A Knights Tale

[jjwr]

Any word on how good this is? I think it looks like a lot of fun, I like Medieval type movies and jousting is rather fun to watch. Heath Ledger(think thats his name) is a rather good young actor.

[Jedi Master Carr]

I just hope they don't play classic rock songs in the film like they did the trailer then the movie would suck. I know nothing really about it. I like medieval films too unfortunely they never make any money and they cost a lot to make, so hollywood rarely makes them. In the last decade only two have made more than 100 million Robin Hood Prince of Thieves and Braveheart. Sure there have been a few others some bad films other good. I would like to see this movie succeed but will wait to Friday and see what the critics think.

[Darth23]

Yes, apparently they DO play Rock songs, incuding We Will Rock You. :p
It MIGHT be interesting. The genre could use a little attitude.

[Jedi Master Kyle]

Nothing wrong with bucking the norm every now and then...

[Darth23]

Unless the result completely STINKS.

:-P

I think it coudl be a cult - love it or hate it movie.

[Jedieb]

The commercials that I've seen have completely turned me against it. It looks like they're dancing at a rave in some of the scenes. It looks like medieval history for Britney Spears. ;)

[General Ceel]

I think rock music would be really cool in a movie like this, i hope they do use it in the film. If you remember Bon Jovi did the music for Young Guns 2 and that kicked ass.

[foxdvd]

I will wait until people at this board and others see it first...I do not expect much from it.

I have heard there are over 40 jousts in it.

[Darth23]

It looks like medieval history for Britney Spears

C'mon Jedieb! Just because it's a middle ages movie doesn't mean it should try to give some kind of a HISTORY lesson! It's entertainment. besides, most movies made about that time period were seriously flawed from a historical perspective.

It's actually an interesting issue- there's a thread at CCnet where someone complained about the historical inaccuracies in The Mummy Returns. There are some fictional movies that would expect Hisitorcal Correctness ;) from , but I dont' think I'd expect it from these flicks.

[Jedi Master Carr]

I guess I'm a purest like Jedieb I don't want to see people dancng like they are in thr 90's in a medieval movie, it just looks stupid. And I don't think you have to give people a history lesson to make a good historical movie. Just look at a film like Braveheart, it was entertaining and a great movie, even Gladiator, (though had a few inacurracies mostly minor) was a great film. Why not make a movie on the Crusades or the 100's war you could show the carnage of war and make a good vechical for a story, instead they have to change history just to make a story which doesn't sit well with me.

[Darth23]

I was thinking about all those old Douglas Fairbanks and Errol Flynn movies.

[foxdvd]

Personally I feel that a movie like Braveheart, that comes across as a true account of incidents that happened in the past, to be more damaging and insulting then a movie like A Knights Tale that never claims to be a true account in the first place. I love Braveheart, but the truth is it is filled with tremendous amounts of flaws in the history surrounding those events. Whole lines of story, and other aspects were just distorted or made up. They created a concept of Lords raping women to build sympathy for one group, when that never happened. Still.... many come away from that movie feeling they now know the truth about the events surrounding it. This could not be farther from the truth.

NO ONE, or at least no one who deserves my care, will walk away from Knights Tale thinking that is how that time period was. It is done for entertainment, and as such will not harm anything.

[Darth23]

uh... that's what I meant, mostly. Except for the Braveheart part.

Conquering armies almost always rape pillage and plunder.

[foxdvd]

Conquering armies almost always rape pillage and plunder. ...yes..what is your point? Are you talking about what I said above about the Lord's having sex with the women on their wedding night? If so, I want you to understand that conquering armies who rape and pillage is not the same thing as a law saying lords have first rights to women...that NEVER happened, and if it did, war would have started on the spot..it was just a plot tool to gain support for William....

[Darth23]

Are you talking about what I said above about the Lord's having sex with the women on their wedding night

Sorry, I only saw the movie once. :-P

Didn't that part come from that old movie with Charlton Heston? (the warlord?) Speaking of Movies and accuracy.....

[Jedi Master Carr]

I am not sure if that part is not true or not, I do not claim to be a british historian. I do know that the British were the most hated people in the 14th century they pillaged, and Rape women in both Scotland and France. They almost conquered France and then burned Joan of Arc at the stake because they were pissed off that she had cost them several key victories. So nothing that the British did in that century would surprise. Before I come off as somebody that sounds like I am hatting the british I am not its just they were kind of nasty in that century much like the Spanards were a few centuries later, that is why they called that times the Medieveal ages the people were truly barbaric and thank God we have evolved passed all that nonsense.

Now I admit there were several inaccuracies like one of the battles was thought on a bridge instead of the roaring hills of scotland but that scene I think was filmed that way because there was no way to film that scene without using massive amounts of special effects and I am guessing it just never looked right. The other scene that I can think of is his whole love affair with the Princess, that was stupid becuase I think she was only 12 at the time and then to try to say that she had his baby is a little stupid, but that is the only scene that I had a problem with.

[Darth23]

I always thought the whole affair thing was seriously stretching things.

[foxdvd]

Well like I said, there was no law saying that a Lord could have sex with a woman on her wedding night. I also would like to point out that William and his wife in the movie was just made up. The girl they show in the movie first met William when she wanted him to save her brother. At the time he was going around starting fights and being a pain (he did not get into this because of her being killed as shown in the movie, he was doing this long before her). There is no real proof they got married, or that they were anything other then sex partners. She was not tied to a stake, killed, followed by William storming the castle. As you mentioned, the idea that he fathered the next heir to the throne was made up, as we details of his victories in every major battle in the movie. I had more information on this back when the movie came out, and I did post a long time ago all the problems with Braveheart, and how most of it was made up back after I had finished college. Though I am a history teacher, I have no real experience going over this subject, and all the info I had is buried in note books I took in college. One of my professors had a tremendous hatred towards Braveheart, and spent 2 weeks going over every detail and how most of it was just plain Hollywood crap. It did fill up over 34 pages of notes on how much was wrong in the movie.

