The Green Knight (2022)

[Greg]

I recorded this during the free weekend. I think it is on Showtime.

The full title should be Sir Gawain and The Green Knight. The trailers made it look good. The trailers lied. What a slog. Gawain is a feckless and so far it has been about two hours of him being used and abused with lost of atmospheric lighting conditions for him to navigate. I kept wanting to turn it off but I kept thinking, much like Gawain, that it must get better. But it doesn't.

I didn't finish it. I probably have another half hour left. I'm sure all the good stuff are in that half hour.

[Greg]

Oh, boy. There was still another 45 minutes of this. At this time, I would like to apologize to The Queen for making her go through this. At the end she googled the story of Sir Gawain and then looked at me in disgust. She's not wrong.

This was bad. Real bad. Totally bad. The gist of the story is you chop off my head and get to keep my axe. Then a year later, because the green knight who didn't die when getting his head chopped, gets to chop off your head. Hope you have the same powers. Who would ever enter into that deal? And what happens in between? Nothing. Wandering in the forest. Lots of moody shots. Lots of weird discussions that go nowhere. If it is allegory for something the Allegory.

Eventually in the movie, Sir Gawain goes off to keep his end of the bargain. I think I would skip that. Does he have directions besides go six days north to the Green Chapel? Nope. Is Gawain good at tracking? Nope? Is he wet and miserable for most of the journey? Obviously. Does he get ambushed and robbed? Of course. Does he make friends with a fox? Why not?

He does end up at a castle where the Lord and Lady know of his quest. The Lord hunts every day and the Lady tries to seduce Gawain every day all while an old blind woman looks on. All these are parts of the original texts. The lady, after she jerks off Gawain, gives Gawain a magic sash which used to be Gawain's magic sash but that was stolen during the ambush. Gawain has had enough and off he goes. The Lord gives him a big wet kiss and returns to him his pet fox that he captures during that day's hunt.

Ooh, I forgot the girl who's cut off head Gawain had to find at the bottom of a pond. Returning the head got Gawain the axe back that was also stolen in the ambush.

Finally, after hours of audience torture, Gawain meets up with the Green Knight and Gawain bares his neck. Then Gawain runs away and we see all of Gawain's life unfold from his two wives and his taking of Arthur's place as King. It's all very WTF. But then it's shown to be a flash forward as Gawain contemplates his head removal. Gawain finally accepts the blow but the Green Knight shows mercy and the film ends. Again WTF?

Lots of nothing happens interrupted briefly by weird moment of slightly less nothing happening which comes to an abrupt ending.

Sorry for all the spoilers but maybe this way you'll avoid this.

[Drunk Monk]

I studied the Green Knight in college. I remember it was a confusing tale, heavily laden with Christian.  Pagan metaphors, and I couldn’t get Michael Palin’s Gawain out of my mind (Castle Anthrax ftw!). The only things I remember was that the green knight called the round table gang ‘beardless boys’ which was a major insult back then we were told, and the Gawain kept a pin up of the Virgin Mary tucked in his shield - the prof said that was significant as some strange barometer of his faith but I don’t remember what the deal was there - just that we discussed it as nauseum. 

This was a screener I did not attend

[Drunk Monk]

First off, I must correct my python reference. Palin played Galahad, not Gawain. That being said, this upped a page from MP&tHG in that foggy wet atmosphere that is Britain. I was half expecting the knights who say ‘ni!’ To appear.

My reaction to this was not as dismissive as Greg’s but I attribute that to knowing the original poem, or at least studying it in college. It was one of the assignments I got into. The film follow the poem quite well up until the quest. The devil is in the details and understanding the original allegory about faith and honor, and Christianity versus superstition. Th film tries to fill the gaps about the quest with surreal bits, the headless spirit, the fox, the giantesses - it gets back on track somewhat with the lord, the lady and the hag, although that isn’t played out past one kiss. The magic sash, which here has a backstory tied to Morgana, is key in both the film and the poem. It represents Gawain’s lack of faith, his falling to superstition, and his underlying lack of honor with the trades. I remember this being a key point of study, along with the madonna and child inside his shield, both symbols of Gawain’s breach of knightliness. The Xmas meeting with the green knight is played out very differently than the poem - ultimately the green knight quest was just a test, but in the film, it springboards into a variant future, only to return back to the beheading scene where Gawain submits but the result isn’t shown. That’s an ambiguous artsy ending, but readers of the poem know that the green night is the lord and the architect is sorceress Morgan (the hag and Gawain’s mom - which is played out in the beginning in the film).  I don’t remember if the poem got into Gawain’s relationship with Morgan now or not. Gawain gets cut because of the sash, which is a nod to his humanity beyond knighthood. 
In a way, this reminded me of Hesse’s Siddhartha which takes the Buddha story and twists the end into something else. I don’t think this film gets away with it - it gets muddled by its own attempts to elaborate on the tale - and ultimately tries to end on a question that defies, or is betrayed, by the poem. I kept trying to penetrate the filmmaker’s symbolic language, some of which worked but maybe that was me projecting. 
Only recommended for D00Mers into Arthurian myth, and then, only marginally. It was long ago when I was into it so my memory of its convolutions are sketchy. I might’ve enjoyed this more if I was more up on it now.

Seen on Amazon prime.