A Knight's Tale (DVD)

...it is. It opens with a jousting arena and the sound of Queen's 'We will rock you'! This is apparently done to give the film a contemporary feel, and in a funny sort of way it works!

THE STORY

It's the 14th Century and Sir Ector, the master of peasant squire William Thatcher and his two compatriots Wat and Roland, has been competing in a jousting tournament and is apparently resting/recuperating between jousts. He only ...
...to stay on his horse. A damaged visor saves him from having to show his face so he gets away with it. For him this is a dream come true! And so the adventure begins…..

Will now believes he can continue to deceive everyone by pretending to be a knight. His friends protest that he won't get away with it as he's not a noble, but he talks them into helping him. They have a month to train him….As they are walking along, celebrating the ... more

Described as 'an exciting, action packed comedic adventure', and it is. It opens with a jousting arena and the sound of Queen's 'We will rock you'! This is apparently done to give the film a contemporary feel, and in a funny sort of way it works!

THE STORY

It's the 14th Century and Sir Ector, the master of peasant squire William Thatcher and his two compatriots Wat and Roland, has been competing in a jousting tournament and is apparently resting/recuperating between jousts. He only has to stay on his horse for the next joust and he will have won the tournament. They have not eaten for 3 days now, so they are desperate for the money. One problem….. On trying to rouse their master from his rest they discover that he has in fact died. He is being called for his last joust. So, William quickly steps in, pretending to be his master. He puts his armour on and manages to stay on his horse. A damaged visor saves him from having to show his face so he gets away with it. For him this is a dream come true! And so the adventure begins…..

Will now believes he can continue to deceive everyone by pretending to be a knight. His friends protest that he won't get away with it as he's not a noble, but he talks them into helping him. They have a month to train him….As they are walking along, celebrating the fact that the training seems to be working at last, they come across a naked gentlemen! He walks straight past them as though his behaviour is perfectly normal! They question and tease him and discover that his name is Geoffrey Chaucer (yes, THE Chaucer), writer. He does not tell them exactly how he 'lost' his clothes, but insinuates that they were stolen. They discover from him that they will need a 'Patent of Nobility' for the tournament they are heading for and he guesses that Will is not really nobility. They come to an agreement. He will forge the Patent of Nobility for them and they will feed and clothe him.

Wat: - "……..Pain…lots of pain…."

On arriving at the town where the tournament will be and entering successfully in the competition, Will meets a beautiful and mysterious young Lady. She refuses to tell him her name and he is entranced. He has also entered the sword fighting tournament, which is easy for him but is does not earn as much money as the jousting. His new name is Sir Ulrich Von Lichtenstein, from Guilderland! Geoff becomes his Herald, Wat and Roland his squires.

'My Lady' as Will calls her is at the tournament, where all the knights pledge to win it for her! Enter Count Adhemar…. Geoff tries to help Will win the lady over with sweet words, but Adhemar teases him over his name and his antique armour. This angers Will and the rivalry between the two men has begun.

Geoff: - "Ladies, Gentlemen…….and everyone else here NOT sitting on a cushion…"

Geoff gives Will a rousing, though rather astounding, introduction. The tournament begins….. The first contender is a stranger to Will. He calls himself Sir Colville... He's injured by Will and asks him if he could retain his honour. So, Will shows mercy to him and allows a draw. The knight concedes the next round and Will wins the match. This is a small, seemingly insignificant thing to Will, but impresses the knight. He will remember this. During this tournament his armour is damaged and he seeks out a blacksmith willing to mend it even though he can't pay yet. This is where they meet Kate. He 'sweet talks' her into fixing it for him. She decides to make him a whole new suit of armour with a special new way of heating the metal, her own invention. It is lighter but stronger than the usual ones. They are suitably impressed when they test it out. Will wins the Sword fighting tournament, but loses the jousting to Count Adhemar. He vows to de-horse him next time. After the tournament the champions have to attend a dance. Will can't dance so Geoff and Kate have to teach him. Adhemar tries to make a fool out of Will at the dance, but it backfires.

During the next tournament he meets the stranger again. He discovers that he is none other than Prince Edward and no-one else will go up against him. The Prince is disappointed. But Will decides that he will not stand down just because he's royalty, which impresses the Prince further. Adhemar has had to go and join his army at war, so is away from the tournaments for a while. He is told by her lady-in-waiting, that his lady's name is Jocelyn. Will wins all the tournaments while he's away and tries to impress Jocelyn. She asks him to go against his normal behaviour and lose the matches to prove his love for her! He refuses, and then changes his mind when he reaches the arena, much to the confusion of his friends. He takes a lot of punishment and his lady is suitably impressed. She sends him a message not to lose anymore matches as she can't bear to see him in any more pain. Of course he wins the tournament again, and the lady!

