"What should I say, except this miller rare
He would forgo his talk for no man there,
But told his churlish tale in his own way:
I think I'll here re-tell it, if I may.
And therefore, every gentle soul, I pray
That for God's love you'll hold not what I say
Evilly meant, but that I must rehearse,
All of their tales, the better and the worse,
Or else prove false to some of my design.
Therefore, who likes not this, let him in fine,
Turn over page and choose another tale:
For he shall find enough, both great and small,
Of stories touching on gentility,
And holiness, and on morality,
And blame me not if you do choose amiss.
The miller was a churl, you well know this;
So was the reeve, and many another more,
And ribaldry they told from plenteous store.
Be then advised, and hold me free from blame;
Men should not be too serious at a game."
He would forgo his talk for no man there,
But told his churlish tale in his own way:
I think I'll here re-tell it, if I may.
And therefore, every gentle soul, I pray
That for God's love you'll hold not what I say
Evilly meant, but that I must rehearse,
All of their tales, the better and the worse,
Or else prove false to some of my design.
Therefore, who likes not this, let him in fine,
Turn over page and choose another tale:
For he shall find enough, both great and small,
Of stories touching on gentility,
And holiness, and on morality,
And blame me not if you do choose amiss.
The miller was a churl, you well know this;
So was the reeve, and many another more,
And ribaldry they told from plenteous store.
Be then advised, and hold me free from blame;
Men should not be too serious at a game."
- "Prologue, The Miller's Tale", The Canterbury Tales (Geoffrey Chaucer)
Translation by librarius.com
Translation by librarius.com
Amongst artists and audiences alike, "anachronism" is a bit of a dirty word. Usually the unfortunate by-product of negligence (i.e Medieval ladies wearing high heels, not invented until the reign of Louis XIV), or used as a spoof (i.e. Robin Hood: Men in Tights), it's rarely welcome and gives an easy excuse to avoid the creative past. However, the first and primary idea pounded into the head of every contemporary art student is that there are no new ideas, so don't waste your time trying to come up with one. Instead, learn from what's come before, study it, translate it, use it, and figure out what unique touch or spin you can put on it to make it "new".
Writer/director Brian Helgeland (L.A. Confidential, Conspiracy Theory, Mystic River) proved that he knows this very well with 2001's A Knight's Tale, a delightful, hilarious, and utterly satisfying production that pulls anachronism into a great big bear hug and then leads it in a jig or two. When Sir Ector dies between matches at a joust with only one round left to go before winning the whole thing, his squire William (Heath Ledger) sees it as an opportunity to change his destiny. Convincing Ector's other squires, Roland and Wat (Mark Addy and Firefly's Alan Tudyk) to play along, William takes up his master's arms and armour and wins the purse, which he then convinces his friends to spend on getting him trained and equipped to compete in an upcoming tournament. With a month to improve the skills acquired from practicing with his master, and to figure out how to fool a tournament that requires proof of noble birth to compete, Will, Wat, and Roland stumble across (or, rather, are stumbled across by) none other than Geoffrey Chaucer (Paul Bettany), a little-known scribe who can forge Will some birth certificates for the price of a hot meal. Rounding out their renegade company with a widowed smith named Kate, the newly formed entourage of the newly formed Sir Ulrich von Lichtenstein starts making waves on the tournament circuit, and it isn't long before "Sir Ulrich" discovers the best part about being a nobleman: the noblewomen! Lady Jocelyn is, of course, a renaissance woman, a mouthy firecracker who is also admired as a prize by the dastardly Count Adhemar (Rufus Sewell), a highly skilled boor with a penchant for ensuring that he never loses. Will William win the tournament, and the lady? Will his con be revealed? Will she still accept him? We've all heard this story before, and we all know the answers. It's about the journey, not the destination.
And what a journey it is. With a soundtrack featuring Queen, BTO, War, Heart, Thin Lizzy, and Sly and the Family Stone, A Knight's Tale opens by inviting the audience into its holistic fusion of Medieval and modern imagery with a tournament crowd pounding out the iconic rhythm of "We Will Rock You" as the jousters take stage. This film works because it doesn't treat anachronism as, well, anachronism. A Knight's Tale isn't the least bit serious, but it is very much in earnest, and with its happy, confident, and satisfied treatment of its story, its blatant anachronism fades into the background by the simple and impressive virtue of not feeling out of place. Will and Jocelyn's first dance, set to David Bowie's "Golden Years" (1975), seamlessly combines period dance, '70's dance, and contemporary pop dance, the result being one of the most memorable and deceptively simple dance sequences I've seen in any film. The best adjective I can come up with for this film is "holistic" - Brian Helgeland covered so many bases with ease. Paul Bettany's Chaucer - arguably the best part of the film - is a smart-ass, good-humoured addict who combines the contemporary pitiful stereotype of the educated, unemployed starving writer with a quick tongue and WWF-inspired heraldry that all provides a fantastic character for a fantastic actor. His role is made all the more funny by the fact that while The Canterbury Tales start out quite posh with - natch - "The Knight's Tale", they quickly become a one-upmanship contest with dubious rules as to what makes one story better than the last. After Chaucer's cheeky "don't shoot the messenger if the story's rude" narration, things get pretty ribald as the drunken Miller refuses to wait until he's sobered up before saying his piece. For extra film-related historical fun, Edward the Black Prince of Wales plays a small but crucial role in A Knight's Tale which mirrors a recorded incident from Chaucer's life, in which he got a helping hand from that Edward's father.
