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A Knight's Tale [Blu-ray]
 
Manufacturer: Columbia Pictures
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Product Description

There's no rule against rock anthems from the 1970s in the soundtrack for a movie about a medieval jousting champion, but if you're going to attempt such jarring anachronisms, you'd better establish acceptable ground rules. Writer-director Brian Helgeland does precisely that in A Knight's Tale and pulls off this trick with such giddy aplomb that you can't help but play along. (Upon witnessing a crowd of peasants at a jousting match, singing and clapping to the beat of Queen's "We Will Rock You," you're either going to love this movie or dismiss it altogether.) Other vintage rock hits will follow, but Helgeland--the Oscar®-winning cowriter of L.A. Confidential--handles this ploy with judicious goodwill, in what is an otherwise honest period piece about a peasant named William (Heath Ledger) who rises by grit and determination to the hallowed status of knighthood.

As if the soundtrack weren't audacious enough, Helgeland (recovering from the sour experience of his directorial debut, Payback) casts none other than Geoffrey Chaucer (wonderfully played by Paul Bettany) as William's cohort and match announcer, along with William's pals Roland (Mark Addy) and Wat (Alan Tudyk), and feisty blacksmith Kate (Laura Fraser). Of course there must be a fair maiden, and she is Jocelyn (newcomer Shannyn Sossamon), with whom William falls in love while battling the nefarious Count Adhemar (Rufus Sewell) on the European jousting circuit. Add to this an inspiring father-son reunion, Ledger's undeniable charisma, a perfect supporting cast, and enough joyful energy to rejuvenate the film's formulaic plot, and A Knight's Tale becomes that most pleasant of movie surprises--an unlikely winner that rises up, like its hero, to exceed all expectations. --Jeff Shannon

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Changing their stars
 
Review Date: February 7, 2004
Reviewer: Daniel S. Russell, Blacksburg, VA United States
I can't tell you how surprised I was when I absolutely loved this movie! I didn't expect to like it at all. I figured it would be a two-dimensional MTV take on Medieval sport. Instead the producers did something dangerous -- they found a script!

Sure it's predictable and there are plenty of cliched lines, but the film absolutely succeeds in what it set out to do. It plays very well by its own rules. And it is surprisingly moving at times. When the film could have sunk to schmaltz, it holds its own with good acting and sturdy writing.

What could have been another stupid teen movie actually has legs and a soul.

I'm amazed the number of people who fault it for its inventive style in incorporating contemporary music with the medieval milieu, when these same people loved Shrek for doing exactly the same thing.

I applaud the risks the film takes and how well it succeeds when it takes them. In the end, isn't Pro Wrestling or boxing the modern day equivalent of the joust? In spirit and appeal, at least, if not in grace or sophistication.

Call it a guilty pleasure, but the film is a fun and successful and worth watching again.

Don't skip the deleted scenes -- wonderful stuff there, especially the extended stockade scene.

One of my new favorites
 
Review Date: May 9, 2001
Reviewer: A 3d animator, San Antonio, TX USA
Let me begin by saying that this film is not what most people expect it to be. Rather than being a typical medieval hack and slash movie, A Knight's Tale is actually a sports movie with a lot of comedy, action, and a bit of romance.

Confused? Well, considering that jousting was probably the sport of choice in the movie's time setting, this makes perfect sense. Still confused? You'll understand when you watch the opening scene with the spectators at a joust singing "We Will Rock You" by Queen. Sound bizarre? I thought so, too, but then it all made perfect sense as I sat and watched.

Basically a tale of a rookie new to the sport and his struggle to the top, this film is now one of my favorites up there with Gladiator and Braveheart. Just like those two movies, Knight's Tale is one of those films that sucks you right in with gorgeous sets, detailed costumes, and great characterization. However, the main difference is that the tone of this movie is rather comical. Actually, I laughed more during A Knight's Tale than I remember laughing during most comedies. This isn't to say that the movie lacks any seriousness. Competition is what jousting is all about, and this film gets you pretty pumped up even without having any battle scenes.