Wat: - "It's called a lance… hellooo!"

The next tournament in London, his home town. He hasn't been back here since he was a small boy, put into the services of Sir Ector by his father to help him find his dream. Adhemar is back from war now too, and informs Will that he has asked her father for Jocelyn's hand in marriage. Will looks for his father and discovers that he's now blind. They catch up on old times and he tells his father of his exploits. But, Adhemar has been spying on him and discovers Will's secret.

I won't tell you how it ends, but it is of course a happy one.

CONCLUSION

The modern music in a 14th century setting seems odd, but adds to the humour of the film. This will appeal to male and female alike. The cast are impeccably chosen for their parts. The different characters each have their endearing idiosyncrasies and go well with each other. Wat being the 'thick clown' as the actor himself describes his character and Geoff the 'clever clown'. Roland, the sensible one also has his moments as does the lovely Kate. You could dress William in sackcloth and he'd still be gorgeous! (Oh, hang on they DID dress him in sackcloth!) Jocelyn the beautiful lady is surprisingly modest for her nobility, which endears her to you and you can see why Will would fall for her. It is interspersed with Wills memories of his childhood to help you to understand his motivation. There are no special effects, but plenty of stunts, so I have rated that section on the stunts. A very watchable film rated PG (UK), 127 mins long.

Rated ***** "…an absolute must see…" by The News Of The World.

CAST

Heath Ledger (The Patriot, 10 things I hate about you) as William Thatcher
Rufus Sewell (Bless this child, Dangerous Beauty) as Count Adhemar
Shannyn Sossamon as Lady Jocelyn
Paul Bettany (Gangster No. 1) as Geoffrey Chaucer
Laura Fraser as Kate the Blacksmith
Mark Addy (The Full Monty) as Roland
Alan Tudyk (28 Days) as Wat
James Purefoy as Colville/Prince Edward
Christopher Cazenove as John Thatcher

BEHIND THE SCENES

Costume Designer - Caroline Harris
Production Designer - Tony Burrough
Director of photography - Richard Greatrex.Bsc
Music by Carter Burwell
Edited by Kevin Stitt
Produced by Tim Van Rellim/Todd Black
Written, Produced and Directed by Brian Helgeland

SPECIAL DVD FEATURES

• Commentary by Brian Helgeland and Paul Bettany
• Making of Featurettes
• Behind the Scenes Featurettes
1. The Rock music scene in 1370
2. Sexy Armour and a Rock band on tour
3. You never know what you'll find in a Czech pop house!
4. School of hard knocks! (Training the horses and riders)
5. Tournaments - A cross between pro football and stock car racing
6. The Marquee Event
7. The world's 1st sports promoters (Heralds)
8. Stories for people
9. The Rules of Love
10. Heath Ledger profile
11. A Directors Quest
• Deleted Scenes
1. The Campfire Scene
Discussing the choice of banner/emblem for Will's new identity. Not absolutely necessary for the story and not particularly funny.
2. Adhemar Intro
Again, not necessary for the story, but gives a hint of his personality which you soon see anyway.
3. Chaucer's 2nd Speech
Another of his cleverly worded intros, not sure why they left it out!
4. Riot
Adhemar's nasty side shows when he leaves the dance in a huff!
5. Chaucer's wife
Very funny discovery of Geoff's wife, although she's not mentioned in the rest of the film. 6. The Stocks
This is not so much a deleted scene as an altered one! It had contained another of Geoff's rousing speeches, so I assume that they decided they were becoming a bit much!

• Robbie Williams and Queen Music Video
• Theatrical Trailers
1. A knights Tale
2. Final Fantasy
• Screensaver*
• Weblink*
• Filmographies
• Subtitles

Requires a DVD-Rom drive on your PC with Windows '95 or higher to access the DVD-Rom features. They will not work in a CD-Rom drive and may not work in a Macintosh PC.

Also compatible with PS2.

Websites - aknightstale.com and www.cthe.co.uk

As you can see there are plenty of extra features for you to browse through! I personally always check out the behind the scenes and making of featurettes. The deleted scenes often prove interesting too.

 

...less