From start to finish, A Knight's Tale is a beautiful production that looks great, sounds great, feels great, plays great, and doesn't insult the audience's intelligence. It has nice little touches, like how the knight Will and co. were squired to was a good, kind man, instead of portraying all blood nobles as idiots and boors. Its only visible weaknesses are its random use of rather vicious Christian blasphemies, and the fact that Jocelyn is an underdeveloped character with little evidence for why our good William loves her blindly - though I wonder if this wasn't done deliberately for the cliche. She's gorgeous and witty, but that's about it, except when she's being petulant and using her wit in incomprehensible ways (i.e. her nonsensical parting shot in the "no use for a flower" argument with Will).
If you're wanting some serious Medieval fiction, I can't think of anything off the top of my head; suffice it to say, A Knight's Tale would not in this case be enjoyable to you. Although, if all your experiences with anachronism have been bad or happily stupid (i.e. Men in Tights), I'd suggest watching A Knight's Tale to see what can happen when that device is used, deliberately, and not only used but reveled in - and the end result is shockingly good. Watch it for the artistic interest, stay for the fun. And be sure to watch the credits to the end.
Writer/director Brian Helgeland (L.A. Confidential, Conspiracy Theory, Mystic River) proved that he knows this very well with 2001's A Knight's Tale, a delightful, hilarious, and utterly satisfying production that pulls anachronism into a great big bear hug and then leads it in a jig or two. When Sir Ector dies between matches at a joust with only one round left to go before winning the whole thing, his squire William (Heath Ledger) sees it as an opportunity to change his destiny. Convincing Ector's other squires, Roland and Wat (Mark Addy and Firefly's Alan Tudyk) to play along, William takes up his master's arms and armour and wins the purse, which he then convinces his friends to spend on getting him trained and equipped to compete in an upcoming tournament. With a month to improve the skills acquired from practicing with his master, and to figure out how to fool a tournament that requires proof of noble birth to compete, Will, Wat, and Roland stumble across (or, rather, are stumbled across by) none other than Geoffrey Chaucer (Paul Bettany), a little-known scribe who can forge Will some birth certificates for the price of a hot meal. Rounding out their renegade company with a widowed smith named Kate, the newly formed entourage of the newly formed Sir Ulrich von Lichtenstein starts making waves on the tournament circuit, and it isn't long before "Sir Ulrich" discovers the best part about being a nobleman: the noblewomen! Lady Jocelyn is, of course, a renaissance woman, a mouthy firecracker who is also admired as a prize by the dastardly Count Adhemar (Rufus Sewell), a highly skilled boor with a penchant for ensuring that he never loses. Will William win the tournament, and the lady? Will his con be revealed? Will she still accept him? We've all heard this story before, and we all know the answers. It's about the journey, not the destination.
And what a journey it is. With a soundtrack featuring Queen, BTO, War, Heart, Thin Lizzy, and Sly and the Family Stone, A Knight's Tale opens by inviting the audience into its holistic fusion of Medieval and modern imagery with a tournament crowd pounding out the iconic rhythm of "We Will Rock You" as the jousters take stage. This film works because it doesn't treat anachronism as, well, anachronism. A Knight's Tale isn't the least bit serious, but it is very much in earnest, and with its happy, confident, and satisfied treatment of its story, its blatant anachronism fades into the background by the simple and impressive virtue of not feeling out of place. Will and Jocelyn's first dance, set to David Bowie's "Golden Years" (1975), seamlessly combines period dance, '70's dance, and contemporary pop dance, the result being one of the most memorable and deceptively simple dance sequences I've seen in any film. The best adjective I can come up with for this film is "holistic" - Brian Helgeland covered so many bases with ease. Paul Bettany's Chaucer - arguably the best part of the film - is a smart-ass, good-humoured addict who combines the contemporary pitiful stereotype of the educated, unemployed starving writer with a quick tongue and WWF-inspired heraldry that all provides a fantastic character for a fantastic actor. His role is made all the more funny by the fact that while The Canterbury Tales start out quite posh with - natch - "The Knight's Tale", they quickly become a one-upmanship contest with dubious rules as to what makes one story better than the last. After Chaucer's cheeky "don't shoot the messenger if the story's rude" narration, things get pretty ribald as the drunken Miller refuses to wait until he's sobered up before saying his piece. For extra film-related historical fun, Edward the Black Prince of Wales plays a small but crucial role in A Knight's Tale which mirrors a recorded incident from Chaucer's life, in which he got a helping hand from that Edward's father.
From start to finish, A Knight's Tale is a beautiful production that looks great, sounds great, feels great, plays great, and doesn't insult the audience's intelligence. It has nice little touches, like how the knight Will and co. were squired to was a good, kind man, instead of portraying all blood nobles as idiots and boors. Its only visible weaknesses are its random use of rather vicious Christian blasphemies, and the fact that Jocelyn is an underdeveloped character with little evidence for why our good William loves her blindly - though I wonder if this wasn't done deliberately for the cliche. She's gorgeous and witty, but that's about it, except when she's being petulant and using her wit in incomprehensible ways (i.e. her nonsensical parting shot in the "no use for a flower" argument with Will).
If you're wanting some serious Medieval fiction, I can't think of anything off the top of my head; suffice it to say, A Knight's Tale would not in this case be enjoyable to you. Although, if all your experiences with anachronism have been bad or happily stupid (i.e. Men in Tights), I'd suggest watching A Knight's Tale to see what can happen when that device is used, deliberately, and not only used but reveled in - and the end result is shockingly good. Watch it for the artistic interest, stay for the fun. And be sure to watch the credits to the end.
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