A Knight's Tale

This article is about the 2001 film. For the story from The Canterbury Tales, see The Knight's Tale.

A Knight's Tale
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Brian Helgeland
Written by	Brian Helgeland
Produced by	Todd Black Brian Helgeland Tim Van Rellim
Starring	Heath Ledger Mark Addy Shannyn Sossamon Alan Tudyk Paul Bettany
Music by	Carter Burwell
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures 20th Century Fox Buena Vista International
Release date	May 11, 2001
Running time	Theatrical cut 132 min. Unrated cut 144 min.
Country	USA
Language	English
Budget	$41,000,000
Box office	$117,487,473

A Knight's Tale is a 2001 action/adventure/romantic comedy directed, produced, and written by Brian Helgeland. The film stars Heath Ledger, Shannyn Sossamon, Mark Addy, Alan Tudyk, and Paul Bettany as Geoffrey Chaucer. The film follows the story of William Thatcher, a peasant turned knight, along with his companions in the world of Medieval jousting. William poses as a knight and competes in tournaments, winning accolades and acquiring friendships with such historical figures as Edward the Black Prince of Wales and Geoffrey Chaucer. The film has no connection with Chaucer's 'The Knight's Tale' in his Canterbury Tales, which has a different plot and cast of characters, and is set in a mediaevalised version of classical Greece. The film was a box office success, garnering $117,487,473 with a budget of just over $41,000,000.

Plot summary

Set in late Medieval Europe in the 1370s, the story begins with the protagonists and squires, William (Heath Ledger), Roland (Mark Addy) and Wat (Alan Tudyk), discovering their master, Sir Ector (Nick Brimble), dead of his wounds in the middle of a jousting tournament. He was ahead "three lances to none" and merely had to finish the final round to win the tournament. William Thatcher takes the armour, importantly the helm, of Sir Ector, and poses as the noble to finish the match. William's inexperience is evident, as he receives a lance blow to the face mask, but regardless wins the tournament due to Ector's previous lead. This gives William the idea that, with proper training, he, and his companions, could make a living in jousting.

Along the way to his first tournament in Rouen, William and his friends come upon Geoffrey Chaucer (Paul Bettany), 'trudging' down a road with no clothes or money. William persuades the writer to forge his patents of nobility, as it is illegal for peasants to joust, and joins the jousting circuit, under the pseudonym of Sir Ulrich von Liechtenstein from Gelderland. Chaucer is then discovered to have a terrible gambling problem, which William saves him from, by paying his debtors with his tournament winnings, and therefore gains Geoffrey's true loyalty. Along with his two fellow squires, Wat and Roland, he begins to win match after match. When his armour, still the same suit taken from Sir Ector, becomes loose and damaged, he gains an addition to his fellowship, Kate the Farrier (Laura Fraser), who makes him revolutionary armour and travels with them. He soon meets and falls in love with a noble lady Jocelyn (Shannyn Sossamon), who has already been noticed by the evil yet powerful Count Adhemar (Rufus Sewell). A rivalry begins between the two of them for the affection of Jocelyn and the accolades of the tournaments, but Adhemar defeats William in his first tournament.

In the following tournament, Adhemar withdraws after refusing to joust against Prince Edward, who is under the secret guise of Sir Thomas Coalville (James Purefoy). However, William's competitiveness overcomes his need to withdraw and jousts with Edward, to his surprise and pleasure, and wins the tournament, along with Edward's respect. Will's companions, Wat, Roland, Kate and Geoff, then gamble all of their share of the money, that William will win the French tournament in Paris. Coincidentally, and simultaneously, Jocelyn tells William that he must lose the tournament to prove his love to her. After openly accepting defeat after defeat, she changes her mind, that is, he must now win to prove his love. He does win the tournament, which is followed by their having sex.

The group travels to London for the World Championship, and an important 'flashback' of William's childhood is shown. His father, wanting the best for his son, reluctantly gives him over for squire services to Sir Ector, so that someday, he can realize his dream of becoming a knight and 'change his stars' to live a better life than his father. Returning to the present, William, assumes that his father had long passed away, visits his childhood neighborhood, and inquires with a young girl with whether or not she remembers his father. She informs him that he is in fact still alive and well, albeit blind. William visits his father, concealing himself at first using his alias Ulrich, until he tells his father that his son William had 'changed his stars' after all. His father, overcome with joyous emotion, realizes it is actually his son, and they embrace.

Although everything appears well, as Adhemar was previously absent, fighting in the Battle of Poitiers, he returns, and discovers William's humble origins. He alerts the authorities to his secret and William is arrested and sent to prison. Adhemar visits him in prison and gloats that he will marry Jocelyn, whilst beating a defenseless William. When in the stocks, William's companions all rise to defend him, though accidentally cause the crowd to raise up against them, and about to attack. However, Prince Edward emerges from the mob, and tells the crowd that his historians have discovered that William is descendant from an "ancient royal line." He then dubs him 'Sir William,' and he goes on to resume his place in the tournament and compete against Adhemar.

