying he’d pray the Rosary to Josslyn? Even with Tudyk’s Wat calling him out for saying that, that didn’t feel as though it added anything to the story. That was the worst offense that I remember, but there was a kind of cloud over the film (when it came up) of the religious authorities being stodgy or insincere. I felt as though the screenplay could have presented rebellious and upwardly mobile youth while pulling some of those punches, or at least providing more balance.

Overall, as I’ve said, I am a big fan of this movie. It’s a great visually, with fun action sets and costuming that made me feel as though I were in Europe several centuries ago. The acting is incredible, and the screenplay is both funny and filled with heart. The anachronistic rock songs throughout the movie worked for me, too. I definitely recommend this movie if you haven’t seen it, or if you haven’t seen it in a while.

Have you seen A Knight’s Tale? If so, what did you think?