The only real account of his life was written by someone who was close to him, and was filled with lies and made up stories. About the only thing you can take away from the movie is that there was a William, and he did start up the fires of rebellion, and ultimately became a martyr for the cause. Even his true death is unknown, and there are no accounts of him yelling freedom and winning over the crowd. I wish I had my old post.

[foxdvd]

great site for info I just found..

www.highlanderweb.co.uk/w...truth.html (http://www.highlanderweb.co.uk/wallace/thetruth.html)


I missed above the whole story about his younger years..as you will see..all made up.

[JonathanLB]

WHAT?!

I thought A Knight's Tale was a historical movie that painstakingly re-enacted events of the past! What the hell, I'm not seeing it now.

lol. Actually, it looks decent, I might see it, nothing else good is out besides Mummy Returns and I already saw that, and wouldn't ever want to see it again most likely. Good, not very good.

[Jedi Master Carr]

ignore this one

[Jedi Master Carr]

I read the article and found it quite informing. Most of the inaccuracies I understand because there is not enough known about Wallace so they have to make some of it up and the rest of the problems they have to cut it out in order to make a decent length movie. I also liked how he compared Wallace to Robin Hood, in many ways that is the problem. Wallace is a legendary figure whose feats have been exagerated and as a person we know little about. Its different than lets say Joan of Arc who while she is a legendary figure we know a lot more about her because the Inquistion were good book keepers in telling her Trial, telling us more information than we would normially have known.

I guess I should complain but A knight's Tale just looks goofy, not just the rock songs, I can't see a movie all about Jousting, its such a boring sport and I could never figure out what the point to it was. Actually the next medieval film (kinda of) that I am looking foward to is Timeline a movie based on the book by Michael Crichton. The book was terrific and I would love to see a movie about it. I felt Crichton did a great job in capturing the time period and creating a mostly historically accurate novel. Some of it is implausable, mostly the stuff about Time travel but it was a great read.

[Darth23]

I can't see a movie all about Jousting,

Rent Knightriders.

:D

[foxdvd]

Timeline? What is the word on the movie? Who is working on it? That would be sweet..

[Jedi Master Carr]

I know Katheleen Kennedy is producing it and that the last I heard they were location hunting, I thought I heard they were going to shoot it in Wales because its was the only place they could find that didn't have modern buildings in the way. I think they are going to wait to shoot it after the actors' contracts have been resloved.

[CMJ]

That was a terrific book. I wonder how they'll do some of the things(like the translators), but it could be a pretty good flick.

[Jedi Master Carr]

I know it was great, I think it is one of his top 3 books along with Jurassic Park and Airframe, I hope they don't trash it, like some of his books, Congo and The Lost World come to mind.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Here is a link to a report about A knight's Tale

dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010510/re/leisure_movies_knightstale_dc_1.html (http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010510/re/leisure_movies_knightstale_dc_1.html)

Now I know I don't want to see this movie. The women are wearing modern dresses and the guys are wearing nikes and then to make it worse Chaucer is put into the movie as a joke. This film is the greatest mock to history that I have ever seen. I could stand if it was a Mel Brooks film which is a spoof but this film is not that, everything about it seems stupid and I am sure the film will bomb quick.

[Darth23]

`We thought, 'This is either going to work really well or really horribly.' But
I'm tired of safe movies ... this goes for it. It's not safe,'' said the film's
producer, Todd Black.



That was what I said!

I think I'll go see it. At least is not one of these safe, predictable remake/sequel/video game movies that are coming out this summer.

[JonathanLB]

Is there something wrong with those movies, Darth?

I cannot wait to see Tomb Raider and Final Fantasy, especially FF, which will probably be awesome! The FF games were always better suited as movies anyway, they are fantastic games and I love playing them, but the stories are very deep and should have been made into movies long before now.

As for Timeline, I heard it was coming out in 2002 on Crichton's Website, and the book was awesome, I really enjoyed it, so I hope they do a good job with the film.

[Jedieb]

I was nappin' with my little one for 3 hours a couple of days ago and this is my second straight night riding the Nyquil train! So I'll be short.

Darth23, I don't have a problem with a film that has tons of historical innaccuracies when it doesn't take itself too seriously. A Knight's Tale doesn't look like a movie that takes itself as seriously as say Braveheart. It's just that the commercials have come across as so campy that I have no interest in seeing it. I'd rather rent an old Douglas Fairbanks movie and watch some Golden Age swordplay! Seriously, some of those movies were a lot of fun. I'd rather see Fairbank's version of Robin Hood than Kevin Costner's Southern California accented Robin Hood anyday of the week.

Braveheart is a good film. It's inaccracies can actually be a positive if it stimulates interest in the period and can be used a teaching tool. If I were teaching British history in HS I would consider using the film as a starting point for covering the period. Show the film and then have students come up with as many historical innacuracies as possible, something like that. Doesn't that sound like a fun week of British HS history?

[foxdvd]

Braveheart is one of my top 20 films of all time. I never go to movies to learn about history, I go for moives and the skill in which they are made, and to have a good time.


Of course, sometimes movies are TO close to real, like Rififi, and end up getting banned because people could learn how to do things they are not suppose to do.

[Darth23]

If the rest of the summer movies are of the same level as A Knight's Tale and The Mumy Returns, then I might as well just go into hibernation until December. :-P

[Jedi Master Carr]

I think that will change this coming weekend when Shrek debuts, now this looks like the first summer movie that I want to see.