The Green Knight: A Slow-Burning, Contemplative Quest Toward Maturity
The Green Knight tells the story of Sir Gawain (Dev Patel), King Arthur's reckless and headstrong nephew, who embarks on a daring quest to confront the eponymous Green Knight, a gigantic emerald-skinned stranger and tester of men. Gawain contends with ghosts, giants, thieves, and schemers in what becomes a deeper journey to define his character and prove his worth in the eyes of his family and kingdom by facing the ultimate challenger.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the text which Lowery’s smoldering coming-of-age epic is based on, is a mythic morality tale that dates back to the late 14th-century. Its author remains unknown to this day. The story itself delivered in one lone manuscript, which narrowly escaped extinction at the hands of a fire in 1731. The text is ancient — so old you need to add an extra “e” for emphasis — but it’s survived 600 years and remains one of the most known tales to emerge from King Arthur’s Round Table.
Weighing in at only 42 pages, writer/director David Lowery takes several liberties when adapting the book to screen, most of which enhance and deepen the source material. Over the years, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight has garnered many different readings, and Lowery fully embraces the ambiguity of the original text to create a thought-provoking film that allows for varied interpretations. At its core, it’s fundamentally a coming-of-age film, one which frames the road toward maturity as a literal quest, but the film’s other themes, which range from honor, chivalry, time, nature, temptation/seduction, and women’s power over men, all tangle together to make a richer, more complex experience, one which favors deep contemplation over your typical genre thrills.
If you’re looking for epic battle sequences or action of any kind, you’ve come to the wrong film; there’s none of that in the source material, and Lowery makes no effort to shoehorn any major action into the picture. There are some magnificent set pieces, stunning vistas, palpable atmospherics, moments of pure tension and awe, and light touches of surrealism and heavy metal though; all of which are sure to be pretty appetite whetting to many. Lowery also lathers everything in a thick mystical haze that’s alluring and elusive in equal measure.
If you’re not fully under its spell, its ruminative focus and slow-burning pacing may make its two hour runtime drag. The film’s open-ended conclusion might leave you feeling unfulfilled as well, but If you’re interested in its themes, you’ll have some fun unpacking and discussing them. Whatever your feelings on the narrative and its oomph (or lack thereof), The Green Knight is an undeniably well-crafted film that features some lovely cinematography. Some may feel like some of the scenes are too long or drawn out, but we liked how Lowery remained unhurried and meditated on the notion of time through his many stunning long takes.
If you can rock to the pulse of this quiet, leisurely epic, there’s a lot to love, and a lot that works, but it’s not the total winner we’d hoped (since we loved Lowery’s two previous films). Although many of the changes Lowery makes to the source material enhance the film adaptation, there’s a few aspects that don’t quite gel. Specifically, the inclusion of a CGI fox doesn’t feel totally at home and often isn’t blended well against the crisp background. It’s an aspect that’s going to potentially date the film in a couple of years. Aside from that, some pacing issues, and other minor quibbles, much of the film landed for us. It won’t likely be one we return to year after year, but due to its rich themes and ambiguous nature, it’s one that may grow more profound with each repeat viewing.
Recommendation: Frequently stunning, occasionally elusive, and favoring deep contemplation over genre thrills, The Green Knight’s alchemy won’t be for everyone, but for fans of slow cinema, it will likely cast a vigorous spell.
Rating: 4 severed heads outta 5.
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