# The \*A Knight's Tale\* Appreciation Thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 2, 2005, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-a-knights-tale-appreciation-thread/282639 "2005-01-02T03:19:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-a-knights-tale-appreciation-thread/282639/41 "2005-01-03T15:46:08Z")
> [@Bernard Marx](#): > > And Edward, the Black Prince was cool too. If you have a nickname like “the Black Prince” you are pretty much cool by default. That would be [James Purefoy](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0700856/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnxteD0yMHxzZz0xfGxtPTIwMHx0dD1vbnxwbj0wfHE9SmFtZXMgUHVyZWZveXxodG1sPTF8bm09b24_;fc=1;ft=1), an exceedingly yummy man. Look for him in _Bedrooms & Hallways_ for some hot man on man action. ---
**Author:** ![Malodorous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e47774/32.png) [@Malodorous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malodorous)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-a-knights-tale-appreciation-thread/282639/42 "2005-01-03T17:01:23Z")
> [@Siege](#): > > However, you can keep Jocelyn. Let me get this straight. We have a woman who, while she is beautiful, manipulates a man in a way which is likely to get him broke in body as well as in pocket. (I’m thinking of the whole, “If you’ll love me you’ll lose” . . . “If you love me you’ll win” scenes.) From the look on Heath Ledger’s face, he knows he’s being manipulated, but he does it anyway. Meanwhile, he’s got a cute, smart, competent girl with a sense of humour who’s even willing to teach him to dance. Methinks our hero took one too many shots to the head with a lance. At least in fiction, getting jerked around by the whims of princesses, even to the point of getting put in harms way, is an essential part of being a knight. So the fact that Jocelyn did this to Heath didn’t really bother me, but I agree it would’ve worked a lot better if the two could stir up some chemistry to go along with it. Good movie otherwise, though. ---
**Author:** ![Siege](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dbc845/32.png) [@Siege](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siege)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-a-knights-tale-appreciation-thread/282639/43 "2005-01-03T17:17:00Z")
And this is one reason I’m happy to be a peasant! By the way, I agree with **WhyNot** completely about _Dangerous Beauty_ and not just because one of these days I might yet wind up with the fencing outfit from it. The plot is thought-provoking, the scenery is gorgeous, and it even manages to be romantic and funny. Fellow Dopers, if you need to kill a couple of hours, there are worse ways! CJ ---
**Author:** ![yosemite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/3ab097/32.png) [@yosemite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yosemite)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-a-knights-tale-appreciation-thread/282639/44 "2005-01-03T17:21:34Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > Princess von Bitchenstein prevented me from being able to enjoy this movie. > > … > > Without exception every single person I have spoken to about this film felt the same way. I can only imagine they failed to focus group the movie properly. That’s exactly how I felt too. Ugh. She was too much. I would like to see this film again, and be able to enjoy it more fully because I won’t be waiting for him to come to his senses as far as Bitchenstein goes. Because the rest of the movie was quite fun. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-a-knights-tale-appreciation-thread/282639/45 "2005-01-03T18:36:14Z")
> [@Siege](#): > > However, you can keep Jocelyn. Let me get this straight. We have a woman who, while she is beautiful, manipulates a man in a way which is likely to get him broke in body as well as in pocket. (I’m thinking of the whole, “If you’ll love me you’ll lose” . . . “If you love me you’ll win” scenes.) I did think she had a point in the “If you love me, you’ll lose” scene, although it’s pretty cruel to ask a competitor in a dangerous sport to take a fall for you. But when she came back with the “Oh, changed my mind, you should win now!” I was fully expecting Will to come to his senses. I thought he should have told her that he’d win all right, for HIMSELF, and not to worry about what to wear to the big dance because he’d be taking Kate. ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-a-knights-tale-appreciation-thread/282639/46 "2005-01-03T19:19:57Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > Shannyn Sossamon and Heath Ledger starred together in another film, so someone thought they had chemistry. That would be [_The Order_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0304711/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnxteD0yMHxzZz0xfGxtPTIwMHx0dD0xfHBuPTB8c291cmNlaWQ9bW96aWxsYS1zZWFyY2h8cT10aGUgb3JkZXJ8aHRtbD0xfG5tPTE_;fc=1;ft=26;fm=1), which also had Brian Helgeland as a director and Mark Addy as a co-star. Kind of like _A Knight’s Tale_, revisited, only without any of the fun (I was a little disappointed by _The Order_, frankly). 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-a-knights-tale-appreciation-thread/282639/47 "2005-01-03T21:22:43Z")
Why do we assume Jocelyn was a princess? Princess of what? I can accept she was high up the nobility ladder, what with sitting on a cushion with the rest of the jousting sponsors, but I saw no indication she was royalty. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-a-knights-tale-appreciation-thread/282639/48 "2005-01-03T23:31:53Z")
I generally enjoyed this movie quite a bit, and also think the armorer girl was SO MUCH hotter than the (yawn) princess. However, I thought the big action climax was a letdown: So our hero has been jousting against some bad guy. And the bad guy is a REALLY good jouster, and never misses. And our hero has had his super armor damaged, so he will have to joust in his skivvies. OK. A good setup. So they thunder towards each other. And what happens? Does our hero invent some anachronistic and hilarious new tactic in order to win? Does he dodge at the last moment? Did he sabotage his opponent’s lance? Does he have armor on under his shirt? No… rather, his opponent, who never misses, just… ummmm… missed him. I thought it was quite weak. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-a-knights-tale-appreciation-thread/282639/49 "2005-01-04T18:40:59Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > Why do we assume Jocelyn was a princess? Princess of what? I can accept she was high up the nobility ladder, what with sitting on a cushion with the rest of the jousting sponsors, but I saw no indication she was royalty. I just like to call her Princess von Bitchenstein. But, as a matter of trivia, the titles “prince” and “princess” do not necessarily indicate royalty. They can apply to nobles of various ranks. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-a-knights-tale-appreciation-thread/282639/50 "2005-01-04T22:14:43Z")
> [@Malodorous](#): > > At least in fiction, getting jerked around by the whims of princesses, even to the point of getting put in harms way, is an essential part of being a knight. I’ll agree with this. Even a quick skim through the various King-Arthur-and-The-Knights-Of-the-Round-Table will reveal this as a common theme. What I liked best about The Knights Tale was one of the “meta-jokes”. Ulrich von Lichtenstein was a real, historical guy. > [@\*The Women's Chronology: A year-by-year Record](#): > > Sunday Crowds gather April 25 on the mainland near Venice to watch a procession advertised in advance by a messenger bearing an open letter to the effect that the goddess Venus would arise from the sea April 24 near Venice and begin to travel north toward Bohemia, breaking lances with any who would meet her in the lists. Preceded by a dozen squires in white, two maids in waiting, and a half a dozen musicians, the knight errant and minnesinger Ulrich von Lichtenstein, 26, rides up dressed as a woman, heavily veiled in a white gown with a pearl headdress. He learned his knightly skills from Henry, margrave of Austria, was made a knight in 1222, and took a secret vow to devote his newly made knighthood to serving a woman whom he had never met but whom he had seen during the wedding festival of the Duke of Saxony. She has spurned his offer to be her secret knight, but he challenges all the knights of Lombardy, Austria, and Bohemia to break lances with “Venus”. It will take Ulrich 15 years to win the lady’s love, and 2 years later she will hurt him in some cruel way, after which he will continue to find new women to whom he can play the courtly lover, the ideal knight…" I seem to recall that during this time Ulrich was married and had several children. I think his ideal woman made fun of him for having a harelip, for which he undertook very dangerous surgery to correct and survived. One of the other stories was that he bribed his lady’s maid to bring him her used hand-washing water, which he drank. Euw! ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-a-knights-tale-appreciation-thread/282639/51 "2005-01-04T23:04:14Z")
