Gawain and the Green Knight

Atmospheric is the first word I'd use to describe this movie. With the thick rolling fog, deep forest, dark castles and rocky seacoast; this movie delivers on locations. The filth is fantastic. When characters get dirty, they stay dirty. Their clothes look worn. When Gawain falls ill, he looks it. There are sweat stains on most of the cast. I don't know about you guys, but I appreciate touches like that.

In this version of Gawain, everything, no matter how bizarre or with a touch of silly, is deadly serious for the players. From the moment the movie starts it wraps itself in the period and surreal imagery and grimly marches on to a very well done conclusion.

Though it gets a lot of bad reviews, I genuinely like this movie. In fact, I like it much more than the remake "Sword of the Valiant"-- whose characters come off as not taking their environment, or each other, seriously.

A bored and listless viewer sat through a boring and listless movie today. As others before me have said, I waited in vain for the Monty Python troupe to come charging out of the bushes and breathe a little life into the proceedings. GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT is, I suppose, an honest attempt to portray the legendary exploits of a Knight of the Round Table, however it fails to generate any excitement or even any interest in the characters. Badly acted and unconvincing combat scenes, dreary scenery and a vastly overblown musical score become tedious rather quickly. Overall, this is a real yawner by any standard one cares to apply.

I vaguely remember this from being around 7 years old at the time. The combination of time since, my age at the time, seeing it in a strange old-fashioned cinema, having an inter- mission(!), and the weird and dark storyline, have kept me perplexed to this day – with weird flashbacks.

I remember little detail I'm afraid, other than a general green tinge to the whole film and the Green Knight's head (I think), played by Nigel Green (born for the role, obviously), being lopped off by a sword in a finalé fight sequence. I think I was completely bamboozled by the whole affair, but not necessarily bored. If anything, I think it encouraged my liking of strange and weird films, and furthered my interest in the appearance of things – ending up as a graphic designer.

I do remember Nigel Green though and think I was aware of him at the time, maybe having seen him in Jason and the Argonauts earlier (as Hercules). In spite of his theatrical larger-than- life acting style, I remember him being a gripping person to watch – at least as a kid. A shame it was his last film.

I'd love to see again some day...

I managed to catch this movie on cable yesterday afternoon. Yeah, sure, it stinks, but it was made in 1973, so whaddaya want?

I would not be surprised, however, if this movie was the inspiration for many of the scenes in Monty Python's Holy Grail. There are many small similarities, and while watching this movie you can just hear the Python troupe's twisted gears turning in their heads.

"wouldn't it be funnier if Sir Gawain was wandering in a forest and then came across a castle of virgins...?"

I was about six when I saw this so forgive the vagueness. It's kind of Monty Python's Holy Grail in look with a Michael "couldn't-direct-traffic-on-the-Orkney-Islands" Winner directorial style. It was so deeply bizarre that it has stuck in the memory ever since. Thinking I perhaps didn't understand it because I was a kid I asked a couple of film boffins I know, they said, "no, mate, it was a genuinely odd film." (I seem to recollect lots of misty forests, dream-like fights and a man who lived in a vat of oil in order that his genitals erode away). Anyway, I think more youngsters should be made to watch this film so that they can grow up confused and slightly warped.