Movie Review: 'The Green Knight'

The Green Knight marks the first time I have really connected with the work of director David Lowery. Prior to The Green Knight I’ve carried a rather adversarial relationship with Lowery’s work. His A Ghost Story was, for me, an impenetrable piece of arty claptrap. I was so frustrated by the movie that I never gave it another chance to explain itself. I’m told by other critics that there is a wealth of interpretations of the movie and that it leaves open myriad possibilities with viewers. I understand why others would find that fascinating but it still hasn’t made me want to watch Casey Affleck stand around in a bed sheet for over 100 minutes.

Other of Lowery’s works such as Pete’s Dragon and Old Man and the Gun are fine but nothing that fully engaged me. Pete’s Dragon is a lovely and wholesome family adventure and Old Man and the Gun is a loving tribute to what generations have come to love about Robert Redford, and those are both great aspects of a movie. But, with The Green Knight, I feel like I have connected with Lowery and his aesthetic. Where Pete’s Dragon and Old Man and the Gun were movies made with a mainstream appeal, The Green Knight shares with A Ghost Story, the urgency of an artist truly expressing himself, uncompromisingly.

The Green Knight stars Dev Patel as Gawain, the nephew of the legendary King Arthur (Sean Harris). Gawain is an empty vessel when we meet him. He’s a man but also a boy who wishes to be a knight but spends his time dedicated to carnal pleasures rather than pursuing any noble quest. Gawain’s life is changed forever when he is called forward by the King and in Arthur’s generosity, he asks his nephew to sit with him. The King, in all earnestness, asks Gawain to tell him about himself and the notion of telling about his life to someone as legendary as Arthur reveals Gawain to himself in a profound fashion.

This revelation is interrupted by the arrival of The Green Knight (Ralph Ineson). The Green Knight wishes to play a game. He challenges any of Arthur’s knights to land a blow on him and if they fail to kill him, they must allow him to land a blow. When none of the Knights, seated around a round table, steps forward, Arthur himself steps forward to accept the challenge. Not wanting Arthur to be harmed and sensing an opportunity to prove himself, Gawain steps in and makes the challenge. When Gawain manages to behead The Green Knight, the assembled crowd is horrified and then shocked to see the Knight retrieve his head.

The Green Knight then announces that the game will continue one year from this day and at that time, it will be his turn to land a blow. Essentially, Gawain has one year to live before he must submit himself to The Green Knight and what we can assume is a killing blow. These scenes are utterly astonishing, gorgeously shot and brimming with cinematic energy and excitement. It’s all rather understated in terms of lacking bombast, but it is nevertheless exciting for the lack of the pomp of your typical action movie.

The rest of The Green Knight unfolds in a loose chapter by chapter structure. After waiting out most of the year in agonizing uncertainty, Gawain decides he will not wait for The Green Knight to return. Instead, he will ride out and meet The Green Knight. Gawain’s mother gifts him a sash that she has sewn magic into. She claims that if he wears this sash, he cannot be killed. Whether or not Gawain is aware of this or believes in it is not relevant, it exists to make us believe in how important it is.

On his journey Gawain has several unique and fascinating encounters. Barry Keoghan, one of the most unique character actors working today, shows up as a scavenger in the midst of the aftermath of a bloody battle and does his Barry Keoghan thing, making you desperately uncomfortable while also endlessly curious of what he will do next. Keoghan’s weird energy enlivens any moment in any movie he is in and I was excited to see him here.

My favorite chapter in The Green Knight is set in a cottage in the middle of the night. Gawain is seeking shelter in what he thinks is an empty cottage until he is confronted by a woman who claims that he is sleeping in her bed. Gawain tries to leave but the woman doesn’t want him to go. Rather, she has a task she needs help with and she wants Gawain to help her. She wants Gawain to dive into a small lake and retrieve her head. This sounds a great deal more esoteric than it actually is. Trust me when I tell you that this encounter is incredible and Erin Kellyman who portrays Saint Winifred is remarkable, deeply committed and brilliantly understated.

I have not yet talked about the other star of this movie, Alicia Vikander. I don’t want to spoil any of her work here as her role is open to a lot of interpretation. I will only say that she is incredible here and she has a scene late in the film that may prove to be decisive on how the average audience takes to The Green Knight or is put off by the movie. I found the scene to be extraordinarily uncomfortable and thus incredibly effective. I would need a full spoiler article to really dig into Vikander’s role in The Green Knight so we will leave that for now.

Dev Patel is exceptional in The Green Knight. Patel melts into the role and the choices that Lowery and Patel make in what they tell us and show us about Gawain are remarkably effective. Patel is deeply engaged in every moment of The Green Knight and his work brings a power to the final chapter of The Green Knight that I was worried might be lacking as the movie progressed. The final chapter unfolds in a fashion that some might call a cheat but I found it very effective and shocking.

The actual ending then takes on a new power all of its own. Ralph Ineson, without ever showing his own face, nevertheless brings a charisma and charm to the final moment of The Green Knight that I was blown away. For me, the ending is the best moment in all of The Green Knight. It’s all about tone and a choice of how to play a single line and if you miss it, you very well could miss the whole point of The Green Knight. That’s some terrific high wire filmmaking without a net. The Green Knight repeatedly risks losing the casual audience and I love that.

On top of all the other great things about The Green Knight, the whole movie is gorgeous. Watching it, I was taken with the notion that Lowery has changed the way the historic epic is presented forever, for me. Historic epics no longer need be filled with thousands of extras and lavish sets. Instead, a dreamlike memory, a story being recited from the deep recesses of a historian and storyteller's mind, is how I want future historical epics to occur. Lowery takes the anachronistic bigness of sword and sandal movies and makes fresh and alive again by changing the way we see such epics.

Lowery and cinematographer Andrew Droz Palermo give The Green Knight the feel of an epic story without the trappings of classic Hollywood and I love that. The Green Knight feels big, it feels like a historical epic but without the Hollywood typicalities and budget. There are giants in The Green Knight and they look incredible without having to look like anything other than creatures of a grand imagination. It’s a gorgeous scene, among many gorgeous scenes, but it helps create a scope for The Green Knight that is expansive rather than merely expensive.

The Green Knight opened in theaters nationwide on July 30th.