The Green Knight was theatrically released in the United States on July 30, 2021, by A24. The film received acclaim from critics for its cinematography, music, acting (particularly Patel's), production values, and Lowery's originality, direction, and writing. It grossed over $20 million against a budget of $15 million.
Plot
On Christmas morning, Gawain is awakened in a brothel by his lover, a common woman named Essel. He returns to the king's court, where he is scolded by his mother. Gawain attends a feast at the Round Table with his uncle, King Arthur, who invites Gawain to sit at his right hand though he has yet to acquire a story to tell of himself, the mark of a true knight. Elsewhere, in a tower, Gawain's mother performs a magic rite that summons the mysterious Green Knight.[6] He barges into the king's court and states that any knight who lands a blow on him will win his green axe but must travel to the Green Chapel and receive an equal blow in return on the following Christmas. Gawain takes up the challenge, and the king stresses to Gawain that it is only a game. The knight yields, and Gawain, now uncertain as to the nature of this game but wielding the king's sword, decapitates him. The knight rises, retrieves his severed head, repeats the requisite date to Gawain, and rides away laughing.
Gawain lives on the story of his deed and revels all year. King Arthur reminds him to uphold his side of the challenge as time draws near, again reminding him that it is only a game. Gawain departs on horseback for the Green Chapel. He takes the green axe and he wears a green girdle given to him by his mother. She says that as long as he wears it, he shall suffer no harm.
On his journey, he crosses a battlefield littered with dead warriors, where he meets a scavenging boy. The boy directs Gawain to a stream that leads to the Green Chapel and requests payment. Gawain flips him a single coin. Shortly afterward, the boy and two others ambush Gawain and steal the axe, girdle, and horse, leaving Gawain tied up. After hallucinating his own death from poison mushrooms, he crawls to his sword and uses it to cut himself free before pursuing the thieves.
At nightfall, Gawain arrives at an abandoned cottage and falls asleep in its bed. He is awakened by a young woman named Winifred, who asks him to retrieve something that she has lost from a nearby spring. He asks what he will receive in return, but is rebuffed. She asks Gawain to find her skull and Gawain realizes she is a ghost. He asks her if she is a spirit or a person, to which she asks "What's the difference?" He finds her skull and reunites it with her skeletal remains. The next morning, he finds the axe has been returned to him.
Gawain befriends a fox who accompanies him on his journey and they encounter a group of giants. They reach a castle inhabited by a Lord who informs him that the Green Chapel is nearby and invites Gawain to stay until closer to Christmas. The Lord's lady resembles Essel; she makes seductive moves toward Gawain and during one of these efforts steals his token of Essel. The Lord and Gawain agree that the Lord will trade any prize from his hunt for whatever Gawain receives at the castle.
The next morning, the Lady presents Gawain with the protective green girdle, which she claims to have made herself. In exchange for the girdle, Gawain allows her to masturbate him and stains the girdle in the process. Gawain hurriedly flees the castle, but encounters the Lord in the forest, who gives him a kiss. The Lord reveals that he has captured Gawain's fox on his hunt and releases it to Gawain, but Gawain does not offer him the girdle.
Gawain reaches a stream where a boat is waiting. The fox speaks to Gawain, imploring him to turn back. Gawain chases off the fox and takes the boat to the chapel where the Knight sits in hibernation for Christmas day. Gawain waits through the night and the Green Knight awakens on Christmas morning. The Green Knight swings the axe and Gawain flinches. Gawain kneels for the blow again. At the last moment, he scrambles away apologizing on the way out. He flees back to the king's court on the horse he found.
Sometime later, Gawain becomes king after his uncle's death. Essel bears him a son, but Gawain abandons her and takes the child. He marries a noblewoman instead, still wearing the green girdle while consummating the marriage. His son comes of age and dies in battle. Gawain becomes a reviled king afterwards. Sometime later, his castle is under siege by unknown enemies and his family slowly leaves him. When the enemies start to break in, Gawain removes the green girdle, which he had worn the entire time, and his head falls from his shoulders.