I highly recommend this movie to everyone, and I can't wait for it to come out on DVD. Make sure you don't get to the theater late so you don't miss the "We Will Rock You" opening sequence, and check out Geoffrey Chaucer, one of the major characters. Yes, the same Geoffrey Chaucer that wrote Canterbury Tales. You won't be disappointed.

Great family entertainment!
 
Review Date: October 28, 2003
Reviewer: ,
Okay, like some others here let me stress...THIS IS NOT MEANT TO BE A HISTORICALLY ACCURATE MOVIE.

After reading the first 80 reviews I feel compelled to add my own 2 cents. We rented this and I have to agree that in the first few minutes I was revolted by the rock music, being a big fan of historical pieces set in the middle ages. Despite my initial feelings, I stuck it out. Too soon I found myself again annoyed by the styles worn by the Lady Jocelyn. Yuck! "What is going on", I wondered. But already I was finding myself involved in the story line and enjoying the humor, especially the interactions among the main characters. By the end I was willing to admit I'd been entertained and I was in love with all the characters with the possible exception of Jocelyn.

Then we watched all the extra bonus material and I was amazed at the thought and work that went into this movie. I just had to watch it again, having gained a new perspective on WHY things were done the way they were. What I discovered was an extremely entertaining romp.

For those of you who only saw the theatre version or are concerned about the rock and roll references in these reviews, try to see the director's point of view. Throughout history parents have strived to understand their youngsters. Or do we assume that the generations have always perfectly understood one another until it came to the 20th century? Language, music, clothes...isn't it likely that different generations differed as much in opinions then as now? If not then how did the culture ever evolve into something completely different? Notice that I have avoided the term "teens". Well, face it, back then the teens WERE adults. But there must still have been generational gaps. Did they say "wow" in historical times? No. But it's probable that there was a word that conveyed a similar meaning from a "slang" perspective. Language is not static, it is ever-changing. What we speak today would not even be understood by those who lived in England almost 700 years ago, so how can anyone complain about accents and language? Do they really think that anybody from England today would have been understood back then? Please.

Music....hello? Orchestral is better for periodic pieces why? As another reviewer mentioned...it's no more periodic than rock. The director was wanting to portray a fresh perspective and succeeded hugely. I'm sorry but when you're trying to convey a sense of excitement such as one feels at a football game (yes, that's the analogy used to try bringing jousting to a more modern perspective), chamber music isn't likely to get anyone in today's world fired-up.

And folks, that's a big part of what this whole movie is all about. Jousting was a major sporting event that was very exciting to the people of the time. How does one convey that excitement to a modern audience? The drama is easily done...but the intense emotion, the exhilaration we associate with a favorite sport? I feel that the director found an exciting new way to bring the medieval world alive for modern viewers.

As to Jocelyn. She's a bit shallow and the costumes are starting to bother me less. But her character (or lack thereof), allows for some very comedic lines that I think add to the overall fun of the movie.

I could go on but other reviewers have hit most of the other key points. The bottom line is: if you've seen it once...try it again...and watch the extra stuff. If you haven't, then get it...rent it first if you must but watch this movie. It is now one of our favorite movies and just the other night we watched it again with tremendous enjoyment and I wanted to see each and every single extra feature again. It's family-friendly and a romantic comedy that you won't mind at all having the teens and youngsters watch.

As one reviewer said, "suspend your belief from the start"...and then settle down to enjoy this story. It's fun, it still portrays a medieval "flavour", and the music ROCKS!

My lords, my Ladies, and everybody else here ... not sitting on a cushion! ...
 
Review Date: July 3, 2008
Reviewer: Steffan Piper, Palm Desert, CA

Well ... a good seven years has now passed since this film was in the theatres and it holds up just as fine as it did the very first time I saw it.

The Reception ...

