The visual brilliance of this film combines with shroomy toxicity and inexplicable moral grandeur: what a stunning experience. And there is a stunning sequence in which Gawain is robbed and bound by the scavenger and his accomplices, left to die, to rot down to his bones but then to be born again, a rebirth that happens within the blink of an eye, or within the victim’s mind, or in metaphysical parallel with his ignominious roadside death. There is a sensational speech from the lady of the castle about the meaning of green: the colour of nature, the colour of remorseless amoral growth, the grass that will grow out of the grave and the moss that will cover the tomb, the endless process that will make a mockery of individual heroes and their paths of glory. Barry Keoghan is a malign scavenger who tells Gawain he is in the Green Chapel right now (like Mephistopheles telling Marlowe’s Faustus he is already in hell) Erin Kellyman is the spirit of Saint Winifred, whose own decapitation made her a Christian martyr finally Gawain is to lodge with a certain lord and lady, played by Joel Edgerton and Alicia Vikander (an eerie doppelganger of the lowborn woman he has left behind), who startle him with what appears to be a taste for medieval swinging. Like a haunted pilgrim in something by Bergman, Gawain is to come across strangers whose own intentions are sinister. Will he also be saved from death by some divine grace? Will the relinquishing of self bring about some enigmatic renewal? Or has he somehow failed in such a way as to be punished with this black mass of humiliation?Īnd so Gawain is to go on an extraordinary quest across a stunningly rendered landscape towards the Green Chapel, shot by cinematographer Andrew Droz Palermo, to the accompaniment of haunting compositions and arrangements by Daniel Hart. Now Gawain must confront his own destiny. Stunned by the strangeness of the demand, and by the honour of carrying it out in front of the king, Gawain chops the Green Knight’s head off – and the knight simply picks his head up and strides away. But in 12 months’ time, Gawain must present himself at the Green Chapel and allow the Knight to take his own swing at Gawain’s defenceless flesh.
THE GREEN KNIGHT FREE
The Green Knight simply presents his unprotected neck to Gawain and tells him to take a free shot with his sword.
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