A Knight's Tale

Today, Big Daddy and I watched the film, A Knight's Tale with our little resident knight/pirate J Smooth (see post Little Tyson, December 30, 2007). 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. 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); and his armourer, Kate the Farrier. Along the way, he falls in love with a noble young lady, Jocelyn and develops a rivalry with Count Adhemar of Anjou.
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. Initially the reception for this film was poor, with complaints about the anachronisms, the many jousting scenes and the supposedly thin plot. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 59%. However, it is slowly developing a status as a much loved cult film, and many glowing user reviews have been posted at the Internet Movie Database entry. It is a cheesy film, but was well liked by J Smooth. I did have a great laugh at the opening scene in which the crowd is singing along to the Queen song, "We Will Rock you". It is not a movie I would go out and rent, but on a rainy Sunday afternoon, it was just the right thing (on tv).
Big Daddy had forgotten that Mark Addy plays Roland in the film. He played the role of Bill Miller in Still Standing, about a blue-collar American family. Big Daddy and I love to watch that show.It always gives us many laughs as we can sometimes see ourselves in that show. I found out that Mark Addy is a British actor to which I was very surprised. He role is very convincing in "Standing".
2 out of 5 stars
*information compiled courtesy of Wikepedia


Side Note-I was very interested in hearing the name Lichkinstein referred to in the film...it was something that I had mentioned in a previous post on Dec. 21, 2007. The post was titled "RX-Stay Home". I had mentioned that my uncle Freddy was infamous for professing that he had the disease of the same name. Liechtenstein is a principality among the Alps of south-central Europe. But will do more research to see if there is indeed a disease by the same name.