The Green Knight Explained (And Why It's Great)

Dev Patel is an absolutely incredible actor. Just wanted to say it. And also to whoever came to this video, the introduction is an interview with Joseph Campbell, who is an incredible figure to read about. He studied human mythology on a huge scale, and wrote about the commonalities of the stories we tell across cultures.

He didnt die at the end. The Green Knight scratched G's neck with his finger, as the trade, since G passed the test by taking off the [cheat] shash (belt). That was the last of 5 tests. (5 represents the 5 knight star/virtues. he failed all except the last test.)

Finally got around to seeing this movie...
You have no idea how badly this video was needed, thank you

This was an extremely helpful explanation. I watched a (seemingly) similar video before this that just went over the movie beat by beat but did not break it down like you did.

Thank you for this deeply thoughtful video essay. You helped articulate some of the complex feelings I felt after watching "The Green Knight." I find myself again in a stage of life where the path isn't terribly clear, and a lot feels unresolved right now. As I imagine it does for others, too, and certainly the world at large. But your poetic insights into this strange, heart-provoking film adaptation of a medieval poem have helped refocus me a little more on this journey of life.
"The only thing we can control is the posture of our hearts as we kneel before the (final) axe/acts." I like that. Life can't be all that great without goodness.

Now I need to rewatch after this I was so confused at first but the meaning is deep now

This was phenomenal thank you!

This video is so sick!!! thank you so much for this, its beautiful

Without watching this essay, I related my own coming of age myself as Gawain. His coming of age compressed into a 2-hour adventure. Whereas myself I’m still learning the basics 30 years on. The futility of lust and instant gratification were key themes here that took me through the whole film. The opening of this movie completely made this movie and the denouement coupled with a fantastical adventure made this film so special. There are few movies that leave me with so many painful questions and contorted conclusions. The beheading of the knight to instantly become a legend is paralleled by the constant imagery of nature being bent and twisted by men and conversely absorbing and decaying dead legends and myths that carry Gawain through his own path to find the reckoning he wants naught but needs so.
The way I relate most sincerely with this film is by placing my own experiences with futility and my brushes with fate in and around the experiences of Gawain. His childlike fearfulness and unreadiness inevitably gave way to his resolve and embrace for what his own life could be at its worst and his thoughtless embrace of the life he could live without the pretense of vainglory.
Very thoughtful analysis and the opening of this video essay was very well done. Joseph Campbell and his grand mythology interpretation is a great way to embrace this film.

What an essay. Hats off to you! You thoughtfully synthesized every piece of the story I was wrestling with. Thank you!

wow! what an amazing analysis!

Thanks for this

This video is amazing, thank you for the full insightful breakdown of this movie

Great video man!

I read the book in school and plan to reread it, and so I watched the movie yesterday.
I didn't like how the appearance of the Green Knight wasn't a surprise to the viewer, nor how it didn't interupt a particularly festive mood.

My brother, you took this video into a whole other realm, please continue to do Gods work through these videos, this was absolutely astonishing.

Well congrats. This is now my favorite video essay on the platform, and I've been around a long time. You have a gift and fine mind, young man.

Really great video. You deserve a million subs. Keep it up!

Thanks man!

ahh that was really clear thank you!

could "off with your head" mean "now go and live with all the stuff going inside your head as a punishment for life (or because that's how life is)?

Thanks for the explanation. I had to watch this movie three times and watch your review to make sure I completely understood what I was seeing. Very helpful

Got depression, anxiety, and FOMO vibes from this film. I feel like they depicted gawain as a man with no honor who accepted his fate at the end

This was beautifully explained.

This was such a good video. I am working on a paper that analyzes the poem and the film and this was really helpful. Thank you!

Really good video essay on one of my favorite films

Much respect from your Latino Brethren out here in AriZona. You did a damn fine job breaking down this movie.

What music was used in this video? It’s great!

There’s a post credit scene as well.

Excellent review. Loved this movie.

Wow... that was potent. Absolutely sublime.

Congratulations on your essay of the movie. I actually am a Knight But that is besides the point. (your opening comment )One day as you clearly point out in your essay, we all are going to die. It’s what we do with the days in between that give glory to God and everybody we meet. keep up your great work and thank you.

Love this!!!

Just finished the movie and came here directly. Also, a few years ago I had some kidney stones - holy smokes that was some spicy pain!

This poem was likely written by a north Staffordshire poet for the entertainment and edification of the family of Sir James Audley in memory of Sir James’ best friend and fellow Knight of the Garter, Sir John Chandos (who died a hero leading his men on a bridge in France). The Audleys owned hunting lands in the around Swythamley in far north Staffordshire.

Nice one!

I think the ending is open. "Off with your head" is both a death sentence and a free pass. Lesson learned. Get out of here with your head.

🙂 EXCELLENT ANALYSIS !!!
And this was a Very good movie....

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*This is the Way.*

I had run out of necessary medication shortly before watching this film but hadn't felt the effects yet. About 16 hours after watching this I nearly fainted from terror and ended up in the hospital close to having a psychotic break. I recovered, but lots of wild stuff happened in the ensuing weeks.
A major shift in my rather chaotic spiritual journey of the last 15 years, marked by a struggle with drug addiction, has unfolded in the past month since the incident. The timing of watching this movie seemed strange but meaningful - I hope. "Now I'm ready. I'm ready now."

