A knight's tale

Year of release : 2001

 

Run time : 2h12min

 

Genre : Adventure / Action / Romance

 

Cast : Heath Ledger, Paul Bettany, Rufus Sewell, Mark Addy, James Purefoy, Shannyn Sossamon

 

 

After his master dies,his peasant squire,William Thatcher,decides to take his place in a jousting competition,as he and his friends(who also work for the noble man),didn't eat in 3 days.

In medieval times,jousting was a competition for the nobility. His friends are against it,as he could get caught and imprisoned,but William's will is stronger.

 

Seeing how he won,William wants to compete in the jousting and sword, as he thinks he's good at it,and they need money.

There's only one problem,he needs a nobility title.

 

As they walk towards the city where the next tournament takes place,a naked man walks by,and talking to him,he tells them he's Geoffrey Chaucer,a writer,and he can write patents of nobility.

He tells them noble birth has to be established for 4 generations on either side of the family. William and his companions decide to clothe him,and take him with them.

 

Chaucer makes him perfect patents of nobility,and William competes,proving himself to be very good in sword competitions as well as in jousting.

Riding around town, William sees and falls in love with a beautiful maiden,and Chaucer gets into trouble.

 

William is not the only one who wants to win the maiden's heart,as she has many suitors who brag about winning the tournament in her name or honor. One of her suitors is count Adhemar,who is not easily given up courting her. For this reason,and maybe also because William came out of nowhere and is good at jousting,he hates William with all his might.

 

This was one of my favorite movies,growing up. It has the perfect blend of adventure, comedy,romance, good music and sports,to make it a good watch,and rewatch. I personally watched it for the first time in years,last week and then watched it again,a few days later.

 

The characters are each unique,with their quirks,ideals,ideas and problems. For example, William wants to change his stars,as he always dreamt of becoming a knight,so he could compete; Chaucer has a gambling problem,hence him losing all his clothes; Wat has a temper problem;Jocelyn wants a man who wants her for her,and not for her beauty,she doesn't want to become part of the man's furniture,in the house,or part of his winning prizes .

 

Although set in medieval times,the music is contemporary,and rock,which ,to me,at times, didn't match.

 

Although beautiful,sometimes the outfits and haircuts looked contemporary,and so did the dances.

The outfits sometimes looked too clean,even after fights and in war(the scene with count Adhemar).

I liked the world they created,with the medieval houses and villages,but everything was too clean and perfect(not that I complain,but it didn't look like anyone lived there,it looked like a Disney park).

 

Viewer discretion is advised,as the movie contains male nudity in the first half an hour,from Paul Bettany.

 

'A knight's tale' is streaming on AMC+, BBC America, Hulu, CW Free, Tubi, and is for rent / sale on Amazon, Apple, DirecTv, Google, YouTube.

 

Rating : Worth a watch!