Adhemar proceeds to wield himself with an illegal lance, having a sharp point on the tip, which stabs into William's shoulder during the first round. William, unable to grip his lance, or breath properly due to his injury, has his armour removed, lance strapped to his hand and competes in the final round wearing his mere cloth clothing. The two adversaries charge for the final bout, with William's life in the balance, he shouts his finally accepted true name "WILLIAM", and knocks Adhemar from his horse, winning the tournament. Chaucer states that he should write this whole story down, in reference to The Knight's Tale of the Canterbury Tales. Jocelyn runs out ecstatically to meet William and they embrace in a long kiss.

Cast

• Heath Ledger as Sir William Thatcher/Sir Ulrich von Lichtenstein of Gelderland
• Mark Addy as Roland
• Alan Tudyk as Wat
• Paul Bettany as Geoffrey Chaucer
• Rufus Sewell as Count Adhemar of Anjou
• Shannyn Sossamon as Lady Jocelyn
• Laura Fraser as Kate the Farrier
• James Purefoy as Sir Thomas Coalville/Edward, Prince of Wales
• Olivia Williams (deleted scenes) as Phillipa Chaucer
• Alice Connor as Lone Girl in Cheapside

Setting

It can be deduced that the movie is set sometime between 1368 and 1376; Chaucer mentions having already written The Book of the Duchess, which was written no earlier than 1368, while Edward, the Black Prince (who appears in the movie) died in 1376. There is also a reference to a French pope which could either be Pope Urban V or Pope Gregory XI, because both reigned during that period and both of them were French.

The time period can be further narrowed down to between 1369—1371. It is stated that the Black Prince resumed his campaign in southern France (1369), and the campaign historically ended in 1371. However, the Battle of Poitiers is shown as occurring during the course of the film, despite taking place in 1356. Additionally, Edward is depicted as a fairly young man, closer to the 26 suggested by Poitiers than the 39 to 41 suggested by his campaign in southern France.

Even though the approximate setting of the film can be easily deduced, the costuming (especially the armor) is much more in late 15th century style than 14th.

In the film's actor/director DVD commentary, Brian Helgeland, co-commentating with Paul Bettany, states that the film was intended to have occurred sometime in the 1370s during a six-month period that Chaucer had apparently gone missing and show what he might have done during this time, which Helgeland says later on in the commentary inspired Chaucer to write his Canterbury Tales (the first Canterbury tale being The Knight's Tale). Helgeland also jokes in the commentary that he chose 1970s music and hairstyles for the movie because "the seventies are always the same", regardless of century. More seriously, Helgeland justifies his use of music by speculating that even during the 1370s, persons in the main characters' age group would've enjoyed newer, more contemporary music than something that had been around since their great grandparents were young, and opted to use music that would affect the audience the same way late 1300s music would've affected the youth of the 1370s. Thus, Helgeland attempted to stylize the movie in such a way as to bring the Middle Ages to the audience, rather than force the audience into the Middle Ages.

In fact, the story bears no relation to Chaucer's The Knight's Tale but instead strongly resembles the career of the twelfth- and thirteenth century William Marshal, first Earl of Pembroke, whose biography, written shortly after his death in 1219, describes among other things his adventures as an impecunious knight amassing a fortune by traveling England and France to compete in tournaments.

Controversy

Newsweek revealed in June 2001 that print ads for at least four movies released by Columbia Pictures, including A Knight's Tale and The Animal (2001), contained glowing comments from a film reviewer who did not exist. The fake critic, David Manning, was created by a Columbia employee who worked in the advertising department. "Manning" was misrepresented as a reviewer for a newspaper in a small Connecticut town.

Production

The entire movie was filmed in Prague, the Czech Republic.

The film includes a great deal of jousting footage. The initial scene of the two knights jousting is actually footage of Heath Ledger's stunt double in an accident. During filming of a later scene in the movie, the lance of the stunt double's opponent moved off target and hit him in the head. The double fell to the ground unconscious. In another incident, Heath Ledger knocked out one of director Brian Helgeland's front teeth with a broomstick when the two were demonstrating a jousting move. It was several months before Helgeland's mouth had healed enough to repair the damage.

Plenty of effort was expended creating lances that would splinter convincingly without injuring the stunt riders as well. The body of each lance was scored so it would break easily, and the tips were made of balsa wood. Each was also hollowed out, and the hole filled with balsa chips, uncooked linguini and sawdust to make convincing splinters.

Reception

Initially the reception for this film was mixed, with complaints about the anachronisms, the many jousting scenes and the thin plot. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 59%.

Music

The film combines action, comedy, and romance, and is notable for its deliberate use of prochronisms, such as the use of classic rock songs like Queen's "We Will Rock You," War's "Low Rider," David Bowie's "Golden Years," Thin Lizzy's "The Boys Are Back in Town" and many others in the soundtrack of a film that notionally takes place during the Middle Ages.

External links

• A Knight's Tale at IMDb
• A Knight's Tale at AllMovie
• A Knight's Tale at Rotten Tomatoes
• A Knight's Tale at Box Office Mojo