It then turns out the entire series of events is just a vision and Gawain is still standing in the lair of the Green Knight. Gawain kneels, removes the girdle, and tells the Knight that he is ready. The Green Knight then quotes "Well done, my brave knight". He then gently runs his finger across Gawain's neck, points passed him, and playfully states "Now, off with your head" as he smiles warmly.
Near the end of the credits, a little girl picks up a crown she finds on the ground and playfully puts it on.
The giants are motion-captured by Andrea Deaskovic, Melinda Dempsey, Aoibheann Garry, Isabel Friosi, Rachel Quinn, Hannah Sjoden, and Lucy Waters
Production
Plaque at Cahir Castle, Ireland, commemorating its use as a filming location for The Green Knight.The Wonderful Barn, used for filming as the "crooked tower."
Lowery was inspired by fantasy films of the 1980s such as Willow and Excalibur.[17] Initially, while writing the script, Lowery did not intend for Morgan le Fay to be Gawain's mother, but felt that altering the story this way allowed for her to be more naturally introduced into the narrative. Lowery stated that the intercut scenes of le Fay casting the spell that summons the Green Knight were not part of the original screenplay. However, Lowery was impressed with actress Sarita Choudhury's work with the character and the scene was written and storyboarded to be included in the Round Table scene. Lowery spent well over a year editing the scene together. The decision to design le Fay's spell in the form of a handwritten letter was also due to Lowery's fondness for letter writing, found in his other works as well.[6] The inclusion of Saint Winifred was inspired by the mention of the Holy Head (Holywell) in the original poem.[17] The highway robbery is an allusion to the 1975 film Barry Lyndon, while the battlefield where Gawain first encounters the robber is inspired by the Battle of Badon.[17] While Gawain's ultimate fate is left ambiguous at the end of the film, Lowery originally shot a more "explicit" and "definitive" ending, but felt that it would affect audiences' feelings coming away from the film.[17]
Set designs, such as the scene at the Round Table, included hand painted matte paintings to extend the set, a technique Lowery favored from films in the '80s and '90s. Time constraints with shooting forced cinematographer Andrew Palermo and production designer Jade Healy to plan how lighting would be built into the Round Table scene ahead of time.[6]
Costume designer Malgosia Turzanska drew upon South American designs when designing the crowns worn by Arthur and Guinevere. Lowery also felt the designs reinforced the "saintly" status of Arthur and Guinevere as representations of Christendom in the West. The decorative plaques on Arthur's cloak referenced the creative team's various interpretations of King Arthur, and also included references to Lowery's other works, such as A Ghost Story.[6] Turzanska also designed the golden cape worn by Gawain to represent the character's golden mantle from the original poem.[17]
No digital visual effects were used in creating the Green Knight during the Round Table scene. Lowery preferred this in order to give the character presence on set. Actor Ralph Ineson wore prosthetics designed by Barry Gower. Scenes involving the horse alternated with a false mount that was wheeled around with a dolly, after the initial horse used for the scenes would not cooperate with Ineson. Lowery stated that the crew used practical effects to make the Green Knight appear larger, such as mounting Ineson on platforms.[6] Digital effects were later used during the Green Knight's hibernation scene, including subtly transforming the knight's face into that of the other cast members.[17] Speaking about the subtle humor and lightness incorporated into the otherwise dark script, Lowery stated that near the end of the film, he directed Ineson to portray the Green Knight as Santa Claus.[18]
Themes
Lowery describes the film as being about the importance of comporting oneself with integrity and goodness over being concerned with one's legacy.[6] Though the question of Gawain's ultimate fate is left intentionally ambiguous, Lowery stated that he wanted the possibility of Gawain being beheaded to be "a positive thing... He faces his fate bravely, and there's honor and integrity in that. But that doesn't mean that he's dead, he's killed. He received the blow that he was dealt, and all is set right within the universe of the film."[17] The after-credits scene showing a young girl putting on a crown has been seen as "a tease of an alternate life that Gawain leads as king of Camelot, with his daughter (possibly even mothered by Essel) a sign of the happiness he found."[19]
The complicated relationship between Morgan le Fay and Gawain written for the film also evoked Lowery's experiences with his mother and needing to be pushed to stand on his own as an adult.[17]
The film also deals with the conflict between mankind and nature.[17][18] Lowery stated that monologue by Vikander's Lady Bertilak reflects both the symbolism of Arthurian Christian civilization being in conflict with paganism and nature and his own sentiment that nature will inevitably win over civilization and bring peace. The Green Knight's depiction as a tree-like entity also depicts nature and paganism invading the dull sanctum of the Round Table and Arthur's kingdom.[20] This is further emphasized by Lowery's decision to portray Arthur and Guinevere as sickly, alluding to the waning control of the civilization they represent.[17]
The mass closures of cinemas brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic forced the release of The Green Knight to be delayed from May 2020 to July 2021.
