The Green Knight with Dev Patel

[StarksInTheNorth]

Just saw the movie, not quite sure how I felt about it overall, although it was very aesthetically pleasing. Also really want to find out if anyone's written a meta comparing Ser Gawain to Brienne in Feast because I have THOUGHTS.

[Larry of the Lawn]

Have been following this but haven't seen it yet, am a huge fan of David Lowery's music and that alone guaranteed I'd watch it.  Hoping to check it out later this week. 

[Fury Resurrected]

I saw it, it was weird and I liked it. I liked the creepy elements a lot

[Nictarion]

1 hour ago, Fury Resurrected said:

I saw it, it was weird and I liked it. I liked the creepy elements a lot

I figured it would be having seen A Ghost Story. I liked it as well though. Feels like it will have good repeat viewing potential. 

[TheLastWolf]

On 8/3/2021 at 8:36 AM, StarksInTheNorth said:

Just saw the movie, not quite sure how I felt about it overall, although it was very aesthetically pleasing.

It released?

On 8/3/2021 at 8:36 AM, StarksInTheNorth said:

Also really want to find out if anyone's written a meta comparing Ser Gawain to Brienne in Feast because I have THOUGHTS.

Read one months back

[Veltigar]

I just came back from it. Brilliant film but a terrible adaptation of the original story. So in a way I'm very conflicted about it. I summed my thoughts up in the watched thread:

EDIT: For those who are interested, someone provided me with a link to this summary and I think it's interesting to read it afterwards if it's been a while since you have studied the source material.

4 minutes ago, Veltigar said:

The second film I saw was David Lowry's hotly anticipated The Green Knight. It's a film I am a bit conflicted about. On the one hand it is a great film, full of arresting imagery, superb acting and an interesting, non-conventional storyline. On the other hand it is a terrible adaptation of the source material, which will definitely warp everyone's understanding of it. I predict generations of students who will skip past this wonderful old story and just watch the movie instead and they will be missing out.  That's all good and well if the source material is shit like it was for Michael Mann's Last of the Mohicans, but the original Gawain and the Green Knight story is one of those staples of English literature that has more than earned its place in the canon.

Up until pretty much  the very end, I was inclined to describe it as a perfect movie. However, I feel like Lowry's choice to wrap up the story in the way he did drastically reduced the effectiveness of his version and betrayed the source material. If that wasn't bad enough, I later read a couple of reviews that called it derivative. As someone who hasn't seen

  Reveal hidden contents

the Last Temptation of Christ

yet, that doesn't really bother me, but it is noticeable that people with a knowledge of the original story and/or

  Reveal hidden contents

The Last Temptation of Christ

tend to give it a considerably lower rating. 

Despite that criticism, it is still very much recommended to watch this film. I'd wager that this will be a very influential film going forward and I'm highly interested in seeing more of David Lowry's work (both future work and past films). It has some of the best costumes, sets and special effects I have seen in a long time and visually it's stunning. It's a tremendously dark film, but unlike what seems to be the rage nowadays thanks to the likes of Zach Snyder, you don't have trouble following the story. Instead, it makes the whole experience more intimate and mysterious. I hope the cinematography and lighting get some recognition here. Visually this film is just brilliant. The acting is also otherworldly. Dev Pattel has never been better imo, it was also good to see Alicia Vikander back in a role of note and most surprising of all, this film even found a way to make Joel Fucking Edgerton watchable. A higher achievement I cannot think off. Such a shame they had to ruin it in the last 5 minutes. 

[Which Tyler]

Good film, well made, but...

 

The story of a man (not a knight) who gets mugged by some peasants, requests sexual favours from a saint, gets a hand-job off the host's wife (which is at least tangential to the story I'm familiar with), runs away from his challenge, becomes heir to the throne, where he imprisons his son's mother, and lives a long life - sorry no, that's just a fucking dream!

That's really not the story I remember from school.

[Argonath Diver]

Veltigar, as someone with the same last name as the director (and a brother with the same first name!), I would like you to remember to put that E in there! I absolutely adore my fellow Lowery's adaptation of Pete's Dragon, and I'm really looking forward to seeing The Green Knight this evening. I'm already fairly certain I'll love it simply off the sumptuous visuals and Patel's presence. Even if the movie ends up disappointing, it certainly has one of the best trailers I've ever seen. Though, I think there's a chance it's similar to Where the Wild Things Are, whose trailer I consider one of the greatest of all time, but have tried the film three times and have never enjoyed it. 