The first and most striking aspect of this film was the amount of antipathy that was generated by Carter Burwell's insightful use of modern music in a period comedy /drama. Unfortunately this created so much backlash, and so much hatred amongst the viewers that hordes of haters flocked to the internet to post hundreds of pages of comments on IMDb, and post an unflattering number of continuous negative reviews on Amazon for years to come with a long sea of comments regarding the `egregiousness' of what this film did to the period. None of the `paid, real-life' Reviewers were any kinder to writer / director Brian Helgeland as well and just about every reviewer couldn't tolerate the opening of peasants drumming away and singing `We Will Rock You' or Heath Ledger practicing his technique to War's `Lowrider'. So many viewers would have a better understanding and greater perspective on stuff like this if they would just acquaint themselves with the work of Tom Stoppard. His work in the field of Victorian and Middle-age shenanigans has made absurdist theatre what it is today and has shaped a lot of modern film.

"It's called a lance, hello ..."


The Controversy ...

Some people may remember that the negative reviews were so many, that some bright spark over at Sony Pictures decided to start fabricating positive reviews and using quotes for those fake reviews to advertise the film. Well, someone noticed and caught them with their proverbial hand in the cookie jar. Yes, there was a lawsuit and someone got paid. Whoever that was, is beyond me because I never saw a dime of that money and I saw it twice in the theatre and I've purchased both versions available on DVD.

For almost five years, someone also hosted a phony website that was made to emulate an Anchorage area High School up in Alaska, which regarded a supposed Musical adaptation of `A Knights Tale', replete with fake newspaper reviews, fake still photographs and other phony productions also complete with posters, banners and photographs. The website was taken down in 2006 after it was finally discovered by Sony Pictures and they didn't find the joke very funny at all.


The Writer / Director and Shannyn Sossamon ...

A lot of people, who were in charge of production and had financially backed the picture were ecstatic to be working with prolific Writer / Director Brian Helgeland, who had previously had much success with the magnificent film L.A. Confidential. Whether one likes that movie or not, it surely is a screenplay to rival all others in scope and skill. No dailies were made available during filming as principal photography took place in the Czech Republic, but nobody seemed to mind as they were all fully behind Helgeland's "period epic" that would be a sort-of screen adaptation of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. There must have been an incredible silence during the first few screenings when they finally got to see the finished product. The problem was that even though the marketing campaign for the film was vast and appropriate, too much negative banter behind the scenes got the ball rolling on all the bad reviews. But in truth, it still did pretty good in the theatres and very well once released on DVD, both times. To this day, a lot of people adore this film and it's quickly becoming a real cult-classic and not the kind of cult-classic that Studios likes to advertise their poorly made films like Superbad as. A Knights Tale really is a cult-classic, that status is not something placed upon it by the Studios, but attributed to it by the fans and the continued viewership.

Unfortunately though for Helgeland, his career as a director hasn't ever really improved, has it? He's seemingly stuck forever with his Cirque du Freak vampire movie that no one has yet seen a frame of. His writing though hasn't suffered as he's penned numerous hits that have been critically acclaimed such as Mystic River, and Man on Fire. He was also a guest commentator on the recent DVD re-release of The Omen alongside Richard Donner. Note to reader: the Omen commentary is well worth listening to and will give you a deeper respect for Richard Donner after hearing it.

And then there was Shannyn Sossamon. A nice young girl who went out for general auditions for this film, and who at the time was working as a (gasp!) Stripper in a Los Angeles area all-nude Strip Club. I promise you this ... I never met her. In the commentary, Helgeland makes mention of this and jokes that he intentionally put her name in the opening credits superimposed over a young-girl dancing because of that fact. It was a bit harsh, I thought and I couldn't help but detect some jilted emotion in his voice as well. She also shows up as the object of the writer's affection in the movie The Order, with a few other members of this cast in a story that is just overwrought with the pangs of deprized love and has a serious undercurrent of a Sossamon infatuation.

So I guess, Helgeland truly has been weighed, measured and found wanting as a director. The future is all his though. Hopefully, whatever he does next will be openly accepted, even if it is another A Knight's Tale.


