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A Knight’s Tale (2001)
A Knight’s Tale isn’t Heath Ledger’s most accomplished performance (see: Brokeback Mountain), his most iconic (see: The Dark Knight) or most beloved (feel: 10 Things I Hate About You).
Nonetheless, the 2001 medieval sports dramedy proved Ledger possessed the single skill all great movie stars must—elevating the material.
Playing a squire who cons and jousts his way into the upper crust of European sporting society, Ledger is charming, emotionally available, down to earth and generationally gorgeous in basically every preposterous situation into which the script shoves him.
Dancing to Bowie’s “Golden Years” in a royal courtship scene so strangely directed that it’s unclear whether the music is diegetic? Doesn’t matter. He struts and spins.
Flat broke and negging a lady blacksmith (Laura Fraser) into fixing his Swiss cheese armor for free? Not gentlemanly. Still pulls it off.
Tearfully reuniting with his blinded dad when A Knight’s Tale decides to stretch three acts into a questionable five? Gives it his all.
This is not to say A Knight’s Tale is without its own charms. The stylistic calling card of setting jousting matches to Thin Lizzy and Queen is as silly as it is endearing. Dozens of stuntpeople shatter their lances and fall off their steeds for the cause. Paul Bettany is breathlessly entertaining as the poet Chaucer, who becomes the WWE–style hype man for Sir Ulrich (Ledger).
But the movie’s legacy is proof that Ledger could do anything, up to and including launching a million bedroom posters out of a Renn Faire Rocky setup. Academy, July 10–16.
Also Playing:
Academy: Unforgiven (1992), Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971) and Blow Out (1981), July 8–9. For a Few Dollars More (1965) and Hour of the Wolf (1968), July 10–16. Cinema 21: Body and Soul (1947), July 11. Cinemagic: In the Mouth of Madness (1994), July 8. Big Trouble in the Little China (1986), July 9. Escape From New York (1981), July 10 and 11. Christine (1983), July 11. Before Sunset (2004), July 11 and 13. Hour of the Wolf (1968), July 12 and 14. Clinton: The Last Farm in the Valley (1950), July 8. Solaris (1972), July 9. Barbarella (1968), July 10. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), July 11. Hollywood: Employees’ Entrance (1933), July 9. More Play, Less Work (1926), July 11. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), July 12. Black Belt Jones (1974), July 14. Moreland: Scooby-Doo (2002), July 13. Tomorrow: Go Fish (1994), July 9. A League of Their Own (1992), July 12. Bring It On (2000), July 12.
