| My lords, my Ladies, and everybody else here ... not sitting on a cushion! ... |
Well ... a good seven years has now passed since this film was in the theatres and it holds up just as fine as it did the very first time I saw it.
The Reception ...
The first and most striking aspect of this film was the amount of antipathy that was generated by Carter Burwell's insightful use of modern music in a period comedy /drama. Unfortunately this created so much backlash, and so much hatred amongst the viewers that hordes of haters flocked to the internet to post hundreds of pages of comments on IMDb, and post an unflattering number of continuous negative reviews on Amazon for years to come with a long sea of comments regarding the `egregiousness' of what this film did to the period. None of the `paid, real-life' Reviewers were any kinder to writer / director Brian Helgeland as well and just about every reviewer couldn't tolerate the opening of peasants drumming away and singing `We Will Rock You' or Heath Ledger practicing his technique to War's `Lowrider'. So many viewers would have a better understanding and greater perspective on stuff like this if they would just acquaint themselves with the work of Tom Stoppard. His work in the field of Victorian and Middle-age shenanigans has made absurdist theatre what it is today and has shaped a lot of modern film.
"It's called a lance, hello ..."
The Controversy ...
Some people may remember that the negative reviews were so many, that some bright spark over at Sony Pictures decided to start fabricating positive reviews and using quotes for those fake reviews to advertise the film. Well, someone noticed and caught them with their proverbial hand in the cookie jar. Yes, there was a lawsuit and someone got paid. Whoever that was, is beyond me because I never saw a dime of that money and I saw it twice in the theatre and I've purchased both versions available on DVD.
For almost five years, someone also hosted a phony website that was made to emulate an Anchorage area High School up in Alaska, which regarded a supposed Musical adaptation of `A Knights Tale', replete with fake newspaper reviews, fake still photographs and other phony productions also complete with posters, banners and photographs. The website was taken down in 2006 after it was finally discovered by Sony Pictures and they didn't find the joke very funny at all.
The Writer / Director and Shannyn Sossamon ...
A lot of people, who were in charge of production and had financially backed the picture were ecstatic to be working with prolific Writer / Director Brian Helgeland, who had previously had much success with the magnificent film L.A. Confidential. Whether one likes that movie or not, it surely is a screenplay to rival all others in scope and skill. No dailies were made available during filming as principal photography took place in the Czech Republic, but nobody seemed to mind as they were all fully behind Helgeland's "period epic" that would be a sort-of screen adaptation of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. There must have been an incredible silence during the first few screenings when they finally got to see the finished product. The problem was that even though the marketing campaign for the film was vast and appropriate, too much negative banter behind the scenes got the ball rolling on all the bad reviews. But in truth, it still did pretty good in the theatres and very well once released on DVD, both times. To this day, a lot of people adore this film and it's quickly becoming a real cult-classic and not the kind of cult-classic that Studios likes to advertise their poorly made films like Superbad as. A Knights Tale really is a cult-classic, that status is not something placed upon it by the Studios, but attributed to it by the fans and the continued viewership.
Unfortunately though for Helgeland, his career as a director hasn't ever really improved, has it? He's seemingly stuck forever with his Cirque du Freak vampire movie that no one has yet seen a frame of. His writing though hasn't suffered as he's penned numerous hits that have been critically acclaimed such as Mystic River, and Man on Fire. He was also a guest commentator on the recent DVD re-release of The Omen alongside Richard Donner. Note to reader: the Omen commentary is well worth listening to and will give you a deeper respect for Richard Donner after hearing it.
And then there was Shannyn Sossamon. A nice young girl who went out for general auditions for this film, and who at the time was working as a (gasp!) Stripper in a Los Angeles area all-nude Strip Club. I promise you this ... I never met her. In the commentary, Helgeland makes mention of this and jokes that he intentionally put her name in the opening credits superimposed over a young-girl dancing because of that fact. It was a bit harsh, I thought and I couldn't help but detect some jilted emotion in his voice as well. She also shows up as the object of the writer's affection in the movie The Order, with a few other members of this cast in a story that is just overwrought with the pangs of deprized love and has a serious undercurrent of a Sossamon infatuation.
So I guess, Helgeland truly has been weighed, measured and found wanting as a director. The future is all his though. Hopefully, whatever he does next will be openly accepted, even if it is another A Knight's Tale.
Heath Ledger ...
For years on Amazon, the bulk of recent reviews for A Knights Tale were all negative as I stated before, and there was a lot of conversation about the historical accuracy. Now that Heath has passed, I guess it's only appropriate that all that is now in the past and people now post reviews saying how much they loved him and what an impact as an actor he made on film and their lives. It's fine and probably well-deserved. He was taken too early through working himself into an exhaustion and getting caught in a spiraling set of circumstances that went out of control.
I probably owe Heath a debt of gratitude as for a period of time, I was often mistaken for him in public. Being a Los Angeles area resident, it did get me a few girls during the late night outings. But trust me, no one ever believed fully that I was him. The timing was good too, as it was a dark period for me and I needed everything I could get back then just to keep going. So, posthumously ... thanks, Heath. I owe ya one, mate.
His performance in this film quite good, and full of life and hopefully this is how people will remember him as I feel it was one of his most enjoyable roles in film. The Joker will probably be seen as equally good even though the polar opposite in emotion and intensity.
Alan Tudyk and the rest of cast ...
It was this film that introduced me to the American Actor Alan Tudyk. A native of Plano, Texas whose acting is so good, could get himself cast in a film with a fake accent and do a more than passable job as an Englishman named Wot Falhurst. Great name, by the way.
A story about `Geoff' Chaucer is intriguing enough by itself.
"I will eviscerate you in fiction. I was naked for a day, you will be naked for eternity."
A much-overlooked, but incredibly well-written piece of cinema. Anyone who could write something like that, does not need a lecture on historical accuracy. Lots of films and movies are made about historical figures, but the most shameful thing that is too-often done -- is the dialogue that is placed in their mouths. It is often out-of-place, inaccurate, buffoonish and abysmal. Helgeland wrote so many incredibly moving, witty and interesting lines for Geoffrey Chaucer that would make one think that he will one day revisit the character and give him the honor of a feature length film, or at least a screenplay. Paul Bettany's performance with the line ...
"Lillium Interspinus ... the Lilly among the thorns."
Is a fantastic piece of impromptu acting and a great introduction during the film.
As for Rufus Sewell, a lot of people used to associate him with the cult sci-fi masterpiece Dark City, now I can't look at him without thinking of his role as Adhemar of Anjou and that scowling cock-eyed look of his. You'd be cock-eyed too, if you boozed it up and partied as heavily and heartily as this guy did. My God, he was a Hollywood legend for years at after parties, wrap-parties, clubs, you name it. His reputation as an animal far outweighed his reputation as an actor.
A historical note ...
Yeah, too many other reviewers make mention of the dates, the Black Prince, the real Ulrich of Gelderland and on and on. A long list of accusations is still up for the reading over at IMDb if anyone is interested. If you're really interested in why a lot of this was done, then just listen to the commentary on the DVD with Paul Bettany and Brian Helgeland and you learn more about this film, and be the better for it.
We walk in the garden of his turpluence ... (hahaha .. just what does that mean, anyway?)
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5 Rating
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