MSCU Review: "A Knight's Tale"

He Will Rock You

Now I know this may irreparably destroy my moving reviewing credibility, but I love this movie. It's big, goofy, dumb and just plain fun. I watch movies for many reasons, one of them is to be entertained: A Knight's Tale is too silly not to be entertaining.

Throw any historical knowledge you may have out the window and watch this odd little flick. Chaucer? Who needs him? Not when you have Queen's We Will Rock You in the Middle Ages. Come on, you know that if they had Queen six hundred years ago they totally would have been rocking him out.

Let me be the first to admit, this movie is not for everyone. I completely understand those people who hate this movie. After all it does kind of have not historically redeeming value. But at the same time you can tell nearly everyone involved had a good time making it. I'd rather watch a movie where the actors are having fun, than watch one where everyone involved is taking themselves far too seriously (I'm looking at you Tristan + Isolde).

Like Tristan + Isolde, A Knight's Tale has leads who look a lot better than they can act. Both Heath Ledger and Shannyn Sossamon spend the majority of the film standing around and looking pretty. But the secondary characters shine. Paul Bettany gives a wonderfully over-the-top performance as the gambling addicted Geoffery Chaucer. Mark Addy and cult icon Alan Tudyk give memorable performances as the protagonist's friends. Even James Purefoy makes a brief appearance to sizzle up the stage. If you ever rent the DVD, make sure that you listen to the feature commentary which features Paul Bettany and the director. The two men sound like old friends. Bettany's recounting of his nude scenes is a riot, plus he teaches the audience a new use for duct tape.

In addition to some ham-fisted performances, this film does a surprisingly good job at capturing the visceral impact of jousting. The action sequences in the film are well shot and pick up the pace of the movie. It is a rather pretty movie. The sets look appropriately Medieval and the extras are smeared with adequate amounts of muck, making them look suitably Medieval. The sound track which features mostly classical rock drew the most criticism of all. I personally don't mind it. All too often historical movies have no sense of fun or whimsy, featuring dour orchestral soundtracks. The odd sound track matches the overall direction of the film: a silly sound track for a silly movie.

At the end of the day A Knight's Tale is a fun and very strange movie of little artistic or intellectual merit. Those looking for some mindless and stupid fun should give it a look. Those with little or no sense of humour would best look elsewhere.

MSCU Rating: B+