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Film Review: The Green Knight

Artistically Divine but Storytelling Botched

By Pam ReederPublished 3 years ago Updated 3 years ago 6 min read
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Should film be art? Should film be story? Should film champion social causes? Ideally it can be all three. But it absolutely must be a story well told.

While art definitely makes film visually appealing, the story is undoubtedly what hooks the audience. Only after you have them can you address a social issue. Depending on the story, that can be done straightforward or with subtleties. But if you're going to do it, it must be recognizable.

Capturing an audience requires pulling them into the story, then propelling them forward from beginning to middle to end. Otherwise the film's purpose is lost. Nothing else will matter without the audience.

In watching The Green Night written and directed by David Lowery and starring Dev Patel, I was left miserably confounded. Had I been at home watching, I would have turned it off and moved on to something else. I finished the movie purely because I was at a theater on a movie date with my husband. And I had good popcorn and a drink.

Having some familiarity with the Arthurian legends and at one time participating as a living history performer for a local King Arthur Faire, I was rather pumped to see this movie. I confess though, I had never read about Sir Gawain and somehow, despite my fondness for all things Arthurian, it totally escaped me that Gawain was King Arthur's nephew. Or that Morgan Le Fay is his mother. (Of note, I didn't learn either of those things from the movie, but rather from research afterwards.) So much of what I had been involved in focused on the Sword in the Stone, Arthur rising to King, and his battle with Mordred. The Green Knight did nothing to help the uninformed understand the story characters. Nor anything that happened along the way.

I rarely read movie reviews so it is rather ironic that I am writing one. I prefer to choose my movies and take the hit for good or bad. Mostly I win. And often times I've found in retrospect, that movies I greatly enjoyed were not well favored by reviews. Perhaps reviewers see so many films their bar of judgment gets raised high. At any rate, I did my usual ticket purchase, reviews be damned and off we went to see what we hoped to be a great movie.

But after watching The Green Knight, I had to reach for reviews to help me grasp what I had witnessed. Artistry I recognized to be delightful. There was no arguing that the film was beautifully made. But all else was lost on me. I'm usually very good at pulling abstract things together. But sadly I was unable to do so with this film.

Unfortunately, these giant beings were beyond my ability to comprehend their purpose in the story.

Photo Credit: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/05/an-arthurian-knight-embarks-on-a-daring-quest-in-the-green-knight-trailer/

Based on reviews, apparently what I should have gotten from the film was the poignant showing of how antiquated and useless the measure of man by acts of conquest and military Valor were and are. That escalating to manhood in the eyes of male peers should be achieved through military prowess is a banality that should be suffered no more.

The one thing that I did get from the film on my own was how Gawain had a comfortable life. And that after his success at the Christmas game, he was content to bask in the accolades it brought to him. He made no attempt to do or be more than he was before that single act of violence that escalated him to hero status.

There was a catch to the game, that he must seek out the Green Knight in a year to get equal to what he gave. Having given his word to do so, it would be his honor at stake if he did not follow through. This part I resonated with and picked up on easily. However, it appeared Gawain was satisfied to rest on his laurels. Only after being goaded and pressured by his Uncle, the King, did he set out to make good on his word to seek out the Green Knight.

From there, the film is a disjointed (for me anyway) telling of events, that if connected at all, I was unable to ascertain. Perhaps it is typical of this questing type of tale to have such random occurrences on a trip. I guess we do in modern times. A cross country trip could be fraught with odd things along the way that one would wonder why it had real estate on the story line. Because there must be a story that can be followed so people will follow it. While the story telling lacked, again I must give praise that the cinematography was genuinely exquisite.

I can't help but think that Lowery could have helped the film and its audience, had he made it in the form of a tale being told with a narrator involved. The perfect back drop could perhaps have been the puppet show. The concept of a narrator would have allowed gaps to be filled and help the audience better digest the film. The flaw in my logic regarding the puppet show, with children as its audience, it couldn't work because of the the scene where Gawain ejaculated, plus other nudity and sex scenes.

So, perhaps a more plausible idea to make the story more cohesive would have been simply for Gawain to have told his tale after his return from visiting the Green Knight. But, upon the ending of this film, I couldn't even determine whether he was left alive to tell his tale. He was. But it was only through research after the movie that I got that answer. A movie shouldn't leave you hanging UNLESS, there is a part two. Then, I totally get it. But I don't think there will be a part two of this movie.

So sadly, I wouldn't recommend this movie except for the stunning visuals. There is no denying they aced it there. But for story telling, it failed me. And the social messages it purportedly was addressing were lost on me as well. So if each of three parts were scored with visual artistry fully hitting the mark but the other two, story telling and addressing social issues, failing wholly, then that leaves a scoring of only 33%.

It does pain me to ever rate a film poorly. On the upside, I do see great promise with this director. Showing such expertise in beautiful artistry of film, with some honing of skills in comprehensive story telling for an everyday audience and recognizably weaving in addressing social issues, we will be in for a real treat. So, I won't shy away from future works of this director. I do believe he has great potential he has yet to grow into.

And I must give proper credit to Dev Patel and others for their portrayals in the film. Well done. It is hoped that each of you will get noticed and escalated to projects that earn you an audience you deserve.

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About the Creator

Pam Reeder

Stifled wordsmith re-embracing my creativity. I like to write stories that tap into raw human emotions.

Author of "Bristow Spirits on Route 66", magazine articles, four books under a pen name, technical writing, stories for my grandkids.

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