Trippy Camelot: The Green Knight (2021)

Arthurian legend gets a psychedelic makeover in The Green Knight (2021), which sees Arthur’s nephew, Gawain, locked in a challenge that will either end in death or dishonour when he accepts to fight the titular knight during a Christmas celebration. Warning: SPOILERS.

The original poem is quite simple: Sir Gawain, one of the sons of King Arthur’s sister Morgause, is challenged for a beheading contest by the mysterious Green Knight. He accepts and delivers the requested killer blow. Unfortunately, not only does the headless knight rises again, but he also demands that they meet in one year, at the Green Chapel, so he can return the favour. Before the meeting, Gawain stays with a noble couple and an old woman. The Lady tries to seduce him but he refuses to go further than some chaste kissing, while the Lord offers him all he finds in the forest in exchange for all that he gains in his home, which results in even more (presumably not gay) kissing. The Lady does manage to persuade their guest to accept her sash by telling him it’s magical and can protect him. During the fight with the Green Knight, he’s revealed to be Gawain’s host, who doesn’t kill him because he behaved honourably by turning down his wife. The Knight’s axe does cut him slightly because he hadn’t told his host about the sash and Gawain keeps it as a reminder of his mistake. But why was the Lord walking around pretending to be a magical knight? Well, it turns out all this was Morgan Le Fay’s doing and she was the old woman with the couple! Despite that bit of trickery, the story isn’t that complicated and would make for a fun adventure movie. Except, the people who gave us The Green Knight weren’t interested in making a fun adventure movie - they wanted to make an overlong, cryptic, convoluted acid trip. This is a clear case of style over substance. Sometimes it works, but most of the time it doesn’t. Instead of enhancing the storytelling, all this style often crushes it, as if any hint of conventionality must be stomped lest the audience starts thinking that there’s anything common about this movie.

If the goal was to create a dreamlike fantasy, you’d think the movie would keep that simple plot and just use it as an excuse to send its hero on a wacky voyage filled with eccentric, memorable characters, and visually impressive situations. You’d be wrong. It opens with the promise that this tale isn’t about the king who pulled the sword from a stone, but about a very different one, who, judging by the opening credits, has the ability to self-combust. This is Gawain. He’s not the best, but he’s also not the worst. He has a commoner lover, Essel, who longs to be made his proper wife, but that’s clearly not going to happen. He seems a little too old for not being a knight yet, and is the nephew of King Arthur by his sister Morgause, who’s a witch? Oh, wait, for some reason, the movie appears to have conflated Morgan and Morgause and still hint at Morgan’s connection with bringing the Green Knight to Arthur’s court. This is made even dumber by the fact that there’ll be absolutely no acknowledgment of her role in getting her own son (maybe) killed. This could’ve at least been revealed as a ploy to get him noticed by his uncle to make sure he’d choose him as his successor, but there’s nothing. She even gives him a magical green girdle that’s supposed to protect him from the Knight she herself summoned. Really, everyone saw her do it! Another big hint that the movie was going to be a… let’s say odd viewing experience, was the scene of Guinevere reading the Knight’s challenge like she’s auditioning for The Exorcist. Um, why? And why have Gawain decide to deliver a killer blow without specifying it was a beheading contest? Yes, the Knight offered his neck, but he didn’t have to accept it. These changes are just stupid, but so far, the stylistic weirdness is working even if the plot is all messed up. However, that will soon change. By the way, the movie is split into several sections: The Christmas Game, A Too Quick Year, The Journey Out, A Kindness, A Meeting with Saint Winifred, An Interlude, An Exchange of Winnings, A Beheading at the Green Chapel, The Voyage Home.

