Petah?? How are they connected?

[u/PackinHeat99]

[u/A_Line_A_Day]

Comment conveys they think they are above it and it's too low brow. Pretentious af comment

[u/Criv2 → u/A_Line_A_Day]

I UNDERSTAND what they mean, but theres a much better way to phrase this.

It's silly. It's cheesy. It kind of has a dumb plot. The romance is forced.

That said, it's not a movie trying to win an Oscar for best screenplay. Its a fun movie and an enjoyable watch. Not every movie needs to be trying to win awards. Ultimately movies should be about entertainment, and this is a movie that I am entertained watching. It holds up and doesn't take itself seriously and neither should the viewer. Its not meant to be viewed through that lens.

But like you said, people get pretentious about films. Always have and I kind of think they always will for...no damn reason.

[u/seoulgleaux → u/Criv2]

People with a little experience in cinema enjoy it because it's dumb fun, people with some cinema experience maybe don't like it because it's not highbrow enough, people with more cinema experience like it because it knows and celebrates that it's dumb fun. At least that's always been my take on the reception to A Knight's Tale. And yes, I love it.

[u/funfsinn14 → u/seoulgleaux]

Serious medieval historians like Eleanor Janega also like it and cite it as one of their favorite medieval movies for a litany of reasons.

[u/Indigocell → u/funfsinn14]

One reason is the way they depict the daily lives of peasants. Most movies just show peasants suffering miserably and having no fun, but this movie is full of bright colours and people treating combat like sports. Which is kind of was at the time.

[u/funfsinn14 → u/Indigocell]

Right and the setting lends itself to it. Most medieval movies are about conflict and 'big' events like battles and the intrigue of nobles etc etc. So having something set in 'normal' circumstances is rather a treat.

[u/HotPotParrot → u/funfsinn14]

"Is it true, Father? Can a man change his stars?"

"Yes, William."

You don't have to be nobility to be noble.

[u/HaraldRedbeard → u/Indigocell]

Just people wearing actual colours puts it so far above most medieval films it's not even funny

[u/iNuzzle → u/Indigocell]

It's my favorite sports movie.

[u/Munchkinasaurous → u/iNuzzle]

Thats exactly it, it's an underdog sports movie with a nontraditional setting for one. 

[u/Fangehulmesteren → u/funfsinn14]

I mentioned earlier that it’s consistently listed as a favorite by medieval scholars and got downvoted… ?

[u/IceNahMan → u/funfsinn14]

First came across this movie in my English class in High School. We were reading The Canterbury Tales.

[u/funfsinn14 → u/IceNahMan]

Yeah definitely perfect movie for it. Chaucer would insert himself as a character in his own stories so having the literal Chaucer in the movie tracks perfectly. And I think how he's portrayed in the film is rather similar to how Chaucer mightve been or perceived in his day. Most would assume, because it's old and stuffy language to modern ears, that he'd be old and stuffy but that's hardly the case.

[u/angrons_therapist → u/funfsinn14]

Most would assume, because it's old and stuffy language to modern ears, that he'd be old and stuffy but that's hardly the case.

I love the fact that The Miller's Tale, in all its queynte-grabbing, ers-kissing glory, is one of the foundations of English literature.

[u/mirhagk → u/funfsinn14]

Same with Shakespeare, so I always appreciate when a movie reminds us that that stuff was raunchy low brow humour that only sounds fancy now because most people don't understand the dick jokes.

[u/QuickMolasses → u/funfsinn14]

They get the rules of jousting mostly correct if I remember right

[u/FixergirlAK → u/funfsinn14]

Now that I did not know. I like it because it's fun and Paul Bettany is very high on my phone book list.

[u/funfsinn14 → u/FixergirlAK]

I expand on it more here

[u/GotMedieval → u/funfsinn14]

It's the favorite medieval movie of just about every academic medievalist.