YO, the movie we want to talk about today may be very strange to us, but it is as well-known as the Western version of "Journey to the West", it is "The Green Knight".
At first, I didn't care too much when I saw this movie, but then after having a trailer, I was really attracted by the exquisite light and mysterious atmosphere in the film, and wow, there are giants!
After the film was scored, it unexpectedly formed an aesthetic separation of a huge gap between film critics and audiences, which completely aroused my interest, and I quickly looked over and couldn't help but chat with everyone.
"The Green Knight" is adapted from the 14th century "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" rhyme narrative poem, is the most widely circulated in the legend of King Arthur, but also the best and hottest story, the whole poem is divided into four parts, the story because of its age, has been passed down from generation to generation, so to this day, for Sir Gawain's character and his adventure deeds, has been changed into many versions, some romantic, some more exciting adventure, some more magical, some more educational and thought-provoking and so on.
Today's david Lowey's "The Green Knight", of course, will not be the first time nor the last adaptation, there have been opera dramas and film works have been tried before.
And David Lowey's "Green Rider" in my opinion is very ambitious, after laying the foundation of the original legend story, the image floor covered up has a strong author's expression, the director wants to re-face the definition and thinking of "chivalry" for ordinary people, as for how the film is done, in my opinion, the advantages and disadvantages are very obvious, it is no wonder that the film will cause the audience to be so torn after watching.
Before reviewing, you must take care of the friends who do not know the story and the movie, and if there are spoilers, please consider watching.
The film is about Christmas Eve, the elderly King Arthur is holding a banquet with the Knights of the Round Table, when a knight who looks like a treeman who evolved from The Lord of the Rings 2 threatens to challenge the knights present, and if anyone can see his head, then next year today, he will accept his slash.
At this time, King Arthur's nephew Sir Gawain volunteered to accept the challenge of the unknown knight, and instead, the Green Knight knelt down and directly assumed a crooked head killing posture, Gawain quickly cut off the Green Knight's head, just as Gawain was secretly happy, the headless Green Knight picked up his own head that could still speak, telling Gawain that he remembered to go to his Green Church the following Christmas to "go to the appointment" and accept his beheading that imitated Gawain's equal damage value.
Gawain was directly dumbfounded, but in order to maintain his dignity and glory, when Christmas of the following year was approaching, Gawain embarked on an adventure to find the Green Knight in the Green Church with the green magic belt woven by his mother and the blessings of everyone.
In this unknown and thrilling journey, he first passed through the quagmire of war to find his relatives in the small soldiers, the small soldiers showed him the way, but Gao Wen responded with a simple thank you, who had thought that the small soldiers actually wanted more.
It turned out that the creeps were a group of robbers who had been robbing halfway, and they had tied up Gao Wen and snatched his horse and the Green Knight's tomahawk, as well as the green belt for his protection.
It seems that Gao Wen can only be tied there and wait for death, but after a magical transition, Gao Wen saved himself.
At night, Gao Wen went to a strange house and chose to sleep, and in the middle of the night, the mysterious hostess appeared, saying that her head had been cut off and thrown in the spring lake in front of her, asking Gao Wen to help jump down and salvage.
After leaving the house, Gao Wen continued to move forward, halfway through the cave encountered the fox and the two became friends, and also met the migrating giant, Gao Wen wanted to take the opportunity to take the giant's ride, almost broken by the giant, but the fox came out to help.
On December 21, Gawain went to a castle, near the Green Church of the Green Knight, and the owner of the castle took Gaowen in and asked him to recuperate for a few days and wait until Christmas to go to the appointment.
In the castle, Gawain met the castle lady who looked exactly like his lover, in fact, played by the same actor, the castle lady flirted with Gawain five times in those days, and on the last day on the morning of Gawain's departure, the castle lady went directly to Gawain's bed to ask the female overlord to take a hard bow.
Gao Wen also found that the castle lady had the green belt that he had begun to snatch, and could only lie flat to accept the temptation of the castle lady, and obtained the green belt to leave the castle and embark on the journey again.
Just as Gawain was about to reach the Green Castle, the fox who had followed him spoke, and he begged Gawain not to send him to death, but Gawain drove the fox away in spite of their friendship.
Finally Gao Wen saw the Green Knight, just when the Green Knight was about to cut at Gao Wen in the way that Gao Wen treated him a year ago, Gao Wen retreated, he fled in a daze, returned to his home, was welcomed by everyone, and became the new king after Arthur's death, but the good times did not last long, Gao Wen's son died on the battlefield, the people began to spit on him, and soon the opponent invaded Gao Wen's territory, and Gao Wen could only wait for death there.
All this seems to be just a prophecy, life and death in an instant Gao Wen saw through his life when he escaped from the Green Knight's battle axe, and the time returned to the moment when Gao Wen and the Green Knight went to the appointment, at this time Gao Wen realized that the green belt that protected his life could not allow him to overcome his fear, and after everything was understood, Gao Wen untied the green belt and regarded death as a homecoming.
At this time, the Green Knight only lightly crossed Gao Wen's neck with his finger, recognizing Gao Wen's courage and spirit as a knight, but left an Easter egg after the subtitles of the film, and Gao Wen's little daughter later put on his crown, so which is the truth?! The director left an open-ended ending.
If you've seen director David Lowey's previous "Ghostly Creatures" and "The Old Man and the Gun" and understood what style films A24, a small but powerful independent film production company, does, you can probably guess what kind of tone "The Green Rider" is.