"What else ought there be?"

Not sure what movies I was watching but I did not extract all of this out of the movie 😂
All I could see was the Slum-dog Millionaire.
Need to watch it again.
Lastly, I needed the narrator to just clear his throat one….😂

Great video. But what about the fox!

Excellent video! What is that interview clip from at the beginning?

If my 3D printer idea can be stolen right out of my head Why Try

Now i know why i couldn't get into it, but i had to figure out why so many people liked it. Also why is it always classified as sci-fi? thanks for saving me 2 hours.

David Lowery, Olive Branch Rd, stares too much boy.

Thank you for your smart video... most other videos on this film are silly ... they talk like a comedic auctioneer

So in other words........live well and die better!👍😉

One of my favorite films of the last decade. Brilliant in every aspect. Count all the obvious and hidden the triangles in this film…fun!

It may all be tricks of Pan.

4:55 greatness is oppression without goodness... huh?

I don't know what to believe. You can't keep coming back as your same self. Sometimes with parents, sometimes without.
Genetics, hereditary factors, DNA, these play a major part and in order to keep being born yourself you have to have to exclude these factors

This my favorite movie from last year
A movie that challenges your interpretation

Bravo.

That was well said about when you're facing Ultimate Death

You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself becoming the villain

🔥

Wow. This movie is a classic. And it was badly misunderstood.

I think the remark about this film being a commentary on Christianity is quite a reach, but otherwise I enjoyed your analysis, even if I disagree with some of your conclusions.

ok, so maybe im just SLOW and smooth brained. the GN says, basically, "what is given will be returned rather small or large". so, why not just give him a clap on the back or a teeny tiny scratch. WHY the need to take his head?? also, the King tells him before anything is even started, "remember its only a game". wtf is THAT suppose to mean? is that suppose to mean dont take it seriously, its JUST a game?

And what is the obsession with the number 3

this video is very underrated.

What happens to sheep? Slaughter. What happens to goats? Slaughter.
What happens to lions?.....

Some may find this movie extremely boring because of its glacial pacing, but me? Yep, me too. Beautiful and well made, but boring. John Boorman's 1981 "Excalibur" still has not been topped when it comes to King Arthur legend adaptations, in my opinion.

It doesn't add up

HE DOES NOT YET UNDERSTAND LIFE , BECAUSE HE HAS NO UNDERSTANDING OF DEATH .

I didn't think it was so great in fact I thought it was kind of lame compared to the original story

Fucking incredible video!

Faith is a very powerful force

Why it's not: It is a conscious and purposeful inversion of the original tale, not only in terms of typical artistic liberties taken for the sake of adaptation, but in its themes and ultimately its twisted morality.

Willem Dafoe played Jesus???

My list of what is WRONG with this film would be longer than the original novel.
If you are going to remake one of the greatest novels in English history, you should, at least, read the bloody story.
Gawain was a knight but was 'chosen' because he was the most holy and pure of the knights. The film opens with Gawain in a whorehouse??? Instead of being a holy and pure man who falls from grace, Gawain is a whoremonger, a drunk, a liar and a coward.

Just a "normal" selfish man, a sinner, a coward, until finally gifted a chance to see how cowardness and lack of integrity leads to a life of pain. Perhaps only living through Christ are we truly gifted the same way. We find out...only too late. This can be an introspective, life-changing movie for our youth if they gave it a chance.

Too many plot holes in this movie for it to be good or a classic many things were unexplained

And the f****** Giants in this movie are just insane this goes back to meimagining Pop was the jolly green giant on the can in Grandma's kitchen. Apparently I wasn't wrong. Questions arise such as: How did I already know the English language and how to spell words at age 2? If you and I were at the Gulf of Aquaba why were we speaking English instead of Hebrew? Claiming I am Asherah. Besides that coming over to get my stepdad drunk so that he'll go to jail so that my mom will have to work two jobs is a very shity evil thing to do

My point: Why strive to create, build, or achieve when in the end you only have death

Especially considering you weren't paying child support or helping in any way

Now you know why some say, no one actually died on cross thay day, and still was glorified for being a martyr. Thats how stories are made.

Furthermore if Jesus was the Messiah then Israel would learn war no more that's what Isaiah says and you're basing a lot of your Messiah theories and premonitions on the book of Isaiah

Stop saying he will die one day just don't say that s*** anymore please

Finally saw this movie, and my god, it was horrible

Wait until you see his return this time.......

My Grandfather is probably rolling over in his grave

Unlike the film, the poem is full of Christianity. The final message, the temptation, everything is dripping in Christ's message. The film, however, rips the Christian message out of it. It would have been so much better with that message retained. Gawain in the poem does not seek power but to live a life worthy of Christ and the chivalric ideals. He FAILS like in the film, but he confesses in the end. The message is that all men come up short, and they must die to every single thing that keeps them from the perfection required of Heaven.