A Knight’s Tale is a cheesy, silly, illogical movie… that I love. The only thing I can add, other than to point out I thought Jocelyn was red hot, is that the DVD deleted scenes include a fantastic speech delivered wonderfully by Bettany. The speech is surprisingly intelligent and moving, and Bettany does an absolutely perfect job delivering it. I suggest to everyone that, if they get the chance, make sure they catch that scene also. The director indicated that he cut it out because it was too good a speech and tended to take away from the nobility of the Black Princes’ actions. Still, it’s the best scene in the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2005, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-a-knights-tale-appreciation-thread/282639/52 "2005-01-05T12:39:44Z")
I LOVE this movie. One of the most entertaining from the last 5 years. And, it completely snuck up on me. I think I flicked on HBO one time and saw it, thinking, “Oh, I kind of remember when this came out. It looked silly.” Favorite line (from Bettany, of course) : “He once spent a year in silence. . .to betta understand the sound _(solemn pause)_ of a whispa.” And near the beginning (from memory) “He’s dead.” “Dead?” “Dead. The soul is gone but the stench remains.” ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2005, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-a-knights-tale-appreciation-thread/282639/53 "2005-01-05T12:40:59Z")
> [@Hamlet](#): > > A Knight’s Tale is a cheesy, silly, illogical movie… that I love. > > The only thing I can add, other than to point out I thought Jocelyn was red hot, is that the DVD deleted scenes include a fantastic speech delivered wonderfully by Bettany. The speech is surprisingly intelligent and moving, and Bettany does an absolutely perfect job delivering it. I suggest to everyone that, if they get the chance, make sure they catch that scene also. The director indicated that he cut it out because it was too good a speech and tended to take away from the nobility of the Black Princes’ actions. Still, it’s the best scene in the movie. I’m going to have to find that deleted scene. The speeches by Bettany are the best part of the movie. The whole movie is “suprisingly intelligent and touching” if you ask me, as well as funny and entertaining. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2005, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-a-knights-tale-appreciation-thread/282639/54 "2005-01-05T16:35:44Z")
Bettany was truly excellent. ---
**Author:** ![Siege](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dbc845/32.png) [@Siege](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siege)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2005, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-a-knights-tale-appreciation-thread/282639/55 "2005-01-05T17:04:56Z")
OK, that’s it. I’m depressed as hell today from too much tsunami coverage and a bunch of trivial stuff. Tonight, I’m going to wrap myself up in a blanket, make some of that Ghirardelli hot chocolate a certain gentleman gave me, and immerse myself in a couple of hours of dumb fun, including looking for the medieaval London Eye. Anyone else in? 😉 CJ ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2005, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-a-knights-tale-appreciation-thread/282639/56 "2005-01-05T18:17:55Z")
Thank you, IMDB: > [@](#): > > My lords, my ladies, and everybody else here not sitting on a cushion! > [crowd roars] > Chaucer: Today… today, you find yourselves equals. > [crowd roars] > Chaucer: For you are all equally blessed. For I have the pride, the privilege, nay, the pleasure of introducing to you to a knight, sired by knights. A knight who can trace his lineage back beyond Charlemagne. I first met him atop a mountain near Jerusalem, praying to God, asking his forgiveness for the Saracen blood spilt by his sword. Next, he amazed me still further in Italy when he saved a fatherless beauty from the would-be ravishing of her dreadful Turkish uncle. > [crowd, boo] > Chaucer: In Greece he spent a year in silence just to better understand the sound of a whisper. And so without further gilding the lily and with no more ado, I give to you, the seeker of serenity, the protector of Italian virginity, the enforcer of our Lord God, the one, the only, Sir Ulllrrrich von Lichenstein. > [crowd roars] > Chaucer: Thank you, thank you, I’ll be here all week. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-a-knights-tale-appreciation-thread/282639.md?page=2)