The quixotic opening shots of David Lowery’s The Green Knight set the tone for his unique telling of the Arthurian legend of Sir Gawain and The Green Knight. Outside a window, we can see a home burning, and a couple separating. It’s a complete story in miniature showing the necessity of facing adversity in the face of certain death. We then pull back and meet Sir Gawain, a man who by his own admission has no tales to tell, and through his journey we see Lowery thoughtfully explore what it means to live with honor when the only constants in this world are nature and death. Rather than a gallant, aspiring knight besting challenges, the episodic story unfolds with temptations and failures, of life crashing down upon Gawain in a world filled with eerie dread and unknowable outcomes. It is a marvelous work of cinema from one of the best directors working today, and a darkly beautiful affirmation of life itself.

Gawain (Dev Patel) is the nephew of King Arthur (Sean Harris), and while he aspires for some glory for himself and his beloved Essel (Alicia Vikander), he has no great stories of his own. The opportunity presents itself when the Green Knight (Ralph Ineson), a hulking mass who seems carved from a tree, comes in on Christmas Day with a challenge—land a blow upon him and the Knight will return that blow in one year hence. Gawain, seeing the opportunity for glory, beheads the Green Knight only for the body of the Knight to pick up his severed head, and reiterate that Gawain must now come to the Green Chapel in one year where the blow will be returned. The year passes by quickly and then Gawain goes out to meet his challenge where he comes across those who may help or hinder his journey.

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Image via A24

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These plot beats don’t really do justice to what Lowery is doing with his film, which is consistently mind-bending and constantly wrestles with notions of mortality, legacy, and fate. For example, in one scene, Gawain is set upon by thieves where he is tied up and left to die. Rather than simply cutting to his escape, Lowery ponders this moment. The camera moves is a slow, deliberate motion away from Gawain’s struggling body and slowly pans 360 degrees in the woods around him until it returns to Gawain, now depicted as a skelton, still bound and gagged. The pan then goes in reverse until we return to the struggling Gawain, still alive. Through this simple technique, Lowery has shown us Gawain’s fears without ever having to voice them. Some may be confused by this circumspect telling, but it all serves to draw us deeper into the story and Gawain’s mentality while avoiding straight exposition.

The deliberate touches like this one all add to the surreal, almost dreamlike feel of The Green Knight, and yet Lowery never goes so far afield that we lose track of the plot, the stakes, or the character of Gawain. Yes, The Green Knight is a “weird” movie in that it is unconventional, but that doesn’t make it any less affecting. Lowery has melded the ideas of Middle English chivalric romance with an almost post-modern sensibility, never quite reflecting on the nature of the story itself, and yet the invitation of the Green Knight seems to come from within the narrative itself by being conjured through Gawain’s mother (Sarita Choudhury). From here, the visuals take on a distinctly modern touch, not through hyper-editing or heavy VFX, but through a self-conscious application. Lowery knows we’re watching a myth unfold, and he walks a delicate tightrope between acknowledging that myth and treating it as reality.

Dev Patel in The Green Knight
Image via A24

He’s able to manage this feat thanks in large part to Patel’s performance. In lesser hands, Gawain merely becomes a cipher, a blank slate onto which to project the film’s larger themes. But through Patel, we get a deeply sympathetic, earnest look at Gawain as a man who isn’t necessarily “naïve” as much as he’s simply young and untested. He’s eager to prove himself, and yet that eagerness and playacting as a knight shows the distance between who he is and who he aspires to be. That gulf is key to the film because it’s really the larger conflict—what is the difference between glory and honor? Before Gawain ventures out, Essel asks him, “Why greatness? Isn’t goodness enough?” It’s a lesson that Gawain must learn if he wants to stop playing a knight and actually be one.

By diving into this exploration of honor, Lowery does justice to the original text while making come it alive for a new audience that may find such a concept outdated. After all, the line “chivalry is dead” comes to us because we believe that in a modern world there’s no place for it, and what we do see is nothing more than gallant cordiality. But in The Green Knight, honor takes on much grander connotations as Lowery shows us that it’s how we meet the world despite the chaos and indifference it presents to us. The only thing that is certain is death; since death is certain and will come to us all in time, then what’s the point of living with honor? Is it simply for a grand tale to tell? Is it for glory? Is it for longevity? What makes The Green Knight so brilliant is that Lowery’s adaptation sets Gawain on a quest that not even he fully understands. He knows what his quest requires him to do, but he doesn’t comprehend what it means, and through Gawain’s exploits, we gain a better understanding of our own condition and how we would seek to live.

The Green Knight is an astounding film, rich in its visuals, its storytelling, and its themes. For a filmmaker who is constantly challenging himself and finding humanistic values no matter the genre, The Green Knight is a crowning achievement for Lowery, and one that demands to be seen. It is a challenging film, but one where those who choose to meet those challenges and engage with the material will be richly rewarded from a story that has stood the test of time, and with a film that I believe will do the same.

Rating: A

The Green Knight opens in theaters on July 30th.

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