Spoilers for the end of The Green Knight

I recently revisited The Northman, a film that left me conflicted the first time I watched it and ended up forming a new opinion of the film once I was able to digest it a second time. A similar film that had left me conflicted was 2021’s The Green Knight and I thought after gaining new insight after watching Robert Egger’s Viking epic for the second time, I should do the same for David Lowery’s adaptation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Much to my surprise, I thought the film was much stronger on the second viewing.

The Green Knight is a film that left me conflicted upon first viewing. I wasn’t sure if I enjoyed it for its complexity or disliked it for its vagueness. But it was a film that I would ruminate on, something we don’t often get to do with theatrical films these days I find. As a result, I put it on my top ten for 2021 at number ten for that exact reason. I was still undecided about my opinion of the movie after many months. Perhaps thanks to knowing the outcome in advance and looking for the symbolism throughout, I honestly thought the film improved for the better when I opted to watch it again.

It’s not without flaws though. I still think the sequence with Lord and Lady near the end of The Green Knight is too long and derails the pacing of the movie. I think if they shaved off a few minutes here or made things less ambiguous it would’ve hit even stronger. The implication is that Gaiwan’s mother’s magic is heavily at play in this scene and that sense of understanding is clearer if you go over the original story, but I found it perhaps too vague for its own good here, especially with regards to the blind woman in their company. If the film just added a bit of clarity to these scenes and also shaved it just a bit, I think it would’ve been a much tighter sequence in the end. Also, I think that some of the lighting felt too much like stage lighting at times, breaking immersion.

But that’s really the only criticism I have of the movie upon the second viewing. A lot of the ambiguous feelings I had towards the film after I walked out of the cinema in 2021 were gone. I think knowing where this movie goes and understanding the symbolism in advance worked in favour of the film’s narrative, as I was less distracted by trying to analyze the film on the fly and instead soaking it all in. As a result, I also found it less abstract and trippy this time around and noticed it felt much more accessible than I initially remembered.

This is true of the ending, which was incredibly ambiguous the first time around. After accepting death, Gawain sheds the magical sash around his waist which would have protected him from any blow and tells the Knight he may proceed. The Knight, who is a practical effect and is played wonderfully by Ralph Ineson, smiles and tells Gawain that he is a brave man with a smile on his face that could be seen as almost proud, with a hint of Santa Clause per the direction of David Lowery. He then passes his finger over Gawain’s throat before saying “now…off with your head” before the film cuts to credits. At first, I was confused by this ending. Did the Knight kill Gawain? It would make sense narratively, as Gawain was terrified of his own mortality but only came to accept the inevitable in his final moments. But I don’t think Gawain died in the end, at least not in the literal sense. I think Gawain, the ignorant noble who wears a yellow cloak (yellow symbolizes cowardice) died at the chapel, but Sir Gawain, the noble and chivalrous knight was reborn from that death. As Lady and Gawain state, green is both the colour of life and rot. When the Green Knight tells him “off with your head”, it could be the metaphorical death of Gawain but it could also be seen as a bit of a joke, as in “now be off with you, with your head”.

Bear in mind that the whole quest was orchestrated by Gawain’s mother, the unnamed Morgan Le Fay, for him to find a story of his own and find some purpose in his life. Before the quest, he was content with whoring and drinking, offering nothing else to others and leaving little impact on the world. When Arthur tells Gawain to tell him a story of his life, Gawain states he has none to tell. But that is no longer the case. Likewise, when Lord asks Gawain why a knight does what he does, Gawain asks, with a visible lack of confidence, that the sole reason is honour (something Gawain sorely lacked on his quest). But as Esel asks him earlier in the film, is being a good man not enough? Facing the prospective future before losing his head in the chapel, Gawain sees his future and that he becomes a tyrant, lacking the honour and the goodness that will go on to make him a legend in Arthurian folklore. So naturally, Morgan Le Fay wouldn’t want the adventure to end with the death of her son, she’s doing the whole thing for his benefit, to test, challenge and better her son. With Arthur and Guinevere seeming at death’s door and without an heir, Gawain is the natural successor but is not ready to become that king, without the challenge he’ll become the version we see in the alternate timeline sequence, so Gawain needed to evolve and his mother was there in some capacity all throughout the quest, from the fox to the scavenger.

The film is also full of great performances from its cast. Dev Patel really shines as Gawain, he has to be likable enough for us to care for Gawain while also being flawed enough that his mother would conjure such a quest for him. Everything Gawain does throughout the film is technically wrong from the perspective of chivalry, yet Patel never makes his adventurer unbearable or cringe-worthy. Likewise, the rest of the cast also pull their weight, including Alicia Vincander in dual roles as both Essel and Lady, Joel Edgerton as Lord and the aforementioned Ralph Ineson, whose deep voice shakes us to the bone but refrains from being a scary figure, despite being a pagan forest creature.

The film is also gorgeous to look at, with both shot composition and colour pallet being quite memorable. Some may think the shots linger too long, and in some cases this is true, but some shots just stand out, such as a 360-degree pan from Gawain lying on the forest floor to him seeing his own skeleton lying where he lay after the pan is complete, allowing the audience to soak in the visuals of the forest. The world itself feels grounded yet mysterious and enchanted, as if we’ve been whisked off to a faraway land that’s still familiar.

I think going into The Green Knight knowing it’s not a fantasy action adventure film but an introspective character study also prepares you for the kind of movie you’re to watch. Just because it takes place in a world of knights and magic doesn’t mean there should be an action sequence. There’s no action at all in this film but I don’t think it needed it. But audiences have certain expectations and seeing a knight in a fantasy land tends to lend itself to sword fights and fireballs. Naturally, some audience members likely felt cheated. Don’t watch this expecting The Lord of the Rings, watch this with the same kind of nuance found in Blade Runner 2049. Do that, with the expectation that the film will not spoon-feed the story to you, forcing you to analyze the hell out of it and you may come away enlightened, especially if you’re returning to it.