The Green Knight is a visceral dream that takes you into its clutches and tightens its grip until Sir Gawain (Dev Patel) musters the courage to take a knee and bear his neck for the Green Knight’s (Ralph Ineson) blow.
This latest iteration of the famed Arthurian quest, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, written and directed by David Lowery, blurs the line between fantasy and reality. The story, originally published in the 14th century by an unknown author, is set in a time where pagan ideation coexists with Christianity, and in a place where kings and their knights spilt blood to build kingdoms of power and influence.
Real legend comes at the sword of a proven knight – a man of valor, nobility, and most importantly – honor. It is this which Sir Gawain seeks by embarking on his quest, a year after he accepts the Green Knight’s Christmas challenge.
An Epic Journey of Self Actualization
Sir Gawain is transformed by this epic journey, made pathetic, beaten down by kids no less, stripped of food, weapon, protective sash, and steed, he is left to his own devices in an unfamiliar and increasingly mystical wood.
He is forced to walk the rest of the way to the Green Chapel to seek his opponent.
The Green Knight’s shots convey realism, thus the more fantastical elements are immediately accepted as truth. The light changes add depth and drama to every moment. The use of slow motion almost transforms the well composed frame into a painting. With the action slowed down we have time to explore the contents of the sequence and to experience it more fully.
So, as his weary bones lurch forward through mud, fog, and rain, and supernatural beings begin to solidify, thanks to outstanding technique, we believe it without hesitation. This is important.
A talking fox looks over Gawain, guiding him, doing its best to protect him. Joining him as a partner in his journey.
An apparition asks him a favor – to retrieve her head from the bottom of a spring – he obliges. This stands as his first test of honor and starts him on the path to inner transformation. He returns Winifred’s (Erin Kellyman) skull to her body, and in turn regains the Green Knight’s axe.
Yet, it doesn’t prove to be enough. Temptation lies in his loins yet.
After weathering the countryside and observing great giants walking amongst mist, he comes to a castle, in which a man, his wife, and an old woman live. He accepts an invitation to stay there and rest, in preparation for a day’s more journey to the Green Chapel. This is where his second test of honor is dealt.
The Lady (Alicia Vikander) seduces Gawain, shows him the stolen green protective sash, and he succumbs to her advances. She brings him to orgasm. This betrayal of his host, I think, is a failure in his quest for honor.
Perhaps it was necessary for him to fail, to see that ugly side of himself, to finally understand, whilst he grovels for the protective sash, that it is this cowardly side of him he must slay. In this sense, his efforts are refocused. He is freshly galvanized to see the Green Knight’s game through to its end.
When he finally does come face to face with the Green Knight, who’s prepared to take his head, he has a vision of his life if he leaves his mother’s protective green belt on. It’s a life of failure, including a bastard child, dishonor, and the downfall of Camelot.
It is this vision, his awakening to the truth, that motivates him to shed his cowardice. This epiphany finally delivers him the courage to earn his legendary status properly. He removes his green protective charm-ladden belt, falls to his knees, and offers his neck.
There is something about caring so deeply for one’s status as a legend that is striking to me. It’s something Plato writes about in Symposium, it’s something Joe Rogan talks about on The Joe Rogan Experience. I can only conclude it’s profoundly human – this desire to live past our expiration date, through stories.
It turns out, this quest was a test of honesty, and in removing the protective belt, Gawain found himself to be true.
We don’t get to know whether or not his head actually rolled. What we can infer is that he has a child – and so he accomplished two great feats central to humanity – legendary status and the passing on of one’s genetic material.
Is Life Only a Game?
The challenge that Gawain accepts, by severing the Green Knight’s head from his body, is initially defined as a game. It’s when the consequences of this game are elevated to a choice between life and death, that the game becomes connected with life itself.
So, the question becomes, is the core of life one enormous game?
Two pieces of the puzzle are apparent, and they complicate a concise answer. Darwin’s theory of natural selection is quite literally the game of life and death, fraught with challenges to overcome or to succumb to. It’s nature’s way of honing its craft, to create better iterations of a species over time. Then, there is culture, created by human intelligence, that begs for life to be more than a game, whilst simultaneously that intelligence further complicates the game with love, currency, and war.
The inevitability of life is death, no matter how many challenges one overcomes. Death is the ultimate challenge that no one can win.
As long as there is intelligence, our stories have a fighting chance to remain bound to this planet long after biology’s ultimatum. This is our heritage, an impression of lives once lived, re-invented each time it passes from one’s lips into another’s ear.
This is what Gawain seeks, life beyond death.
Fiction or not, the story of Sir Gawain’s quest, the inner search for any pittance of courage, and the honesty he demonstrates, lives on. It’s a testament to the values of the place and time.
The lesson: a fundamental part of finding honor in this life, even if it means death, is to have the courage to be honest.
The Occult brought to life by VFX
A film infused with such fantasy, The Green Knight is elevated with stunning visual effects that breathe life into Sir Gawain’s world. It absolutely looks and feels like Camelot and Sir Gawain could’ve actually existed. There’s never a moment of hesitation to believe what’s on screen.
The magic of this film and of the era it depicts transcends logic and understanding, talking creatures, apparitions, giants – it all appears to be true. Gawain believes in magic, and as the seconds turn into minutes, as scenes turn into sequences, the lines blur, and we start to believe too.
Combine stunning VFX with dramatic light changes, and a story that takes its time, you have a sort of psychedelic nightmare before you. When we go to the movies, we suspend belief for the sake of the characters and the story, we temporarily change our perception of the world and accept this mysticism.
Fantasy stands to say something about how intelligence interacts with the natural world. It says something about the interplay between Mother Nature and humankind.
Why Green?
Gawain’s meeting with the Green Knight illustrates our resistance to the natural world and the proverbial tug of war we play with Mother Nature.
This point is hit home with a rather powerful monologue that comes as an answer to a question about the green color of the Green Knight. The Lady ponders our place in the universe.
She decides man is interested in sex and blood, represented by lust and the color red. But green represents life and the natural world itself, it represents the unfailing ability for life to grow in every crack and crevice, no matter how hard we might try to stamp it out.
Nature provides no recourse for our intelligence – which tortures us, overjoys us, surprises us, and ultimately traps us. We want so badly to soar free, to be giants, to believe in a soul that transcends this body.
It is not meant to be. We are meant to be down in the mud and grass with everything else that breathes, grows, kills, eats, and propagates itself. It’s encoded into the fabric of our DNA, and until the Earth is pushed to near or total obliteration once more, we are stuck to toil away in this life, to tirelessly attempt to leave our mark.
Mother Nature always has the last say, and we are no exception to that rule.
Bleak – I know. I think there’s a lot of beauty in it though. Living is really our only natural purpose, we’re no different from a weed sprouting in a crevice in a very basic sense, it’s what we do with our consciousness and intelligence that makes being alive so interesting. Beyond living, the rest is up to us. That’s the kernel of hope that builds empires.
The Green Knight
Writer/Director: David Lowery
Stars: Dev Patel, Alicia Vikander, Joel Edgerton
Images courtesy of A24