[briantw]

I smoked a ton of weed before I watched this one and I suspect that was the right call.  Loved it.

[Heartofice]

I thought the movie was a triumph. My experience with the Green Knight story is kinda limited, I’d seen the 70s movie and possibly had read something as a child. Either way I think the themes of that story have fed into a lot of other work down the years so it all feels slightly familiar.

What I truly appreciated about this movie however was that it seems to capture that tone of how I imagine those medieval tales felt. There was a sense of wonder at nature , that the world is far bigger than we experience. 
 

But really it was that the movie didn’t  feel bound by the storytelling tropes we are all used to these days, instead it told its tale in its own way, in a way that felt poetic and not constrained by film. Things happened and didn’t need explanation, they were symbolic or felt like they would be more understood by someone living in medieval times. The movie was an anthology of events but it didn’t feel disconnected.

Its also just beautiful. I knew I’d like it but it didn’t let me down. 

[Mexal]

Stunning movie though I’m not entirely sure how I felt about the narrative. Still, most of the scenes are just gorgeous.

[Veltigar]

On 8/22/2021 at 8:31 PM, Argonath Diver said:

Veltigar, as someone with the same last name as the director (and a brother with the same first name!), I would like you to remember to put that E in there! I absolutely adore my fellow Lowery's adaptation of Pete's Dragon, and I'm really looking forward to seeing The Green Knight this evening. I'm already fairly certain I'll love it simply off the sumptuous visuals and Patel's presence. Even if the movie ends up disappointing, it certainly has one of the best trailers I've ever seen. Though, I think there's a chance it's similar to Where the Wild Things Are, whose trailer I consider one of the greatest of all time, but have tried the film three times and have never enjoyed it. 

I left the 'E' out on purpose. He might be the director of one of the best films in recent memory, but there is only one person cool enough to have the name Lowery and that's you 

[Calibandar]

Saw this...quite disappointed, much weirder and arthousy than I was hoping or expecting.

[Heartofice]

46 minutes ago, Calibandar said:

Saw this...quite disappointed, much weirder and arthousy than I was hoping or expecting.

Thats why its good.

[Darryk]

I thought it was excellent; very atmospheric and immersive. Ended on quite a downer though.

[john]

I thought it definitely improved on the story, which is ultimately just a cheeky little tale about a couple of tricksters. The film made it much more about actual honour and sacrifice. And we don’t really know what happened in the end, I like to think the Knight sent him on his way and he went home and married his girlfriend.

[Ran]

Have finally watched this, despite trepidation over the fact that it was almost certainly going to make a hash of the Pearl Poet's masterwork. As Veltigar said, it's a fairly terrible adaptation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, as such, even as it manages to fit in so, so many symbols (the girdle, the pentangle, the Virgin painted on the inside of the shield, etc.) but as a modern reimagining what I'm reminded most of is Robert Eggers' efforts to dive us into the sort of magical or superstitious mindset of people in the past, where they could imagine strange things in the woods or under the water or beyond the horizon.

I do think Lowery uses a little too much flashy cinematography at times, calling attention to itself,  but for the most part it was really well-done.

Spoiler

My favorite shot is the long pan around from the tied-up Gawain to his barren bones, and then the reverse to return us to the present.

The ending is the thing that bugs me most. I understand from interviews that he wanted ambiguity, and had in fact filmed something less ambiguous but dropped it on negative critique, but .... eh, not sure it works for me. 

I also rather miss seeing at least one detailed hunt scene that provides parallels to what's going on at Hautdesert.

Well-cast movie, fine performances, and so on. Sean Harris was particularly gripping as an aged and failing Arthur.

[aceluby]

16 minutes ago, Ran said:

  Hide contents

My favorite shot is the long pan around from the tied-up Gawain to his barren bones, and then the reverse to return us to the present.

 

Spoiler

That was mine as well.  What I liked most about it is the way the color palette changed as the camera panned.  There were just a ton of really great tools of cinematography used throughout this movie that helped tell this story without dialogue.