Originally, The Green Knight was scheduled to have its world premiere at the South by Southwest film festival (SXSW) on March 16, 2020,[21] with a full theatrical release following on May 29.[22] The COVID-19 pandemic, however, forced the cancellation of SXSW and a mass closure of movie theatres worldwide. With no timeframe for when cinemas might reopen, some studios opted to release their new films through video on demand (VOD). Lowery told the A24 Project podcast and IndieWire that he would prefer The Green Knight to see a theatrical release, but that he was ultimately not in control over whether or not it opened on VOD.[23]
Later, Lowery revealed that he would have been unhappy with the cut of The Green Knight that was set to debut at SXSW, and that he spent six months during the pandemic re-editing the film into something with which he could be satisfied.[24] In December 2020, A24 announced that The Green Knight would receive a theatrical-only release, opening in US cinemas on July 30, 2021.[25] One streaming video option was available in the US: The A24 Screening Room allowed viewers to purchase a $20 ticket that allowed them to stream The Green Knight, with an additional Q&A session with the cast and crew, during a four-hour window of their choice on the night of August 18.[26] Although the US release progressed as planned, Entertainment Film Distributors chose to pull The Green Knight from UK cinemas two weeks before its scheduled theatrical release on August 6, citing the surge in COVID-19 cases from the Delta variant.[27] After some deliberation, Entertainment opted to release The Green Knight simultaneously in theaters and through Amazon Prime Video on September 24 in the UK.[28]
Home media
The Green Knight was released on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, DVD, and digitally through Lionsgate Home Entertainment on October 12, 2021.[29] While the Blu-ray release contained a number of special features that highlighted certain elements of the film's production, no deleted or alternate scenes from The Green Knight were included.[30]
Reception
Box office
The Green Knight grossed $17.1 million in the United States and Canada, and $1.7 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $18.8 million.[4][3]
In the United States and Canada, The Green Knight was released alongside Jungle Cruise and Stillwater, and was projected to gross around $4 million from 2,790 theaters in its opening weekend.[31] The film made $2.9 million on its first day, including $750,000 from Thursday night previews. It ended up slightly over-performing, debuting to $6.8 million and finished second at the box office behind Jungle Cruise. The film played best in big markets such as New York City, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.[32][33] The film fell 62% to $2.6 million in its second weekend, finishing sixth, then made $1.6 million in its third weekend.[34][35]
Critical response
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 89% based on 332 reviews, with an average rating of 8/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "The Green Knight honors and deconstructs its source material in equal measure, producing an absorbing adventure that casts a fantastical spell."[36]Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 85 out of 100 based on 56 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[37] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale.[32]
Writing for Vulture, Alison Willmore said that the film "is about someone who keeps waiting for external forces to turn him into the gallant, heroic figure he believes he should be", and added: "at the film's heart is a lesson that's as timeless as any legend — travel as far as you like, but you'll never be able to leave yourself behind."[38] Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com gave the film a score of 4 out of 4 stars, describing the film as "one of the most memorable films of the year, a fascinating swirl of masculinity, temptation, heroism, and religion", adding: "It's a film that embeds the concept of storytelling and performance into its narrative ... while also weaving its own enchanting spell on audiences."