Heath Ledger ...

For years on Amazon, the bulk of recent reviews for A Knights Tale were all negative as I stated before, and there was a lot of conversation about the historical accuracy. Now that Heath has passed, I guess it's only appropriate that all that is now in the past and people now post reviews saying how much they loved him and what an impact as an actor he made on film and their lives. It's fine and probably well-deserved. He was taken too early through working himself into an exhaustion and getting caught in a spiraling set of circumstances that went out of control.

I probably owe Heath a debt of gratitude as for a period of time, I was often mistaken for him in public. Being a Los Angeles area resident, it did get me a few girls during the late night outings. But trust me, no one ever believed fully that I was him. The timing was good too, as it was a dark period for me and I needed everything I could get back then just to keep going. So, posthumously ... thanks, Heath. I owe ya one, mate.

His performance in this film quite good, and full of life and hopefully this is how people will remember him as I feel it was one of his most enjoyable roles in film. The Joker will probably be seen as equally good even though the polar opposite in emotion and intensity.


Alan Tudyk and the rest of cast ...

It was this film that introduced me to the American Actor Alan Tudyk. A native of Plano, Texas whose acting is so good, could get himself cast in a film with a fake accent and do a more than passable job as an Englishman named Wot Falhurst. Great name, by the way.

A story about `Geoff' Chaucer is intriguing enough by itself.

"I will eviscerate you in fiction. I was naked for a day, you will be naked for eternity."

A much-overlooked, but incredibly well-written piece of cinema. Anyone who could write something like that, does not need a lecture on historical accuracy. Lots of films and movies are made about historical figures, but the most shameful thing that is too-often done -- is the dialogue that is placed in their mouths. It is often out-of-place, inaccurate, buffoonish and abysmal. Helgeland wrote so many incredibly moving, witty and interesting lines for Geoffrey Chaucer that would make one think that he will one day revisit the character and give him the honor of a feature length film, or at least a screenplay. Paul Bettany's performance with the line ...

"Lillium Interspinus ... the Lilly among the thorns."

Is a fantastic piece of impromptu acting and a great introduction during the film.

As for Rufus Sewell, a lot of people used to associate him with the cult sci-fi masterpiece Dark City, now I can't look at him without thinking of his role as Adhemar of Anjou and that scowling cock-eyed look of his. You'd be cock-eyed too, if you boozed it up and partied as heavily and heartily as this guy did. My God, he was a Hollywood legend for years at after parties, wrap-parties, clubs, you name it. His reputation as an animal far outweighed his reputation as an actor.


A historical note ...

Yeah, too many other reviewers make mention of the dates, the Black Prince, the real Ulrich of Gelderland and on and on. A long list of accusations is still up for the reading over at IMDb if anyone is interested. If you're really interested in why a lot of this was done, then just listen to the commentary on the DVD with Paul Bettany and Brian Helgeland and you learn more about this film, and be the better for it.

We walk in the garden of his turpluence ... (hahaha .. just what does that mean, anyway?)

The life of a Knight
 
Review Date: April 27, 2006
Reviewer: Courtney Rabideau, USA
Heath Ledger plays William an employee of a Knight in the Middle Ages. When their boss dies unexpectedly William and his two friends who also worked for the knight find themselves with no money and at first they do not know what do to. Then William comes up with an interesting idea. He would pretend to be a noble (Sir Ulrich von Lichtenstein of Gelderland) and with the help of Geoffrey Chaucer played hilariously by Paul Bettany he would become a Knight.

William learns how to be a knight and slowly but surly he starts winning. During the rounds of jousting he meets Lady Jocelyn and they fall in love. Unfortunately a man named Count Adhemar tries to find out who Sir Ulrich really is.

The movie is very good. It is very funny to watch a movie set in the middle ages and here David Bowie, and Queen as background music as well as Geoffrey Chaucer being called Jeff, but it just makes the movie even better.

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