“What an amazing experience,” exclaimed Peter Bradshaw, film critic for the British newspaper, the Guardian, expressing his great admiration for the movie “The Green Knight” 2021, which was shown in cinemas on the 24th of last month, describing it as “a mysterious movie.” And excitingly beautiful."

American writer and director David Lowery created this film, in which “sacrifice and the desire to die for the greed of earthly glory are essential components of the horrible horror,” inspired by an epic poem that appeared in the 14th century entitled “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”, and the identity of Its author is a mystery even today.

In this film, British star Dev Patel starred as he "flyed high on an extraordinary mission, across stunningly presented landscapes, combining visual dazzle, sheer brutality and unimaginable grandeur," according to Bradshaw.

Film critic Brian Tallerico sees light snow, mist, and a mixture of falling ash in the opening scenes of this film that defies conventional expectations of heroic knights stories;

"What makes you almost smell the air, feel the chill, and prepare for a 130-minute experience of intense screen magic. It may be unlike anything else on the art scene, in one of the most memorable films."

deep adventure

It is a deep dark adventure, blending romance, chivalry, horror, weakness and strength, misery and valor, through "a vortex of masculinity, heroism and religion, in the late Middle Ages", according to Tallerico.

Set in a mountainous kingdom surrounded by stone walls, the story revolves around Sir Gawain (Dave Patel), nephew of King Arthur (Sean Harris), Queen Jennifer (Kate Dickey), and nephew (Sarita Choudhury), who is accused of witchcraft.

After a brief opening scene with his lover Esel (Alicia Vikander) and his mother, Gawain goes with the King and Queen to a Christmas banquet, only to find himself challenged by a stranger, when the hall doors open and the Green Knight (Ralph Ineson) enters.

A gigantic creature with a gigantic axe that does not seem to be of this earth, in the form of a very quiet beast with a head carved out of a tree trunk, to offer in his somber fairy whisper a bargain.

He challenges any of Arthur's knights to slash his neck, in exchange for his majestic weapon;

Provided that this mythical creature returns after a year, to return the fatal blow it received to the knight who struck it.

Gwen steps forward, despite being reminded that this is an Arthur game, and decapitates the Green Knight, who simply picks his head off, laughs, and leaves Gwen with a long year.

inevitable fate

Now Gawain must face his fate. Is it a divine miracle to save him from death?

Or will his self-abandonment lead to an obscure fate?

Or will he fail to escape punishment in a humiliating manner?

Gawain goes on an extraordinary journey and encounters strangers with evil intentions, such as a malicious scavenger (Barry Keoghan) who tells him he is already in Hell.

We hear an exciting sermon from the Lady of the Castle "Esel" about the meaning of green, the color of nature, merciless growth, the grass that will come out of the grave, and the turning of human labor into mere moss.

We watch that endless process that will manipulate heroes and their paths to glory, until we arrive at a dazzling sequence, in which Gawain is kidnapped, tied up by a scavenger and his accomplices, left to die, decomposed to his bones, and then reborn in the blink of an eye;

Bradshaw is stunned.

The best embodiment of the complexity of the character

Tallerico says, "The film has successfully adapted a Victorian-era fantasy romance as an incredible journey guided by the incredibly poetic eye of David Lowry, into the best performance of Dev Patel, with an artistic sense that transports audiences to another world."

As Gawain's journey becomes a whirlwind, he feels more and more like a dream, as if he hardly ever leaves that feast with the Green Knight, until it begins again.

The film gains momentum through a cumulative sense of confusion, as the story becomes not just a physical journey, but rather a mental and emotional story, organized into a series of challenges, before the young man faces his final destiny.

Film critic Zanne Brooks says of the complexity of Gawain's character that he "appears so confused that you don't know whether he's a brave hero or weak, brutal, and corrupt, who likes to have fun with his lover, as smart as a wolf or stupid as a chimpanzee";

He describes himself as "the weakest of the knights, and the poorest in wisdom", and was led to the slaughter by accepting the challenge presented by the Green Knight, and he accepted the condition "You cut off my head, then I will cut your head off", knowing that he cannot win over his cowardly orthodox ideas.

mature person

But we will nonetheless watch someone mature as a human being, "dancing on the edge of things, and beginning to engage with the world";

Until he becomes the hero of his strange story, in a complex way, that the other knights do not.

A method whose loose structure made the technical elements more important to its success;

Laurie brought his wonderful team, led by composer Daniel Hart, and cinematographer Andrew Palermo, to alternate cinematography between a dream and something closely related to Mother Nature, something that makes us want to sit in the banquet hall, listening to the story requested by King Arthur, in what looks like " A great poem that means something unique to everyone who reads it," Talerico describes it.

It makes The Green Knight "a wonderful medieval artifact, filled with ghosts, magic, flaming heads, fearsome giants, an epic tale of tormented romantic nobles, and a majestic death journey punctuated by moments of true magic," according to critic Owen Gleiberman.