Gawain et le chevalier vert

These reviews heighten my need to get hold of a copy of this film. I've been looking for it ever since the videotape was invented, hoping to relive the glorious three weeks spent as an extra on Gawain and the Green Knight during my art-school days in Cardiff Wales. Costumes? how can you criticise chain mail knitted from silver sprayed string? Combat scenes? bad acting! I was personally involved in hand to hand combat with Murray Head! Awful scenery? Don't let the Welsh hear that.. mainly Cardiff and Caerphilly castles. Terrible SFX? How about covering the set in artificial snow only to have to delay filming because it snowed for real. A masterpiece.

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.

In 1973 Stephen Weeks directed the first of 2 versions of the SIR GAWAIN & THE GREEN KNIGHT saga. He would remake it 11 years later in 1984 as SWORD OF THE VALIANT. As far as I'm concerned, this first version is the best one by far. It's also the film that Monty Python took the look of their HOLY GRAIL movie from and provided its inspiration. GAWAIN & THE GREEN KNIGHT was made inexpensively but used actual locations in Wales and Cornwall to achieve its authentic look.

The story is part of Arthurian legend and first appeared in the 14th century. It concerns a squire, Gawain, who takes up the challenge of a mysterious Green Knight after none of King Arthur's knights will. The challenge involves beheading the Green Knight (at his request) after which the knight then gets to return the favor. Gawain beheads him only to have the knight put his head back on his shoulders. He tells Gawain he will wait a year to redeem his promise but Gawain must seek him out.

In addition to being a romantic tale of knightly deeds and chivalry, GAWAIN is also an allegorical coming-of-age story. We follow Gawain on his journey as he has many adventures and encounters a mysterious woman named Linet. By the time he finally encounters the Green Knight, he has changed from the callow youth who set out into a worldly wise adult who has come to realize that knighthood and chivalry aren't what he thought they were.

Murray Head (fresh from JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR) does a fine job as Gawain. He engages us from start to finish as he overcomes many obstacles and discovers love and what it means to lose it. Veteran character actor Nigel Green (in his last film role) portrays the Green Knight as an imposing figure with just a touch of wry humor. Brit TV actress Ciarin Madden is the wisp like Linet who looks the epitome of the early 1970s heroine. The other significant parts are taken by well known English character actors Robert Hardy, Murray Melvin, and Ronald Lacey as Gawain's evil adversary Oswald.

Director Stephen Weeks said in a 2014 interview that he preferred the later version, SWORD OF THE VALIANT as he claimed United Artists had ruined GAWAIN by re-scoring it. He's entitled to his opinion but after watching the two movies, I can't understand why he feels that way. Although bigger budgeted, SWORD seems cheaper in every way with a script that borders on parody and a terrible 1980s synthesizer score. Unfortunately GAWAIN, unlike SWORD, was never released on home video in any form and was almost impossible to see until recently when it showed up on YouTube. You can catch it there and it should be seen as a precursor to John Boorman's EXCALIBUR (1981) and, of course, MONTY PYTHON & THE HOLY GRAIL...For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.

I dunno why I wrote "the knights who say ni!" as my summary. I suppose it was to be creative. Anyway, this movie is very close to the original story, but another half hour of this crap I would've been ripping my hair out. Well, at least I think that is what I might have done had I not been a huge fan of Murray Head.

But Murray's the man, so I watched and I got a kick out of him running about punching people and hitting them with sticks, rocks, himself, swords, and anything else he found laying about. The cinematography is stinky and the script/ interpretation of the tale is sorta crappy. But if you like Murray, by all means go ahead and watch.

This film has to be one of the most underrated films ever. And in some ways I think this could be due to it being a British film made with a reasonably low budget...in other words a prejudice against it.

I admit it does have it's flaws such as some of the fight scenes (but not all) being a little silly, a few deviations from the plot of the poem, and the occasional line of cheesy dialogue (though on this count we there is not that much of this at all).

This film had a small budget however the filmmakers accomplish a great deal despite this. The set designs I have to say are rather good. As for the costumes, they do indeed look like 'Monty Python And The Holy Grail' costumes in some cases. There are two reasons for this that are over looked...these are the facts that Monty Python spoofed this film (aswell as others) with their film...The other fact is that the costumes are based on Medieval Costumes and so it's obvious that some will look similar.

I have seen a lot of people on this site say how bad the effects are, and I have to respectfully say that their comments are baloney on this matter. The effects are no worse than most other films of that time and genre.

Also it should be noted that this is a British film and most of the cast were fairly well known in the UK at the time, so they are only a 'No Name' cast to people abroad (not in the UK) in the USA...etc...People forget that films are always predominately made for their own countries and not generally foreign markets...and this film is the same.

Over all this is quite a good film...I will give it full marks just because everyone else are giving this film such ridiculous marks on these reviews.