THE MOVIE

In medieval times a sport arose. Embraced by noble and peasant fans alike though only noble knights could compete. The sport was jousting. For one of these knights, an over-the-hill former champion, it was the end. But for his peasant squire William, it was merely the beginning.

After William Thatcher’s (Heath Ledger) master passes away suddenly, William decides to take his place. William is not of noble birth so he can’t really compete, but no one will really be able to tell when he’s hidden under all that armour, surely…

After managing to stay on his horse and win the competition, he persuades friends Roland (Mark Addy from The Full Monty) and Wat (Alan Tudyk) to participate in a jousting tournament in Rouen. Along the way, they meet up with a naked man called Geoffrey Chaucer (Paul Bettany). He is naked because he has a slight gambling problem and is unable to repay his debt. Geoffrey is also a writer, and he forges patents of nobility so William can enter the jousting tournament as Ulrich von Lichtenstein from Gelderland. He then becomes William’s herald for a share of the winnings. It is also in Rouen that he spies the lovely Jocelyn (Shannyn Sossamon), but it seems that she is also attracting the attention of the jousting champion Count Adhemar of Anjou (Rufus Sewell).

What follows is a series of jousting tournaments where William defeats many opponents, but there is one person he has yet to defeat, that being Count Adhemar. Does he have what it takes to knock this imposing competitor off his horse…

THE TRANSFER

Video:

Well, this is one rather nice looking transfer, even if I do say so myself. The film is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 widescreen and is 16:9 enhanced. This ratio works especially well given the numerous jousting events, which fit beautifully into this narrow frame. Colours are good, skin tones are realistic and greens, yellows and browns are well saturated. Detail is very good during the daytime scenes, with the exception of the up close shot of Shannyn Sossamon during chapter 20 (79.54 minutes), which looks particularly grainy. There is also some slight background shimmering in the darker night time scenes and interiors, but it is not overly distracting. For the most part though, detail is great, especially during the jousting sequences, all of the shards of wood being clearly visible. Surprisingly, the menus look somewhat gritty and even though this is most likely an intentional effect, I found it detracts somewhat from the otherwise good visuals.

Audio:

A Knight’s Tale comes with two soundtracks, an English Dolby Digital 5.1 channel soundtrack and an audio commentary soundtrack (Dolby Digital 2.0 channel). The default Dolby Digital 5.1 channel soundtrack is excellent, this is evident right from the outset when the jousting stick splinters into thousands of shards on the knights armour (chapter 1, 0.36 minutes). There are other subtle background sound effects to be heard throughout this film but the jousting events would have to be the audio highlight. You can really notice the bass as the horses hooves pound the ground, and time after time you can hear timber shattering all around you when the lances connect with their intended targets.

I believe the tagline for this film is ‘He Will Rock You’, in actual fact it is Queen who will rock you! It’s not long before Queen’s “We Will Rock You” starts up (chapter 1, 3 minute mark), this sounds great, being loaded with bass and with some nice surround clapping effects. The soundtrack is quite eclectic actually, featuring music by the likes of Queen, David Bowie, Eric Clapton, Thin Lizzy (The Boys Are Back In Town) and AC/DC, to name a few. Heath Ledger himself even sings, just as he did in 10 Things I Hate About You. Dialogue is generally clear and highly intelligible and there didn’t appear to be any major audio synch problems.

THE EXTRAS

Audio Commentary
The commentary track features writer/director/producer Brian Helgeland and an ill-advised adolescent, otherwise known as actor Paul Bettany (who plays Geoffrey Chaucer). These two laugh their way through this commentary, talking about anything and everything, even mentioning which crew member got the job of gaffer-tapping Bettany’s manhood to his leg so it wouldn’t be visible during his first scene. It was a PG13 film after all. Music, actors, historical facts and inaccuracies, as well as technical aspects are discussed. Interesting fact, the wooden splinters you see when the lances explode weren’t always wood, linguine was used so it would hang in the air longer and look more spectacular.

Behind-the-Scenes Featurettes
Selecting this feature loads a submenu where you are presented with a number of mini-featurettes, 11 in total including The Rock Music Scene in 1370, Sexy Armor and a Rock Band On Tour, You Never Know What You’ll find in a Czech Prop House, School of Hard Knocks, Tournaments - A Cross Between Pro Football and Stock Car Racing, The Marquee Event, The World’s First Sports Promoter, Stories for the People, The Rules of Love, Heath Ledger profile and finally A Director’s Quest.

Each short featurette is insightful and there is a good mix of behind the scenes footage, historical information about jousting, as well as interviews with writer/director Brian Helgeland, producer Todd Black, costume designer Caroline Harris, stunt coordinator Allan Graf and actors Heath Ledger, Alan Tudyk and Paul Bettany. The only problem is the start-stop nature of watching 11 short mini-featurettes. I think it would have been much better if this material could have been viewed as a larger all-encompassing featurette. Total running time is around 34 minutes.

Deleted Scenes
There are 6 deleted scenes to choose from; The Campfire Scene, Adhemar Intro; Chaucer’s Second Speech, Riot, Chaucer’s Wife and The Stocks. These scenes can be viewed with production audio or with an introduction and running commentary by director Brian Helgeland. Deleted scenes are presented in 2.35:1 widescreen, but visual quality isn’t quite as good as the film itself. Running time is around 22 minutes if viewed with production audio, or around 27 minutes if viewed with the introductions and running commentary by Brian Helgeland.

HBO Making-Of Special
The Making of A Knight’s Tale brought to us courtesy of HBO. It seems somewhat repetitive when compared with the featurettes above. It is cut together with some behind the scenes footage, cast and crew interviews and far too many excerpts from the film. It is basically just an extended trailer. Running time is around 15 minutes.

Music Video
Robbie Williams and Queen performing “We Are The Champions”, wasn’t this the same song they used in Mighty Ducks? It is presented in 1.85:1 widescreen with Dolby Digital 2.0 channel sound and it runs for 4 minutes.

Trailers
Not just one trailer but two, the first is for A Knight’s Tale, the second is for Final Fantasy. Both are presented in 1.85:1 widescreen with Dolby Digital 5.1 channel sound and running time is 2.03 minutes and 2.04 minutes, respectively.

Filmographies
Standard filmographies for writer/director Brian Helgeland, actors Heath Ledger, Mark Addy, Rufus Sewell, Paul Bettany and Alan Tudyk. Strangely Shannyn Sossamon misses out despite playing a important role in this film.

SUMMARY

Writer/director Brian Helgeland worked with Australian Mel Gibson in the 1999 film Payback, this time around in A Knight’s Tale, it’s another Australian star, that being Heath Ledger. This film is likely to be a winner with the teenagers but after a while the constant jousting gets a little repetitive. This film is also a little bit long. Still, if you’ve got a spare two hours and are prepared to leave your brain in neutral it’s quite enjoyable. Technically speaking this DVD is great, with a very good visual and audio transfer and a decent collection of extras.