The Green Knight

"Whilst we're off looking for red, in comes green. Red is the colour of lust. But green is what lust leaves behind, in heart, in womb. Green is what is left when ardour fades, when passion dies, when we die too."

Metaphor: The Movie

This film is based on the classic middle English poem "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" and largely follows that story, though several of the characters are interpreted slightly differently here and there's some additional scenes added. Middle English literature is often fantastical in a way that has been lost to time with no-one quite sure what it all means and somehow this film manages to retain that feeling. 

I was left with many, many questions after watching this film. It's certainly dense with metaphors and even a long perusal at online explainers will leave you none the wiser. One interpretation I came up with for the overall plot is that it's an exploration of climate change told through an old story. The Green knight could represent the natural world and he happily allows humanity to do their worse to him. Like the natural world though, eventually the Green knight will fight back and do it's worst to humanity and Gawain's/humanity's demise becomes inevitable. The scenes with the fox could represent how humanity learned to use nature to help it before rejected it and marching on alone. 

I felt like the film takes the unexplainable to an unnecessary level. I have no problem with not knowing all the answers and the overarching tale told here works well without an explanation. For me though it felt like there were far too many scenes which had apparently nothing to do with the main plot which were inserted for a moment of "oh look, here's a clever metaphor". The ideas may be interesting but there it's like every single idea on the mind map David Lowery made before writing this film ended up being inserted into the script somewhere.

The film is undeniably fantastic to look at. The film is largely very dark but there are splashes of colour that punctuate the film from Gawain's mustard cloak to the water appearing red in a scene set underwater. I really like the choice that though this is broadly set in old England it's a fantastical version and therefore there isn't the need to be painstakingly historically accurate- the anachronisms feel suited to this odd world.

I've seen praise for Dev Patel's performance which felt a little unwarranted to me. It's not a bad performance at all but Gawain has very limited dialogue and but for the occasional scene it mostly feel like he is a character that things happen to rather than inserting much of his own personality on proceedings. Sean Harris is wonderful as a version of King Arthur who is near the end of his life and Alicia Vikander is great with dual roles (which of course is never explained) and a superb monologue which was the highlight of the film for me, and supports my climate change interpretation. 

I wasn't as enamoured by the film as many viewers have been but whatever my issues with the script I can't fault the direction and this film is certainly unlike anything else I've seen before.