The Green Knight is a 2021 dark fantasy adventure film directed, written, produced, and edited by David Lowery. It is an adaptation from the 14th-century poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and stars Dev Patel as Gawain, who sets out on a journey to test his courage and face the Green Knight. It also stars Alicia Vikander (in a dual role), Joel Edgerton, Sarita Choudhury, Sean Harris, and Ralph Ineson as the titular character.
The Green Knight was theatrically released in the United States on July 30, 2021, by A24. The film received acclaim from critics for its cinematography, music, acting (particularly Patel's), production values, and Lowery's originality, direction, and writing. It grossed over $20 million against a budget of $15 million.
Plot Gawain is awakened on Christmas morning in a brothel by his lover, a commoner woman named Essel. He returns to Camelot, following a scolding by his mother Morgan le Fay.
Gawain attends a feast at the Round Table with his uncle the Lord, who invites Gawain to his side. In a tower, le Fay performs a magic rite which summons the mysterious Green Knight who barges into the court as Merlin gives the Lord a look. He states that any knight able to land a blow on him will win his green axe, but must travel to the Green Chapel the following Christmas and receive an equal blow in return. Gawain takes up the challenge. The Knight yields and Gawain, wielding Excalibur, decapitates him. The Knight rises and lifts his severed head, reminds Gawain of the bargain and leaves.
After a year reveling, the Lord reminds Gawain to uphold his end of the challenge. Gawain departs on horseback for the Green Chapel, taking the green axe and a green girdle made by his mother, who claims that no harm will come to him so long as he wears it.
During his journey, Gawain meets a boy scavenging a battlefield littered with dead warriors. The boy directs Gawain to a stream that will lead him to the Green Chapel. He asks for payment and Gawain gives him a single coin. Shortly afterwards, the boy and two others ambush Gawain and steal the axe, girdle and horse, leaving him tied up. Gawain scrambles to his sword and uses it to cut the ropes binding his hands and pursues them.
By nightfall, Gawain arrives at an abandoned cottage and falls asleep in the bed. He is awakened by the ghost of a young woman named Saint Winifred, who asks Gawain to retrieve her head from a nearby spring. He asks what he will receive in return but is rebuffed. He reunites her skull with her skeletal remains and the next morning finds the axe has been returned to him.
Gawain befriends a red fox who accompanies him on his journey where they see some giants. He reaches a castle inhabited by a Lord who informs him that the Green Chapel is nearby, and Gawain accepts his invitation to stay.
The Lord's lady, who resembles Essel, makes seductive overtures towards Gawain. The Lord proposes they exchange what he obtains while hunting with whatever Gawain finds at the castle. The next morning, the Lady presents Gawain with the green girdle, which she claims to have made herself. Gawain accedes to her advances in exchange for it. Gawain flees and encounters the Lord in the forest. The Lord kisses Gawain in return for his Lady's actions, but Gawain does not give him the girdle. The Lord reveals that he has captured Gawain's fox and releases it.
Gawain reaches a stream where a boat is waiting. The fox speaks, imploring Gawain to abandon the quest. Gawain takes the boat to the chapel, where the Knight is seated in hibernation. Gawain waits through the night, and the Green Knight awakens on Christmas morning. As the Knight swings the axe Gawain flinches. The Knight chides him. Gawain kneels for the blow again but at the last moment scrambles away while apologizing on the way out. He finds his horse outside the chapel and rides back home.
Gawain flees back to Camelot. Gawain is knighted and becomes king after the Lord's death. In his reverie, Essel bears his son, but Gawain abandons her, taking the child and marrying a noblewoman instead. His son comes of age and dies in battle. Many years later, Gawain has become a reviled king. With his castle under siege and his wife, daughter, and mother abandoning him, he removes the green girdle, and his head falls from his shoulders.
It is revealed that all that was just a vision. The kneeling Gawain removes the girdle, telling the Knight he is ready. The Knight praises Gawain for his bravery, drags his finger across Gawain's throat and points past him, stating "Now, off with your head". He smiles kindly.
Cast
An uncredited voice actor voices the red fox that becomes Gawain's companion.
The giants that Gawain and his red fox companion encounter are motion-captured by Andrea Deaskovic, Melinda Dempsey, Aoibheann Garry, Isabel Friosi, Rachel Quinn, Hannah Sjoden, and Lucy Waters.
Production
It was announced in November 2018 that David Lowery would direct and write a modern retelling of the 14th-century tale Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, with A24, Ley Line Entertainment, and Bron Studios set to finance.
In March 2019, Dev Patel was announced to be in negotiations to star in the film. That month, Barry Keoghan and Ralph Ineson joined the cast. In April 2019, it was announced Alicia Vikander and Erin Kellyman had been cast.
Principal photography began in Ireland in March 2019. Ardmore Studios and Cahir Castle, County Tipperary, were used as filming locations, as was Charleville Castle in Tullamore, County Offaly.