During his journey to the Green Chapel, Gawain will meet: a trio of outlaws, a ghost woman, a magical fox, giants, and a sexually frustrated couple. None of these encounters is as good as it could’ve been. Worse, for a movie so intent on flaunting its weirdness, The Green Knight ends up looking rather dull at times, the muted palette usually reserved for more realistic storytelling at odds with all the bizarrie on display. The outlaws are boring and just serve to steal Gawain’s weapons (including the axe the Green Knight had left behind after the game), horse, and magical girdle (which apparently wasn’t magical enough to protect him from those three). Those losses don’t have much of an effect, though. I really don’t get how that changed anything. If it was to add some excitement, it failed. The giants are… yeah, I’m not sure what to say about them. Seriously, WTF was that? Basically, at one point, Gawain sees a group of pasty, bald, naked giants walking across a valley. He boldly asks them for a ride, but then gets scared and the fox intervenes and howls, which gets the giants howling, too, and… nothing. That’s it. There’s also a sequence in which Gawain (maybe) eats some shrooms and sees someone watching him (or maybe he was just tripping). These odd little moments are pretty visually unappealing, which is surprising because when you look at the sets and wacky camera angles, the movie clearly wants to be a visual spectacle. The meeting with the ghost woman, Winifred, was probably the best sequence, though the movie nearly ruined it with some lame underwater visual flourishes. After he helps her, Winifred warns Gawain that the Green Knight is someone he knows. He finds the axe in her room, so her killer was the outlaw who stole it? Why would he leave it behind? And if Morgan had anything to do with it, why not return the horse and the girdle, too? I probably shouldn’t try to apply logic to this. The fox companion wasn’t bad, but I kept expecting it to be more than just a magical fox who randomly decided to follow him and… nothing. Again. Much like in the original poem, Gawain arrives at a castle near the Green Chapel where he’s welcomed by a Lord, his Lady (a dead ringer for Essel), and an old woman wearing a blindfold. We’ve already seen Gawain’s mother wear a blindfold while doing spells, so it should be significant. Or not, because the movie keeps screwing with the original story. In case anyone missed how self-important this cinematic offering is, it pretentiously reminds the audience by having the Lady tell Gawain that she writes down old tales and songs… and occasionally improves on them. How subtle. In this case, the “improvement” consists of getting jizz all over the reappearing girdle (which, in case you forgot, was made by Gawain’s mother) (how Freudian). How did the Lady get the girdle? Did the outlaw stop by the castle, too? This is just ridiculous. As for the smooching, the Lord gets a single one before Gawain tells him to let go of him. In return, the Lord gives him the fox he'd just caught.

On their way to the Green Chapel, the fox tells Gawain to go home because he’ll certainly die if he chooses to face the Green Knight and promises not to tell anyone about it. Gawain, though, is undeterred and goes to the chapel, where he waits for the Green Knight to rise. And waits, and waits. However, when it’s time for returning the blow, Gawain panics, runs out of there, finds his horse, and rides home because this damn movie couldn’t resist to over complicate things one last time. Gawain’s Future Montage shows the dishonourable coward being knighted by a frail King Arthur, be crowned king after his uncle's death, take Essel’s baby, marry a more suitable bride, wage war, lose his bastard son in battle, have a legitimate child, and see the castle start to crumble as what is probably the Green Knight tries to break down the doors, which gives the audience one last good image: King Gawain pulling the magical girdle and making his own head fall off. And we’re back at the Green Chapel, because none of that happened! Gawain didn’t run, and he decides to take off the girdle. The Green Knight praises his honour, raises the axe, and… nothing. The end. Oh, wait, there’s still a shot of a little girl (Gawain’s daughter that never was? One of his younger sisters?) playing with his crown and that’s it.

The Green Knight is weird for weirdness’s sake and it’s not even quality weirdness. I know people complained about the race swap, but that barely registers. The outdoor scenes are just drab, the characters are dull, and there aren’t enough unimaginative camera flourishes to hide that. Most of the indoor scenes do look great, though. The original story gets stretched and twisted beyond any recognition for no discernible reason to the point that not even the movie itself seems to know what it’s doing: Gawain’s mother summoning the Green Knight; Winifred telling Gawain that the Knight is someone he knows. The latter is particularly egregious because that line could’ve easily been cut or replaced with a prediction that fitted the changed plot. Nothing feels particularly meaningful, just somewhat desperate (Look at me! Look at how indescribable I am!). That this is a little over 2 hours doesn’t help. Verdict: watch for (some) pretty pictures because it really has nothing else to offer.

By Danforth