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'''A Knight's Tale''' (2001) is a film written and directed by Brian Helgeland; the title, though not the plot, is taken from ''The Knight's Tale'', one of ''The Canterbury Tales'' by Geoffrey Chaucer.
The film combines action, comedy, and romance, and is notable for its deliberate use of anachronisms, such as the use of classic rock songs like Queen's "We Will Rock You", War's "Low Rider", David Bowie's "Golden Years", Thin Lizzy's "The Boys Are Back in Town" and AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long", (and many others) in the soundtrack of a film that notionally takes place during the Middle Ages. The film was also one of several movies that became subjects of controversy involving a fictitious movie critic, David Manning.

Contents

Plot

Setting

Controversy

Production

References

External links

Plot

Set in late medieval Europe, the plot centers on a young peasant squire called William Thatcher, played by Heath Ledger, who, after the death of his knight, Sir Ector, joins the jousting circuit, an act forbidden to those not of noble birth. Thatcher travels around Europe under the pseudonym of Sir Ulrich von Liechtenstein, along with two fellow squires, Wat and Roland (Alan Tudyk and Mark Addy); his well-spoken herald, Geoffrey Chaucer (Paul Bettany); and his armourer, Kate the Farrier (Laura Fraser). Along the way, he falls in love with a noble young lady, Jocelyn (Shannyn Sossamon), and develops a rivalry with Count Adhemar of Anjou (Rufus Sewell). In the end, Thatcher wins both the lady of his dreams (Sossamon) and the fight with Adhemar.

Setting

It can be assumed the movie is set sometime between 1368 and 1376; Chaucer mentions having already written ''The Book of the Duchess'', which was written no earlier than 1368, while Edward, the Black Prince (who appears in the movie) died in 1376. There is also a reference to a French pope which could either be Pope Urban V or Pope Gregory XI who reigned during that period and were both French.
The time period can be further narrowed down to between 1369—when the Black Prince resumed his campaign in southern France—and 1371, when the campaign ended. (''The Encyclopedia of World History''); however, the Battle Of Poitiers is shown as occurring during the course of the film, despite taking place in 1356. Additionally, Edward is depicted as a fairly young man, closer to the 26 suggested by Poitiers than the 39 to 41 suggested by his campaign in southern France.
Even though the approximate setting of the film can be easily deduced, the costuming (especially the armour) is much more in late 15th century style than 14th.

Controversy

''Newsweek'' revealed in June 2001 that print ads for at least four movies released by Columbia Pictures, including ''A Knight's Tale'' and ''The Animal'' (2001), contained glowing comments from a film reviewer who did not exist. The fake critic, David Manning, was created by a Columbia employee who worked in the advertising department. "Manning" was misrepresented as a reviewer for a newspaper in a small Connecticut town.
As of August 2005, Sony agreed to refund $5 to anyone who saw the film, as well as ''Hollow Man'', ''The Animal'', ''The Patriot'' or ''Vertical Limit'', all in American theatres between 3 August 2000 and 31 October 2001.^[1]

Production

The entire movie was filmed in Prague, Czech Republic.
The film includes a great deal of jousting footage. The initial scene of the two knights jousting is actually footage of Heath Ledger's stunt double in an accident. During filming of a later scene in the movie, the lance of the stunt double's opponent moved off target and hit him in the head. The double fell to the ground unconscious. In another incident, Heath Ledger knocked out one of director Brian Helgeland's front teeth with a broomstick when the two were demonstrating a jousting move. It was several months before Helgeland's mouth had healed enough to repair the damage.
Plenty of effort was expended creating lances that would splinter convincingly without injuring the stunt riders as well. The body of each lance was scored so it would break easily, and the tips were made of balsa wood. Each was also hollowed out, and the hole filled with balsa chips and uncooked linguini and saw dust to make convincing splinters.

References

1. Official Court Notice of David Manning settlement

External links

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