Weta Digital created the visual effects.
Lowery was inspired by fantasy films of the 1980s such as Willow and Excalibur. Initially, while writing the script, Lowery did not intend for Morgan le Fay to be Gawain's mother, but felt that altering the story this way allowed for her to be more naturally introduced into the narrative. Lowery stated that the intercut scenes of le Fay casting the spell that summons the Green Knight were not part of the original screenplay. However, Lowery was impressed with actress Sarita Choudhury's work with the character and the scene was written and storyboarded to be included in the Round Table scene. Lowery spent well over a year editing the scene together. The decision to design le Fay's spell in the form of a handwritten letter was also due to Lowery's fondness for letter writing, found in his other works as well.
The inclusion of Saint Winifred was inspired by the mention of the Holy Head (Holywell) in the original poem.
The highway robbery is an allusion to the 1975 film Barry Lyndon, while the battlefield where Gawain first encounters the robber is inspired by the Battle of Badon. While Gawain's ultimate fate is left ambiguous at the end of the film, Lowery originally shot a more "explicit" and "definitive" ending, but felt that it would affect audiences' feelings coming away from the film.
Set designs, such as the scene at the Round Table, included hand painted matte paintings to extend the set, a technique Lowery favored from films in the '80s and '90s. Time constraints with shooting forced cinematographer Andrew Droz Palermo and production designer Jade Healy to plan how lighting would be built into the Round Table scene ahead of time.
Costume designer Malgosia Turzanska drew upon South American designs when designing the crowns worn by the Lord and Guinevere. Lowery also felt the designs reinforced the "saintly" status of Arthur and Guinevere as representations of Western Christianity. The decorative plaques on Arthur's cloak referenced the creative team's various interpretations of King Arthur, and included references to Lowery's other works, such as A Ghost Story. Turzanska also designed the golden cape worn by Gawain to represent the character's golden mantle from the original poem.
No digital visual effects were used in creating the Green Knight during the Round Table scene. Lowery preferred this in order to give the character presence on set. Actor Ralph Ineson wore wood-like prosthetics designed by Barry Gower. Scenes involving the horse alternated with a false mount that was wheeled around with a dolly, after the initial horse used for the scenes would not cooperate with Ineson. Lowery stated that the crew used practical effects to make the Green Knight appear larger, such as mounting Ineson on platforms. Digital effects were later used during the Green Knight's hibernation scene, including subtly transforming the knight's face into that of the other cast members. Speaking about the subtle humor and lightness incorporated into the otherwise dark script, Lowery stated that near the end of the film, he directed Ineson to portray the Green Knight as Santa Claus.
Another major influence on the film was Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) by Francis Ford Coppola, according to Lowery this was one of his all-time favorite films, and the use of practical effects, dissolves and old-fashioned cinema tricks never ceased to inspire him, and he paid deliberate homage to its magic when St. Winifred first approaches Gawain in her cottage.
Themes Integrity and character Lowery describes the film as being about the importance of comporting oneself with integrity and goodness over being concerned with one's legacy. Though the question of Gawain's ultimate fate is left intentionally ambiguous, Lowery stated that he wanted the possibility of Gawain being beheaded to be "a positive thing... He faces his fate bravely, and there's honor and integrity in that. But that doesn't mean that he's dead, he's killed. He received the blow that he was dealt, and all is set right within the universe of the film." The after-credits scene showing a young girl putting on a crown has been seen as "a tease of an alternate life that Gawain leads as king of Camelot, with his daughter (possibly even mothered by Essel) a sign of the happiness he found."
Familial relationships The complicated relationship between Morgan le Fay and Gawain written for the film also evoked Lowery's experiences with his mother and needing to be pushed to stand on his own as an adult.
Women Erasing and ignoring the presence of women is a prevalent theme. Gawain's attitude toward women as easily overlooked and forgotten is reflected in both the original poem and the film.
Nature The film deals with the conflict between mankind and nature. Lowery stated that monologue by Vikander's Lady Bertilak reflects both the symbolism of Arthurian Christian civilization being in conflict with paganism and nature and his own sentiment that nature will inevitably win over civilization and bring peace. The Green Knight's depiction as a tree-like entity also depicts nature and paganism invading the dull sanctum of the Round Table and Arthur's kingdom. This is further emphasized by Lowery's decision to portray Arthur and Guinevere as sickly, alluding to the waning control of the civilization they represent.
Music
Release
Originally, The Green Knight was scheduled to have its world premiere at the South by Southwest film festival (SXSW) on March 16, 2020, with a full theatrical release following on May 29. The COVID-19 pandemic, however, forced the cancellation of SXSW and a mass closure of movie theatres worldwide. With no timeframe for when cinemas might reopen, some studios opted to release their new films through video on demand (VOD). Lowery told the A24 Project podcast and IndieWire that he would prefer The Green Knight to see a theatrical release, but that he was ultimately not in control over whether or not it opened on VOD.