Beowulf vs. Gawain & the Green Knight

It’s not the best movie ever made but it’s a very good one and bears repeat watching. The final line is such a great rug pull.

sorry the line isnt blurry and you're either this side of it or agin us

so

YA idg, at all.

its a tale of adolescence into manhood, sure, but it's deeply wyrd blood sex magik death in tone and theme and the (oft criticised) decisions to pace it for silence and space instead of action and thrills underminenthisntake somewhat for me.

it's also- while imo having strong and readable through lines of theme and message- ambiguous about many of the events, characters, happenings, causes and intent while still being releasable today.

im sure you could find Arthurian or gawain adaptations that aimed for strict adherence to a specific tome or version from one or another medieval source but other than marking them higher on that score and that score alone i think the criticism is very narrow in scope across the entire effort.

the cgi is dreamy rather than mindblowing but its existence to me isn't in itself a criticism i can get on board with, neither giants nor fox take up very much time nor in fact space in plot at all

if, as im reading, the time spent on getting an immature gawain to the knights house is held to be an offence vs the time spent on the ins and outs of the knights game of silly cuckers, well and good but i feel myself that this version is not trying to hold *that part* central to the telling - and in that i refer you to my "strict adherence" above in terms of how id score it down on that (not at all really but certainly not twice).

its not as if- as far as i know- any one poem wasnt a stitching and spinning of one or several previous legends and liberally salted and stirred to boot. this telling of the green knight is in some ways more to the spirit of the telling anew than a simple reproduction.

in any case, to the above, i dont love this for what it isnt and what it is is beautiful, ambitious visually and pyschotropically, fabulously and kindly played (in particular the supporting parts - by which i mean in terms of place and relationship, our king and queen, our mother, our green knight and our red) around our wouldbe knight work so tenderly for him and are played with such a skillful mix of solemnity and reassurance care- that it gives the entire effort a heart and beauty that a mere tapestry transcription would miss out on to great detriment imo.

none of it would work without a central performance that made us love our selfish coward and if patel didnt deliver a gawain you wanted then thats gonna impact your feelings for the entire effort further. he works perfectly for me.

i might post later about what it *does* put in instead of the simple clockwork of the hunt and kiss, if i get a moment and im not banned for this brave and foolish effort

echo what vg says above, it supports repeat viewings

this time around, the pacing is settled and not an issue. it goes quite quickly tbh.

i found myself asking a lot more about our king- lamenting how his nephew has never sat to his right or upon his knee, now wants to repair that.

our ageing and childless king, his brown nephew, i caught a touch of his face early on with a line that could easily be read as a reference to wjat the boy might need to face up to as a knight let alone a king to be

our king, our ageing king, presiding over a hall of silent legends who do not rise for him nor in his place when a challenge issues forth - who do not offer a sword to the youth who accepts when they would not (ofc our lad jumping in when none would is also evidence perhaps of his hasty youth also).

the influence of the knight legends on what our hero wishes to emulate but cannot find a way to is stark contrast with how our king belatedly but compassionately takes an interest in how to shape him, is stark contrast to our red knight's warm and generous welcome and companionship and stark contrast to our inevitable but not distant nor arguably unkind green knight

i think narratively first time around its clear as crystal Gawain's mother instigates the challenge- I'm not sure how clear it is that the consequences are or aren't real even after second viewing. what i am more clear on is the extent to which king/queen seem to also be instigators at which point the character of "the game" and the quest really does change imo, even if our protagonist himself feels like an unwilling victim/participant throughout.

why do i have visions of glumdalclitch not showing up until one year hence

In keeping with the spirit.

Very glad I got the fancy edition of the film from A24, honestly.

awesome breakdown darragh

i read a great meta-analysis on tumblr* that suggested also that having gawain lose, regain then altogether remove the green girdle also puts the onus entirely on him for his fate, that his fate can’t just be put down to the meddlings of a witch as it is in the poem - puts the agency in his hands as it were and he actually chooses what happens

*trying to find a link for the tumblr post, will post it here when i do find it - it’s very thorough & nerdy <3

ah found it (super long breakdown but well worth a read imo)

https://qqueenofhades.tumblr.com/post/659980701135962112/the-green-knight-and-medieval-metatextuality-an

oh excellent will read ty

this is interesting too, re lowery’s process of writing the adaptation

https://lithub.com/david-lowery-on-the-strange-arduous-journey-of-adapting-the-green-knight-for-film/

why do i have visions of glumdalclitch not showing up until one year hence

― close encounters of the third knid (darraghmac), Monday, 18 December 2023 19:57 (three months ago) bookmarkflaglink