In its opening minutes, one of The Green Knight’s many title cards declares that the story that’s about to unfold is adapted from the 14th-century, anonymously written “chivalric romance”, Sir Gawain and The Green Knight. In it, a mysterious Green Knight storms into King Arthur’s court during the holidays and challenges the assembled knights of the Round Table to a battle in which anyone who strikes him, he will strike a year later with the same blow. Gawain accepts, beheading the Knight only to watch him pick it up again and walk away as if nothing happened. Despite that macabre setup, the audience naturally expects certain elements in a King Arthur-related tale: shining armor, castles, perhaps even a joust or two. Yet while director, and in this case, scriptwriter, David Lowery’s film contains some of the usual medieval elements, it’s a very modern take on the genre.
We first meet Gawain (Dev Patel) in a brothel, woken up thanks to a cold bucket of water thrown by Essel (Alicia Vikander). They flirt and tussle and as Gawain chases her through the dark, dingy halls, the debauchery that happens around them feels familiar to anyone who’s watched an episode of Game of Thrones. There’s a ribald, energetic quality to these scenes, enhanced by both Daniel Hart’s score and the constantly-moving camera. Those choices are meant to emphasize Gawain’s zest for life, but there’s also a self-consciousness to the filmmaking, as if Lowery is constantly reminding us that we’re watching a gritty fantasy for adults.
Indeed, Lowery doesn’t seem interested in a straightforward, realistic adaptation so much as creating a vibe. Malgosia Turzanska’s costumes (like a fitted grey tunic with dark ribbing Gawain wears in the first few scenes) are clearly modern in their construction. Other pieces, like the halo-backed crowns Arthur (Sean Harris) and Guinevere (Kate Dickie) wear are more symbolic, recalling the gold halos depicted around the heads of saints in paintings of the period. While in the poem, the titular Green Knight is still a man–albeit one clad and with hair in green–Lowery makes literal the reading of the Knight as a symbol of nature by turning him into a walking tree. Though the idea conjures memories of the lovable, slow-talking ents from The Lord of the Rings, Lowery’s version (as played by Ralph Ineson) is far more fearsome.
The light-hearted energy of the opening scenes takes an abrupt turn as Gawain enters Arthur’s castle for a Christmas feast. Hart brilliantly slows the pace down through his music, slowly dropping the tempo just as cinematographer Andrew Droz Palermo replaces the cool light of the outdoors with a foreboding, candle-lit dimness. There’s something primally terrifying in the Knight’s entry into the hall, obscured by shadow with only pinpoints of light reflecting on his eyes. That scene and watching him pick up his severed head and ride out of the castle like the Headless Horseman permanently shifts the film’s tone and the film’s creeping unease grows steadily as Gawain seeks the Green Knight a year later.
Though the original poem is just as symbolic as Lowery’s film, its morality is couched in Christianity and he essentially removes that element in both adapting and inventing anew strange episodes for Gawian to experience. Instead, Lowery uses Gawain’s story to explore ambition and mortality. Some of these episodes work well, like his encounter with a mysterious woman played by Erin Kellyman who Gawain meets one night while seeking shelter. Another, which is loosely based on the text, stars Joel Edgerton and Vikander in a second role, is so heavy-handed in its symbolism that it may leave viewers less willing to accept the film’s mood, laughing at it rather than thinking. Moreover, without having read the poem first, there feels like so little through line between each adventure and Gawain is so passive in them that the film can feel aimless or episodic. In fact, the film is so heavy in metaphor that some viewers may find it hard to garner much meaning from it at all.
Lowery has always been a filmmaker willing to take big swings to explore complex ideas and somewhat like his A Ghost Story, The Green Knight will perhaps work best for viewers simply willing to experience it and be provoked into deeper thinking by its images. Not everyone will connect with its exploration of honor or its mystical tone, but at every level, the filmmaking is so impressive that it almost doesn’t matter that the film doesn’t quite come together.
