Review: ‘The Green Knight’ is the New High Fantasy Exemplar
“To thy grim tool now take heed, sir!
Let us try thy knocks today!’
‘Gladly,’ said he, ‘indeed sir!’
and his axe he stroked in play.”
-Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Translation by J.R.R. Tolkein
A stranger with the body and strength of a forest arrives in Camelot on Christmas Day, offering forth a game. Whomsoever can land a blow against this Green Knight (Ralph Ineson) must accept the blow in return one year hence. Eager to earn his knighthood, Gawain (Dev Patel) is seemingly given the perfect opportunity to prove his mettle. However, the challenge is not so simply won, and with a fatal swing of the axe, Gawain has inadvertently volunteered himself for the quest of a lifetime.
Adapted from a legend dating back to the Fourteenth Century, David Lowery’s presentation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight transforms the tale into one of the most stunning pieces of high fantasy to grace the big screen since The Lord of the Rings. Set in the Arthurian world of Camelot, the film delivers on all the hallmarks of olde, but presents them in a highly ambitious and full-force effort to create something outstandingly unique. Lowery pays homage to his film's cinematic progenitors, honoring the genre works that inspired the tone and visual direction of The Green Knight. The imaginations of Sam Raimi, Francis Ford Coppola, and Jim Henson all echo in his editing and collaboration with cinematographer Andrew Droz Palermo.
In this retelling, King Arthur (Sean Harris) and Queen Guinevere (Katie Dickie) are now aged and feeble, beyond their time. The world beyond their rule is expansive and teeming with original trials and spectacle. Along the journey to his rematch with the Green Knight, Gawain encounters ghosts, giants, highway robbers, a speaking fox, and others that further clarify exactly what kind of a person he is. Intense and archaic, the film bestows the tale with an epic scale rightful for the big screen.
Yet for the source material being seven hundred years old, it feels surprisingly contemporary. Patel is exceptionally resonant as Gawain, pulling the man forth from the heroic verse. His Gawain is young and naive, coming of maturity in a world of magic. He is an adult by definition, but he is still seeking the experiences that will become his stories to tell, reminding others he has not yet earned his knighthood. He is not exactly the pious and purely virtuous paragon of the original tale, nor is his path immune to temptation. Yet he strives to be chivalrous and honorable, believing these values will be something he discovers in his questing, not realizing they need to come from within. After his initial bout with the Green Knight, he procrastinates his fate for an entire year, putting off a destiny he is uncertain he will survive. The decisions he is faced with bring grave consequences, with the film intricately illustrating what would happen should he chose wrong. However, we can sympathize with a character who doesn’t feel ready to face such challenges, whose fear and self doubt might push him to save his own skin with a lie. Bravery and honor are a tightrope act, and Gawain is thrilling to watch because he is not perfectly surefooted. Lowery often returns to tight shots of his face, fixating on how the character emotes to ultimately convey meaning. It is essential that Patel’s expression holds the entire story, because for all its challenges and hardships, Gawain’s quest is an emotional one.
Around its characters, the film builds an immersive sensory experience that is united in all its aspects by a sense of heaviness. Great care has gone into the sound design, and the titular Green Knight in particular feels like he can be profiled entirely by it. Gawain is haunted by the reverberating bass of his adversary’s voice, the popping and crackling of his wood joints, and the metallic grind of his axe. Daniel Hart’s score forges throbbing minor chords with wavering vocals and contemporaneous instrumentation, but never misses an opportunity to use the impact of silence. The costume design is also extremely weighty, with layered robes studded with metal charms, quilted cloaks sodden with mud, and a crown that burdens the wearer with the responsibilities of a whole kingdom.
Visually it is an equally oppressive, obscured world, with a harshness as though it has been buried under the winter freeze for too many months. The film travels over landscapes that dwarf the individual, the horizon dense with foreboding. Visions of psychedelic influence creep in at the edges. Every scene is at full saturation, with ochre fog clouds, indigo moonlight, and of course, a lush spectrum of green. The hue is a theme of its own, ever present as a reminder of all that Gawain cannot evade. There is otherworldly terror to green, as it inevitably grows and envelops all else. It represents the magic of nature, and a connection to the unstoppable cycle of seasons that forms years. Lowery is interested in visualizing the intersection between nature and man in the context of Arthurian storytelling. Part of faithfully capturing the culture that produced Sir Gawain and the Green Knight includes the strong religious overtones. Christianity, witchcraft and paganism are all melded into the story as conflicting forces building tension. The imagery of each holds palpable power, often wielded by women. They can harness it to pierce the veil, grasp technology centuries beyond, or pull the strings of fate. There is no singular source to the magic, instead it presses in from every angle with such intensity that every moment threatens to spontaneously erupt in flame.
As the grandeur of these scenic landscape shots and arcane symbolism serve to color the journey, the film remains grounded in Gawain’s humanity. It moves at its own pace, crawling under its own mass, yet punctuated by moments of levity and surprise like breaths of fresh air. Lowery’s approach is confidently bizarre and unnerving, inspired by other creatives to throw out the rulebook. It sets a new standard for not only high fantasy, but all genre film with its intention and attention to craft. The Green Knight has earned its honorable place in the cinematic legend.
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