[39] Barry Hertz of The Globe and Mail described the film as "a beautiful, haunting and enigmatic work that reckons with the folklore's grave and tragic elements to deliver a masterpiece of blood, sex and magic", and praised Patel's performance as Gawain.[40] John Nugent of Empire gave the film a score of 5 out of 5 stars, describing it as "a rivetingly weird and exceptionally beautiful fantasy film that offers no easy answers but ponders the biggest questions", and wrote that the film was "Revisionist Fantasy, doing for the genre what the likes of Robert Altman or Alejandro Jodorowsky did with their Revisionist Westerns: bringing an avant-garde flair and an ambiguous morality to a previously occasionally cheesy and childlike world."[41]
Keith Watson of Slant Magazine gave the film a score of 2.5 out of 4 stars, describing it as "a self-consciously revisionist take on Camelot lore", and wrote that the film "smooths out the enduring mysteries, opaque psychology, and narrative idiosyncrasies of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, resulting in a work that's only superficially more daring and enigmatic than its source material."[42] Simon Abrams of TheWrap wrote that "while there's a lot of commendable chutzpah and curious longing baked into The Green Knight, the movie's never as compelling as it is unusual."[43]
↑ Despite being identified as Lady Bertilak, she is just credited as "The Lady".
↑ Despite being identified as Morgan le Fay, she is just credited as "Mother"
↑ Despite being identified as King Arthur, he is just credited as "King".
↑ Despite being identified as Queen Guinevere, she is just credited as "Queen".
↑ Despite being identified as Merlin, he is just credited as "Magician".
Related Research Articles
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late 14th-century chivalric romance in Middle English alliterative verse. The author is unknown; the title was given centuries later. It is one of the best-known Arthurian stories, with its plot combining two types of folk motifs: the beheading game and the exchange of winnings. Written in stanzas of alliterative verse, each of which ends in a rhyming bob and wheel, it draws on Welsh, Irish, and English stories, as well as the French chivalric tradition. It is an important example of a chivalric romance, which typically involves a hero who goes on a quest which tests his prowess. It remains popular in modern English renderings from J. R. R. Tolkien, Simon Armitage, and others, as well as through film and stage adaptations.
Alexander Medawar Garland is an English author, screenwriter, and director. He rose to prominence with his novel The Beach (1996). He received praise for writing the Danny Boyle films 28 Days Later (2002) and Sunshine (2007), as well as Never Let Me Go (2010) and Dredd (2012). In video games, he co-wrote Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (2010) and was a story supervisor on DmC: Devil May Cry (2013).
Lancelot du Lac is a 1974 French fantasy drama film written and directed by Robert Bresson. It retells the story of Lancelot and Guinevere's love as Camelot and the Round Table fall apart. It is based on Arthurian legend and medieval romances, especially the Lancelot-Grail cycle, and the works of Chrétien de Troyes.
The Green Knight is a heroic character of the Matter of Britain, originating in the 14th-century poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and the related medieval work The Greene Knight. His true name is revealed to be Bertilak de Hautdesert in Sir Gawain, while The Greene Knight names him "Bredbeddle". The Green Knight later features as one of Arthur's greatest champions in the fragmentary ballad King Arthur and King Cornwall, again with the name "Bredbeddle".
Joel Edgerton is an Australian actor and filmmaker. He is known for his portrayal of Will McGill on the first two seasons of the Australian drama series The Secret Life of Us (2001–02), and for playing Owen Lars in the Star Wars films Attack of the Clones (2002) and Revenge of the Sith (2005), a role he reprised in the Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022). For his portrayal of Richard Loving in the 2016 historical drama Loving, he received a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture.
