HIST 223 Medieval Europe: History Illuminated: Film Review: A Knight’s Tale … or A Knight’s Fact?

“We will, we will rock you,” is an interesting way for a film centered around a Medieval knight to begin, but that is exactly what A Knight’s Tale does. A Knight’s Tale is a 2001 film that stars William (Heath Ledger), who is a servant to a knight. At the beginning of the film, William’s knight dies. William and his other servants came up with a plan to put William in the knight’s armor, train him to joust, and enter him into jousting tournaments. William competes under the name “Sir Ulrich von Liechtenstein” so he is seen as noble and will be allowed in the tournaments. As it turns out, William is a natural at jousting, and quickly places second place at a huge jousting tournament. William also falls for the ruler’s daughter, Lady Jocelyn. Later in the movie, William’s true identity is revealed before the jousting World Championship. William was arrested and banned from competing, until King Edward pronounced him “Sir William” and allowed him to compete. William ends up winning the World Championship while winning Jocelyn as well. This story is recorded by Geoffrey Chaucer, one of William’s friends along the way, who ends up becoming a popular writer. While the film takes its title and is loosely inspired by the first tale in Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales”, the plot is not similar, except for the inclusion of Chaucer in the film.

A Knight’s Tale has some aspects that are historical, but many aspects that are not historical. For example, the soundtrack of the movie is very modern, and one of the first scenes in the film has all the Medieval people singing “We Will Rock You.” There were also inaccuracies in the clothing and dancing of the characters in the movie. The clothing, especially the outfits worn by Jocelyn, were very outrageous and modern. Also, Jocelyn’s wild hair style is not backed by any evidence of Medieval women that we have reviewed in class. Jocelyn and William end up dancing at a party to modern music while using modern dance moves as well. While this may help more people be interested in the events of the movie, scenes like these do not help the historical accuracy of the film. The battle scenes also have some inaccuracies, which are mainly uncovered in the “How to Joust Like a Medieval Knight” video on Moodle. The running of the horses before the two people would strike each other was more of a five second run according to the video. In the film, these knights would ride for about 30 seconds before striking one another, adding extra drama and violence to the scene. Once again, this attempt to engage the audience in the film hurt the historical accuracy of the film.

While there were many inaccuracies in A Knight’s Tale, there were also some aspects of the film that were very accurate. To begin with, the names of both Geoffrey Chaucer and Ulrich von Liechtenstein were both names of actual people from the Middle Ages. Chaucer and Liechtenstein were both real authors in the Middle Ages, and the movie even depicts Chaucer as an up-and-coming author. Another important thing that the film got correct, for the most part, was the armor of the knights. While the armor used in the film may have come from different historical eras than the era of the actual movie, the armor was close in style to a lot of the armor we have studied in class. Finally, the film did a good job of depicting the jousting scenes in the tournaments. The Moodle video explains how Medieval knights would ride towards each other on a horse, and shows the wood breaking whenever they would strike one another. The video also talks about how a judge would determine who won the joust (Garden). The film is very accurate in this respect. While the film does dramatize how long the knights actually rode towards one another, the actual joust is very accurate and similar to the Moodle video. This is important to the movie because jousting is the most important part of this film.

Overall, A Knight’s Tale is very entertaining and a fun film to watch from a personal point of view. From a historian’s point of view, this movie has many inaccuracies that are exposed. However, the overall accuracy of the armor and jousting scenes, which are a main part of the film, dramatically help the film from a historical point of view. The opening scene where the Medieval people sing “We Will Rock You” and the number of modern concepts included in the film are probably too much to overcome to call this a “historical film.” This movie is more of a medievalism than Medieval. The film takes some Medieval ideas and revises them, making thing more modern and dramatic. The movie is very popular in the United States and the director knew how to modernize the film to make things more interesting for the audience. As a future history teacher, I would probably not include this entire film in my class, unless I told my students about the inaccuracies beforehand. However, I could use this film to give my students a chance to critique something historical while also having fun in the process. A Knight’s Tale is an entertaining film that I will continue to think more about as I move through my studies of the Middle Ages and my time as a high school history teacher.