The Green Knight Review

In 2001, the world of fantasy cinema saw a watershed release; Peter Jackson’s genre-defining adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic The Fellowship of the Ring. It captured the mythical feel of the beloved source material while adapting it for a then-contemporary audience, resulting in one of the most technically brilliant and emotionally resonant adventure epics of all time. Between it and its two sequels, it permanently raised the bar for the genre forever, and became one of the most beloved films of all time.

It didn’t really stick though, did I? The Lord of the Rings Trilogy is still great, and we did get a couple of genre classics afterwards like Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth. Mostly, though, we still haven’t gotten the next great high fantasy epic. We have some big budget Blockbusters that cover themselves in fantasy aesthetics but never do anything interesting, or art films that use surface-level fantasy flourishes to use as a jumping point, or kid’s movies, which can be good, but are still only one piece of what the genre can be.

That context is what initially made me so excited for The Green Knight; it looked to be a genuine fantasy adventure that actually delved into the depths of the genre’s on-screen potential by going back to its roots in the Arthurian legends. And lo and behold, The Green Knight is hands down my favorite film of 2021 so far. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since I saw it two days ago. I will admit that I am unfamiliar with its source material – an anonymously written epic poem from the middle ages titled Sir Gawain and the Green Knight – but I plan to track down a copy of it soon. As for the film as a standalone work, it’s nothing short of brilliant. It boils the fantasy genre to its absolute roots, and then constructs a slow, hypnotic story about legends and greatness, honor and responsibility, and respect for nature and acceptance of mortality as it pertains to a truly unique coming-of-age tale.

The tale of The Green Knight follows Sir Gawain, son of Morgan Le Fey and nephew to King Arthur. Gawain is young, untested and undisciplined, without any grand deeds to his name. He dreams of honor and glory, but in the same vague way that children dream of adulthood. One Christmas Day, a strange being called The Green Knight enters Arthur’s court and issues a challenge; one of Arthur’s knights must land a blow on him. If they can, they must journey to his home in the Green Chapel one year later, and the same blow will be returned. Gawain, in a moment of pure masculine bravado, takes up the challenge and cuts the knight’s head clean off.

What follows is a sort of modern cinematic bildungsroman layered over a physical journey that does little to hold the audience’s hand with its meaning, but is rich and layered with substance. Director David Lowery and Cinematographer Andrew Doz Palermo craft a surreal, hypnotic and spellbinding journey that blends the physical, the spiritual and the metaphorical in ways that defy separation; its difficult to parse out which is which, and the distinction doesn’t particularly matter. It’s a world where magic and nature are one and the same, where nothing is what it seems, and where the story itself has no interest in clarifying any of this. What matters far more is what this means for the protagonist himself and the how and why of his emotions and his decisions.

The Green Knight isn’t the film a lot of people think it’s going to be, and to some extent I blame that on the trailer. I do think that the tone of the trailer and that of the actual film are closer than many admit, but it does cut in ways that imply far more action and adventure than there actually are. I think this expectation also comes from what fantasy in cinema is so often represented by. This isn’t a big Blockbuster action flick, and it’s not Lord of the Rings. This is a deep, searing slow burn examination of the philosophical heart of the genre from its Arthurian roots. It does away with action and spectacle almost completely, instead opting to tell a simple yet incredibly layered morality tale. A lot of people won’t like this – a lot of people don’t like this – and I do understand why. To the casual film goer, The Green Knight will likely come off as obtuse, incoherent, and just plain boring. To those looking a little closer, it will seem like it cares more about theme and character over story – and this is true to an extent. But to those who embrace it wholeheartedly, it’s fairly clear that The Green Knight is all about storytelling. It’s as much about honor and glory, quests and magic, knights and kings than any other fantasy story. The difference is that it also asks us what these things mean to us, and reminds us that at the end of the day, honor and greatness come not from a sword in a stone or a golden crown, but from within ourselves.

This really isn’t the next major epic that I hinted at at the beginning of this review, not through lack of quality but rather for lack of qualification. It’s not a huge, grand adventure, but a slow, introspective journey through the genre’s heart. In a way, however, it may be what the genre really needs right now; a reminder of what it once was and what it still good be, a way for fantasy to take itself seriously again, and a wonderful film that may one day stand up against the genre’s best.