THE GREEN KNIGHT (2021) by David Lowery

"The enormity of this film intimidates me. And it hypnotizes me, and seduces me, and captures me until it feels as if the green has grown like moss over my entire body. But rather than threatening to choke, The Green Knight injects a new source of oxygen into the sword-and-sorcery genre." - Hoai-Tran Bui (Slashfilm)

"The Green Knight is always interesting — and occasionally baffling — but at the end it rises to a swirling, feverish pitch of feeling and philosophical earnestness." - A.O. Scott (The New York Times)

"What does it mean to be a knight, or even just to be human? It isn’t an easy question, and The Green Knight, in taking it seriously, isn’t always an easy film. But by the time Gawain reaches his journey’s end, in as moving and majestically sustained a passage of pure cinema as I’ve seen this year, the moral arc of his journey has snapped into undeniable focus." - Justin Chang (Los Angeles Times)

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"Never forget what happened here, upon this Christmas Day!" - Sir Gawain

[Steve]

THE GREEN KNIGHT, written, directed, produced, and edited by the great David Lowery (A GHOST STORY; 2017), acts as a precursor to our upcoming (Human) Nature month. With the bulk of the film occupying vast greenery (it's not just a clever name), as well as being a deconstruction of the hero's journey, THE GREEN KNIGHT fits in with what's to come in January quite aptly.

More notably, THE GREEN KNIGHT is a Christmas movie! And what better time than this, the last Sunday before this season's capitalistic and traditionally religious holiday, to watch and discuss a contemporary Christmas classic!

In the spirit of Christmas, THE GREEN KNIGHT is about giving. Particularly in giving opportunities to those we may not think worthy, namely by the esteemed King Arthur to our hero Sir Gawain (played by the charming Dev Patel). Brash and ever the drunkard, Sir Gawain is presented as young, inexperienced, and frankly, just a tad reckless. Even Gawain himself is unsure he is cut out for the quest laid before him (I've gotta give him props for having some self-awareness).

The film speaks to the human desire to make a name for oneself: to achieve something noteworthy, to prove our worth to our peers and mentors, and ultimately, to ourselves.

I find Sir Gawain in this adaptation to be rather humorous. Our knight is anything but knightly, as we see early on in his quest: he succumbs to fear multiple times, struggles to find his footing, and without spoiling the narrative, makes such a fool of himself as to almost get himself killed right away. Sir Gawain, at least initially, is anything but the archetypal knight in shining armour.

On the Christmas front, something I find intriguing about THE GREEN KNIGHT is its attention given to presence. The Christmas season, whether religious or secular, is commonly thought to be a time of spending with one's loved ones, for celebrating the end of the calendar year and appreciating what we have, whilst preparing for what lies ahead.

There are many scenes in the first third of the film that include quaint moments spent between Gawain and his partner Essel (played by an assertive yet supportive Alicia Vikander), his mother, his fellow knights, and various other townsfolk. There's an earnest sense of comradery here, which as far as Christmas movies go, feels authentic and wholesome.

It's worth mentioning that THE GREEN KNIGHT feels like a spiritual successor to THE VVITCH (2015) by Robert Eggers. Although set during slightly different periods, there's an air of familiarity here. Aside from the obvious sense of foreboding and impending doom present in both films, actors Ralph Ineson and Kate Dickie, who played the parents in THE VVITCH, portray the titular Green Knight and the Queen, respectively. THE VVITCH also spends the majority of its runtime in a spooky forest, so the connection is rather apparent.

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Join us Sunday, December 21 at 10am at the Red Brick Cafe for our festive discussion of THE GREEN KNIGHT!🎄

You can stream the film on Crave and rent it virtually on most platforms. Alternatively, there are six copies on DVD available at the Guelph Public Library for free.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!