The fabled romantic Giacomo Casanova, after failing to win the affection of the Venetian woman Francesca Bruni, strives to discover the real meaning of love.
A British officer resigns his post just before battle and subsequently receives four white feathers from his friends and fiancee as symbols of what they believe to be his cowardice.
Will and Jake Grimm are traveling con-artists who encounter a genuine fairy-tale curse which requires true courage instead of their usual bogus exorcisms.
Inspired by "The Canterbury Tales," as well as the early life of William Marshall (later First Earl of Pembroke), this is the story of William, a young squire with a gift for jousting. After his master dies suddenly, the squire hits the road with his cohorts Roland and Wat. On the journey, they stumble across an unknown writer, Chaucer. William, lacking a proper pedigree, convinces Chaucer to forge genealogy documents that will pass him off as a knight. With his newly-minted history in hand, the young man sets out to prove himself a worthy knight at the country's jousting competition, and finds romance along the way.Written by
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As the first credits appear, the camera swings to show a constellation behind William and Jocelyn. The constellation is Orion, the Hunter. Jocelyn refers to William as the Hunter before she learns his name. See more »
Alternate Versions
The DVD includes six extended/deleted scenes:
A scene of Will, Roland and Wat around a campfire during the training, where Will comes up with the idea for sir Ulrich's crest: a phoenix. Wat and Roland say there should be three phoenixes, since there's three of them.
Lord Adhemar's original introduction scene, where he slaps around one of his servants while having his armor fitted, and reference is made to the "triple phoenix" design of Sir Ulrich's crest.
Chaucer giving another substantial introduction for Sir Ulrich, similar to the first one, right before his match with Lord Adhemar. He berates Adhemar's herald before the speech; after the speech, Adhemar's herald appears impressed, which leads to his imitation of Chaucer's style later in the film.
When Adhemar leaves the dance, we find out the reason for his pained expression; in a deleted scene, he reveals to a monk that he is tone-deaf, and has never been able to hear music as anything more than noise. Adhemar then strides out into the midst of the poor, waiting outside the castle for handouts, and starts a riot by throwing food and money into the crowd.
Another deleted scene has Will, Roland, Wat, and Kate seeing Chaucer walking back to their quarters naked again. They follow him, but it turns that he was fetching food for his wife, Phillipa (who is also naked), and had not lost his clothes gambling like they thought. They leave, laughing, and run into Jocelyn and Christiana. Christiana and Roland leave together (with a suggestion of romance), William and Jocelyn leave together, but when Wat holds out his hand for Kate, she just hands him a pastry and walks off. Wat says "Hey, Beautiful" to the pastry and walks off happy anyway.
The original version of the scene with William in the stocks is considerably longer, and has an extensive speech by Chaucer (which is probably his best in the film). Rather than having the crowd calmed by the appearance of Prince Edward, the crowd is converted by Chaucer's speech, and has already begun chanting "William, William!" by the time the Prince reveals himself. A much stronger version of the scene, but cut down in favor of having the Prince's role expanded.
Why do so many people think this film isn't very good? Because they think it is historically incorrect? Do they not realise this is a comedy? I'm pretty sure that when Brian Helgeland wrote this film he knew that the song 'We Will Rock You' hadn't been released 400 years ago. I'm also sure he knew Nike hadn'd been founded yet. I think people are missing the point, because they thought it was going to be a film like Braveheart. A Knight's Tale is a story which is set in medieval times, and as a JOKE, they have mixed in things that weren't around at that time, such as the Nike sign, and Ulrich being introduced by Chaucer before his matches.
The story is predictable, but in my view that doesn't really matter in a comedy if it makes you laugh on the way. Overall, I though this was a very good film, and I would recommend it to anyone willing to not take it seriously.
8/10
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Why do so many people think this film isn't very good? Because they think it is historically incorrect? Do they not realise this is a comedy? I'm pretty sure that when Brian Helgeland wrote this film he knew that the song 'We Will Rock You' hadn't been released 400 years ago. I'm also sure he knew Nike hadn'd been founded yet. I think people are missing the point, because they thought it was going to be a film like Braveheart. A Knight's Tale is a story which is set in medieval times, and as a JOKE, they have mixed in things that weren't around at that time, such as the Nike sign, and Ulrich being introduced by Chaucer before his matches.
The story is predictable, but in my view that doesn't really matter in a comedy if it makes you laugh on the way. Overall, I though this was a very good film, and I would recommend it to anyone willing to not take it seriously.
8/10