Friday, July 4, 2008

Independence Day and a Movie

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, U.S.A.!

With all her flaws and tensions, with all her constant struggles over who gets which rights (or who gets more rights than someone else) and the acceptance of new forms of bigotry, with all her forgetfulness and rewriting of her own history, I still love this country.

* * *

Total leap of thought into a new and unconnected topic: A Knight's Tale, the movie that you either "get" or you hate.

It stars the late Heath Ledger as the thatcher's son-turned-knight, and includes many other excellent actors -- Alan Tudyk as Wat, Rufus Sewell as the villain Count Adhemar, Paul Bettany as Geoffrey Chaucer, Mark Addy as Roland, James Purefoy as the Black Prince, and Laura Fraser as Kate the Farrier (a really cool character) -- as well as Shannyn Sossamon as Lady Jocelyn, the woman over whom the knight and the villain tussle. (She annoyed me, and I didn't see the attraction. But that's just me.)

Back to the movie: It's a taken from The Canterbury Tales and from history, and it adds modern music and a modern/futuristic twist to the costuming, and it all works. Ya gotta know a topic really well in order to mess with it intelligently, and the filmmakers knew their stuff.

I highly recommend its light-hearted, smart fun -- a rock-and-roll homage to the Middle Ages.

4 comments:

Pappy said...

Happy 4th to you and all my buddies in the Fort. Long may she wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. Pappy

Keanan Brand said...

Thanks, and I pray the same.

Lavinia said...

Keanan, a happy belated Independence Day to you (Or did I already wish you one?)

I haven't seen a Knight's Tale, but it is one of those movies that I have a feeling I will get around to seeing "some day"...

Eaglewing said...

Happy B-day stateside. Enjoy the long weekend.

I liked Knight's Tale. Was a fun movie that didn't take itself too seriously while having fun with the time period.