I didn't like how they wronged Christianity in this movie.Christianity is about breaking the circle.Snaping Oroboros in half.Jesus broke the circle of life on earth and gave man true freedom.

There is a critique of Catholicism in this film, not Christianity. The two are very different for the exact reason the film brings them up

I am in a movie. I am pretty sure. Or a coma

It's not.
Eminence front.

so to understand the movie I have to watch this video first?! poor people lol

Off with your head = Get over yourself

am just saying i fell asleep during the movie, i did not understand shit,. but good explanation thank you.

And there is no such thing as law. Or man. Both of these are false

Don't indulge him!

this is a crap movie dont believe this dude

The sad thing is I enjoyed this movie more than most since AI's influence. Why make a movie that's exactly the opposite of a great book in relation to it's title character and lead? Especially a story so important to a shared people's cultural history. It is cruel to require so much in antithesis to the book when it's implied the audience should expect a somewhat similar ending with respect to the character we're going into the story being asked to vest our interest in. I understand the larger point about failing tests of chivalry, but again that makes this a different story that should have had a different name. Except for the film-makers desire for the use of the title villain there is literally no reason why this should be called Gawain and the Green Knight. Why am I being asked to anticipate failures of the lead in exactly where the book is requiring me to aspire to something better? And in a way the movie is tempting me not to notice, that's a violation of honest discourse and not profound but cruel. I think cultural appropriation can often be good, but this is a version how can be wrong and requiring the ignoble from the audience. That again is somewhat cruel, especially to people who love the book. BTW, Dev Patel as Gawain or if as a King Arthur would have deserved better. He did a spectacular job and I do not doubt that in a different movie the righteous sincerely of his performance would have shined through in a strength not in a movie that had not used the whole plot and entire movie to be used to apologize for. He and Connery are the best in these sorts of roles I've seen in my lifetime. But there is an impulse to think efforts toward sacrilege so necessarily deep that is really just lazy iconoclasm people have fallen for, and for that I mourn. Our generation is wasting it's superior story making abilities and resources thinking good and righteous stories are not worth telling unless completely self-obsessed, when the stories about the things bigger/greater but good are still all the best stories. How we define what is good is important especially with the influence of things such as AI, but making the negating antithesis ultimate to story and expecting how we define what's good relative what must be shown through story is also not the answer. The book has a whimsical more culturally faithful tone that this movie, however visually stunning in parts did completely miss. Sad because the book is just so much fun. And also I think such intentional omission says something profound. About why we feel the ignoring of how tests of chivalry having required tests of chastity (as so many of the knight stories do) so dispensable. The book is saying something modern masculinity and critics of masculinity could obviously be learning that our generation has put endlessly at odds because of obsession with sex. As much as I enjoyed the visuals of the wilderness landscapes of the movie and movies setting (outside of Camelot), it is saying something also about how our use of stories in our generation are both increasingly and decisively anti-historical and using our own history as an excuse being anti-historical by way of those stories. That we're using movies to employ a secularism stopping it's ears to any advice from the past, any advice except from the now and using stories as how and sex as it's ultimate excuse. Shameful and sad.

Is it a coincidence that the giant looks like mark zuckerberg? I think not!

I don't agree at all. I don't think this movie is great. I think that it's artful, and I think it sends a good message.
But it's slow. It's uneventful, it's at times illogical and downright ridiculous! The time wasted isn't even accurate to Arthurian Legends.
As a myth, I wanted to see a spin on things. But really what a viewer should do, to get a better story, is watch the beginning all the way up until Gawain relieves the knight of his head. Then fast forward to the point at which the knight will do the same for him, and they will have missed NOTHING.
I know people will see this comment and disagree. But I'm a writer myself. I've been through three writing classes, presenting my content, and I've written two books. The critique is always the same. "If you can take a moment out of a story and it functions just fine without it, then it is not needed." I feel sorry for the poor sap who needs this movie in order to learn the difference between right and wrong. I love Arthurian tales, but this one is a brilliant waste of 2+ hours. You can grade this however you want, but a movie should not be a slog to get through. A story should not present unnecessary details that it functions just fine without. And a message shouldn't have to be said over and over and over at nauseam.

Why are most of A24 movies so weird and have the strangest endings? This movie was good as far as cinematography, music and costuming. Acting was good too. But story really dragged. I was like please let's move along already. And from the very beginning I knew from him chopping the Green Knight's head off made him dishonorable and therefore will never be a knight. I also do not believe he should be honored for going to have his own head chopped off. There's too many people that do evil things then expect forgiveness after the damage is done without any consequences. It's like you doing something evil and then saying ok now that I got that out of my system I will be good now. Not good. As the movie went on, almost everything he was doing showed how he was not a good person and I was just waiting til he got what he deserved already. In the end I was satisfied with him ending up a fake and losing his kingdom and everything but they had to do a whole "Last Temptation of Christ" thing where it was just what his life would have been if he ran away and then deciding to accept his head getting chopped off. Sorry but I hated that ending. Plus in the post credit scene it shows how his daughter is picking up his crown that fell off his head when his head fell off. So he never did the honorable thing even after taking off his green sash. I will definitely not watch this movie again and I do not recommend anyone to watch it.