Ralph Michael Ineson is an English actor and narrator. Known for his deep and rough Yorkshire-accented voice, he is perhaps best known as Chris Finch in the BBC sitcom The Office (2001).
Sword of the Valiant: The Legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a 1984 dramatic fantasy film directed by Stephen Weeks and starring Miles O'Keeffe, Trevor Howard, Lila Kedrova, Cyrielle Clair, Leigh Lawson, Peter Cushing, and Sean Connery. The film is loosely based on the poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, written in the late 14th century, but the narrative differs substantially. It was the second time Weeks had adapted the traditional tale into a film. His first effort was Gawain and the Green Knight (1973).
Dev Patel is a British actor and filmmaker. He has received various accolades, including a British Academy Film Award and nominations for an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards. Patel was included in Time's list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2024.
Lady Bertilak are names given by some modern critics to a character in the medieval poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, though the poem itself only ever calls her "the lady". She is ordered by her husband, Sir Bertilak de Hautdesert, alias the Green Knight, to test Sir Gawain's purity.
Alicia Amanda Vikander is a Swedish actress. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, and nominations for two Golden Globe Awards and three British Academy Film Awards.
A24 Films LLC, commonly referred to as A24, is an American independent entertainment company that specializes in film and television production, as well as film distribution. The company is based in Manhattan.
David Lowery is an American filmmaker.
Lion is a 2016 Australian biographical drama film directed by Garth Davis from a screenplay by Luke Davies based on the 2013 non-fiction book A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley. The film stars Dev Patel, Sunny Pawar, Rooney Mara, David Wenham, and Nicole Kidman, as well as Abhishek Bharate, Divian Ladwa, Priyanka Bose, Deepti Naval, Tannishtha Chatterjee, and Nawazuddin Siddiqui. It tells the true story of how Brierley, 25 years after being separated from his family in India, sets out to find them. It was a joint production between Australia and the United Kingdom.
Barry Keoghan is an Irish actor. His accolades include a BAFTA Award, along with nominations for an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards. In 2020, he was listed at number 27 on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors.
Ari Aster is an American filmmaker. After garnering initial recognition for the short film The Strange Thing About the Johnsons (2011), he became best known for writing and directing Hereditary (2018), Midsommar (2019), and Beau Is Afraid (2023), all of which were released by A24. His films have been noted for their unsettling combination of horror, dark comedy, and depictions of graphic violence. He co-founded the production company Square Peg with Danish producer Lars Knudsen in 2018.
The beheading game is a literary trope found in Irish mythology and medieval chivalric romance. The trope consists of a stranger who arrives at a royal court and challenges a hero to an exchange of blows: the hero may decapitate the stranger, but the stranger may then inflict the same wound upon the hero. The supernatural nature of the stranger, which makes this possible, is only revealed when he retrieves his severed head. When the hero submits himself to the return blow, he is rewarded for his valour and is left with only a minor wound. The hero is seen as coming of age by undergoing the exchange of blows, and his symbolic death and rebirth is represented by the feigned return blow.
Ley Line Entertainment, LLC is an American independent film production company founded in 2018 by Theresa Steele Page and Tim Headington. The company produced the films Light from Light (2019) Miss Juneteenth (2020), The Green Knight (2021) and Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022).
The Green Knight (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the score album composed by Daniel Hart to the 2021 film of the same name released by Milan Records on July 30, 2021. The film, directed, written, edited, and produced by David Lowery, adapted from the 14th-century poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, stars Dev Patel, Alicia Vikander, Joel Edgerton, Sarita Choudhury, Sean Harris, and Ralph Ineson.
Nicholas Ashe Bateman is an artist, filmmaker, actor and the founder of the award-winning visual effects, design and animation company Maere Studios. As a writer and director, his acclaimed debut feature film - the microbudget The Wanting Mare was released in 2021. In addition to writing and directing, Bateman did all visual effects, editing, producing, and also acted in the film. In 2022, he directed and animated the music video for Father John Misty's 'Funny Girl.'
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
