Many viewers have left theatres across the country unsure about The Green Knight. Judging by its box-office performance, many people are unsure about even stepping into theatres for it.
The movie, at the time of writing, has an 88% critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes– certified fresh– but its audience score is sitting at a mediocre 50%. Going through the audience reviews, there are many posts saying that its hard to understand.
A24, the studio behind The Green Knight, might have been aware of its confusing nature because of promotional material put out explaining the background of the movie’s source material.
The Green Knight is based on the fourteenth century poem “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.” It’s known among scholars as a complex story that is unique for a number of reasons, including its distinct language and themes. Its complexity has been confusing students for decades. Although the movie and poem have their differences, they have their similarities too.
If you are confused about what the movie is about, or you’ve seen the movie and don’t understand what it was trying to say, looking at its source material might help illuminate some things about the production– though that in itself might be difficult. Lovers of the poem would say not to get discouraged by its complexity. The same advice could be given for the movie.
Dr. Dominick Grace is the chair of the English department at Brescia College. When asked what the poem is about, Dr. Grace said that question has a complicated answer.
“Despite the fact that it’s medieval romance– and you would think, therefore, probably a very straightforward and simple kind of narrative. It’s actually been tantalizingly difficult to interpret by scholars ever since they began looking at it. Personally, I think that its primary interest is a critique or an interrogation of the chivalric ideal. The Arthurian notion that knights are governed by honor and purity and chastity and a whole array of extremely idealistic and positive traits.”
The Gawain-Poet, he says, is not concerned with similar conventions of Arthurian legends.
“Medieval romance very frequently focuses on testing the fighting ability of knights. That the knight proves his prowess by being the best fighter as well as by having other positive traits. But that’s virtually non-existent in ‘Gawain.’ So the Gawain-Poet is, I think, clearly indicating that he’s far less interested in the notion of knights as warriors and much more interested in the notion of knights as models of virtuous behavior.”
Hollywood adaptations of Arthurian legends have a long history of focusing on the action and violence of medieval fantasy: from the newest King Arthur movie by Guy Ritchie to The First Knight, starring Sean Connery. This pattern is something which Dr. Grace is not a huge fan of.
“Being a visual and action driven medium, film very frequently goes to those sorts of alternatives. A good example is the Lord of the Rings movies, which I think are very, very good, don’t get me wrong, but they placed far more emphasis on the physical action than on what for me was the more interesting elements of Lord of the Rings– which is the moral dilemmas that the characters face. That’s much harder to depict in film. So it’s perhaps not surprising that as that series went on, the action sequences got longer and longer and longer. But you have to go to films expecting that they are not going to simply be literal translations of the text to the screen.”
Rather than action, the psychological and moral implications of Gawain’s actions are what the poet is mainly focused on. Although some scholars will disagree, it seems that the poem has a conclusive moral ending– one that is shared by the movie too.
“I think that the the poem ultimately comes down on the side that the ideal is not impossible, but certainly exceedingly difficult for Knights to measure up to. Gawain doesn’t really pass the test, ultimately. And this is itself an unusual feature of the poem. Usually the heroes win, right? Gawain doesn’t lose but he doesn’t pass. He doesn’t measure up to the expectations of the code. And part of that, I think, is because the poet is sort of glancing at the the inherent contradictions in the code itself.”
The Green Knight is not a conventional Hollywood fantasy movie. “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” is not typical either. The movie changed many things from the original story but regardless of those changes, they have their atypicality in common.
If you were left confused by the movie you are, at least, in good company.
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