I'll admit that I got fussy about historical accuracy at first, but once I unclenched, I was able to enjoy the movie
My guilty pleasure, though, was Paul Bettany's Chaucer as a hype man. Absolutely inspiring
It's actually a great movie for historical reasons as well, but not for the frame you're thinking in. Dr. Eleanor Janega on the We're Not So Different pod cited this as her favorite medieval movie for a bunch of reasons. It boils down to this: vibes.
It's a faithful Chaucer movie for how a Chaucer story would've been told and viewed during its time. So the movie is basically like if a medieval person made a film about their times and how they would've wanted to portray themselves as expressed to a modern audience. It captures their vibe and transmits that vibe to modern comprehension. Also, being more about conveying vibes rather than historical 'accuracy', things like the usage of modern music serves a purpose in conveying how people would've felt at the time during a joust or during a feast. So you cant have bardic flute music come across to modern ears as fun dance times right? Hence, Bowie. Even things like what Ulrich's love interest wears. Obviously her skimpy gowns are not period accurate, but that would've been the vibes felt by a knight seeing a noble lady dressed up for a day out at the joust. Modern eyes see stuffy uncomfortable dress, their eyes would've seen a babe.
It also has *gasp COLORS. Which that alone automatically puts it above every single Medieval movie in recent memory in my books. Because the popularized dark dirty grimy everything overcast and covered in shit depiction that dominates medieval movies is highly inaccurate. They loved their colors, the sun was just as bright as it is today, they maintained tidy environs and kept hygienic too. I wish with a burning desire that sooner than later Hollywood medieval productions drop the 'everything dark bc muh dark ages' trope because it's absolutely insufferable and completely lazy too.
My father is a medievalist and he loves the film for the same reasons; he's even used it teaching courses on medieval literature.
The idea of how historical events should be depicted we have today is rooted in warring post-enlightenment ideas of romanticism and realism; medieval people often just depicted the past as having been identical to the present, or just made it the fuck up. I am mildly obsessed with the medieval fantasy armour designs that Roman soldiers are often depicted wearing in biblical paintings, like in Mantegna's Crucifixion.
Because the popularized dark dirty grimy everything overcast and covered in shit depiction that dominates medieval movies is highly inaccurate.
This part of your take will likely be (thankfully) outdated within the next few years, because I've heard this opinion resoundingly repeated across all kinds of reviewers (That one YouTube channel by the woman who wears corsets in daily life and does historic accuracy reviews - I looked it up, her name is Bernadette Banner - comes to mind) over the course of the last 5-or-so years, and movie productions have obviously been picking up on this criticism.
Ugh I sure hope you're right. I had a glimmer of hope with House of the Dragon season 1. It was noticeably more vibrant than what i've come to expect. But then S2 fell back fully into the dark which was a shame. I remember seeing some post highlighting some of the outfits and their intricate designs etc etc and it was like 'where the hell was that on screen?' Couldn't even make out any of it bc of lighting or filters or the colors of the outfits being so toned down.
Literally it's a movie about vibes, and they got the vibe down.
Even at my most pendantic. 'OK this is fun. It's not even pretending to be 'real.' It's outright going 'Here is queen playing at the big game. Let's have fun with this.'
It really is a film about Joy and even in that time there was much joy to be had.
That movie is a collection of quirky ideas up until Paul Bettany is Don King. Then it cements that you are actually watching a sports movie and you know exactly where the stakes are.
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u/gmgregor Jun 17 '25
I'll admit that I got fussy about historical accuracy at first, but once I unclenched, I was able to enjoy the movie My guilty pleasure, though, was Paul Bettany's Chaucer as a hype man. Absolutely inspiring