In the eyes of some viewers, the film is full of metaphors and hints, with intriguing allegorical stories of seduction, allowing you to get a new interpretation of Sir Gawain's chivalric direction from a few small stories.
Of course, in the eyes of another part of the audience, I hope to see from the film that Gao Wen is opening the plug-in, all the way through thorns, fighting giants and various difficulties, and finally Gao Wen and the Green Knight single out for three days and three nights, bringing the audience a suspenseful and magical exciting action film.
It is also true that the film's beautiful color palette like a medieval oil painting, as well as the large-scale special effects, as well as the atmosphere of the on-the-go showdown, are all stuffed into the trailer, making the audience mistakenly think that it is not an epic hero blockbuster about Sir Gawain!
But as everyone knows, A24 is still the A24 in our impression, which has always won with the depth and texture of the story, and people who like it will like it, and the audience who is misplaced by the trailer to hold the blockbuster will of course be disappointed.
In fact, to put it bluntly, the preset of the viewing angle is different, and the resulting viewing emotions will be greatly reduced.
This reminds me of the recently released "Out of Control Player", I sent that issue after some big friends also came to leave a message, saying that it is not funny at all, not so happy, a whole movie is played routinely, disappointed to the extreme, why do you want to blow the film like this.
EMMM... That's right, that's why I mentioned in that video, if you like the tone of the character of "Deadpool", like the fast-paced popular plot that does not need too much brain-burning, like the ridicule and spoof of adult humor, then "Out of Control Player" should not be missed!
So I have always believed that a movie cannot be liked by everyone, and even the viewing experience of the film sometimes needs to be adjusted to the expectations, and the preset of the viewing angle should be arranged, etc., like the "Green Rider" we talked about today, with such a maverick tone, it is impossible to make the tastes of all the audiences so consistent.
I have to admit that even though I knew the director and A24 when I watched "The Green Knight", I still wanted to enter the movie with the surprise scenes in the trailer, and the rhythm and dialogue scenes of the film were extremely soothing, and it was true that I was sleepy when I saw the middle section, and I could probably see the shocking special effects scenes and pictures, and the trailer was also displayed.
But fortunately, after the film is connected one story after another, slowly taste the process of Gao Wen becoming a chivalrous spirit, and then combine the original poem and the story circulated to experience, you can still feel the director's many different tastes for this story.
In the original poetry and story version, in fact, Gao Wen is a more positive person, brave and strategic, when he went to the appointment a year later, the main encounter was that Gao Wen met the castle and the owner of the castle, where he accepted the temptation challenge.
The owner of the castle left Gawain to wait until Christmas to find the Green Knight, and he told Gawain that he would go hunting during the day and that he would need Gawain to return what he had obtained in the castle during the day.
Gawain lived in the castle for a total of three days, and on the first day the lady came to seduce Gawain and asked Gawain for a kiss, and when the owner of the castle returned in the evening, Gawain kissed the owner of the castle.
Therefore, the owner of the castle kisses Gaowen in the film.
The next day Madame continued to seduce, this time getting two kisses, and in the evening Gao Wen also gave the master two kisses.
But on the third day, the lady wanted to directly crack, Gao Wen refused, and then the lady said that the green belt on her body could resist external injuries, and Gao Wen felt that she was about to challenge the Green Knight's axe contract, decided to accept this gift, and also hid it from the castle owner, but kissed the castle master five times when leaving.
By the time Gawain accepted the Green Knight's axe, the Green Knight slashed a total of three times, the first time Gawain was timid, and the Green Knight angrily rebuked Gawain for being timid. The second time the Green Knight did not cut, you can also understand it as intentional. The third time the Green Knight slashed Gawain's scalp and shed a little blood.
Later, Gao Wen learned that the Green Knight was actually changed by the owner of the castle with sorcery, so the Green Hat really did not come from this story???
The first and second times he did not cut, because Gao Wen had not done anything the first two nights, and the third time he cut the nod skin, because Gao Wen was afraid of being hacked to death, so he accepted the green belt, thus deceiving the owner of the castle.
Judging from the film "The Green Knight", the story change is actually quite large, and the character of Gao Wen in the film is actually some loose and unmotivated youth among the nobles, and his mother is the evil witch Morgan Leffy in Arthur's legend.
It is precisely because the Christmas mother sees that Gawain continues to have no direction for her future, so she summons the Green Knight and wants to provoke her son.
The Knights of the Round Table also appeared as Merlin Mage. The Green Knight has also become a more magical treeman, which means that he can survive and be reborn without being hurt, and green also represents nature's cycle of life and rebirth and resurrection.
The plot of the whole movie has always been a test of whether Gao Wen can have chivalry, and the five-pointed star worn by King Arthur has five virtues that a knight needs to have, namely friendship, generosity, chastity, etiquette, and piety. Incorporation into the film also corresponds to five plot stories.
In the end, when the Green Knight is about to slash at Gawain, all the chivalry tests are transformed into the memory of life and death between life and death, and the knight's most important fearless spirit, whether Gawain can bear it.
Watching "The Green Rider" is like buying a ticket to a medieval oil painting exhibition, which requires you to slowly reminisce and study with great interest and discover the hidden details.
So if you are holding the mentality of going to an amusement park, the natural viewing experience will be very different.
Then this issue of "Green Rider" will first share with you here, if you are interested in watching it, you are also welcome to leave a message to share your feelings with me.