“The Green Knight” modernizes a classic myth with a hypnotic tale of bravery and imperfection.
Courtesy of Lily Cannon | The Crow’s Nest
By Lily Cannon
“Knight most courteous, if you claim a fair, unarmored fight, we’ll see you have the same.”
The best thing a retelling of an old classic can do is adapt the bones of the story to fit the tastes of modern audiences.
Directors have taken this method to make certified award-winners (or at the very least nominees) like “Marie Antoinette” and “The Great Gatsby,” sewing contemporary references into a story that viewers have heard more dryly during history class.
Audiences witnessed this method in action more recently, with less success, in Guy Ritchie’s “King Arthur: Legend of the Sword” which turned the Arthurian legends into a Marvel Cinematic Universe-inspired superhero flick alongside Ritchie’s usual quick brain-numbing pacing.
“The Green Knight” sets itself apart from these commendable movies, and not only through the absence of pop music and tired quips. Director David Lowery achieves a genuine hit by trusting his viewers to sympathize with universal themes that have remained true since their foundation, long before the age of chivalric romances of which this story has been adapted from: redemption, love and of course, honor.
“The Green Knight,” as its title suggests, reworks the story “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” a less-adapted Arthurian tale. The protagonist, Sir Gawain (Dev Patel), although not yet a sir, must undergo a long perilous journey like his previously-knighted peers, one year after a mysterious green figure gives him a seemingly nonsensical duel, “Should he land a blow, let me strike him in return. I will return what was given to me.”
Gawain chops the figure’s head off, which almost certainly means death in return. Like most Arthurian legends, the mood is trippy and somber, illustrated by the usual indie embellishments of an A24 distributed film.
Unlike most adaptations, Gawain doesn’t follow the route of a typical hero. This is certainly the reason why this tale doesn’t appear in theaters as much as the story of Excalibur. Directors (sorry, Guy Ritchie) favor the courageous and conventionally masculine Arthur.
Thankfully, Lowery doesn’t shy away from the unfavorable traits of Gawain, and at some points, even dogs on him further in his moments of human cowardice.
Even if the story is not an exact recreation of the tale, Gawain’s development remains at the heart of the story. That, as well as the artistic cinematography, the talented cast and hallucinogenic storytelling are what make “The Green Knight” unique.
Don’t be fooled by the trailers, this movie doesn’t try to be “Lord of the Rings,” but it makes for a thoughtful epic nonetheless; a feat which is sadly rare in recent filmmaking.
Lily Cannon is a freshman English major at USF St. Petersburg.
