¶ A Knight's Tale
hello and thank you for joining us , for I freaking love that movie . I'm andrew , joined by my buddy , rob , and our rebooted crewmate , the very sus Michael Rogers , as we dive into another movie we freaking love .
This isn't a podcast for those quippy cynics , just love for movies and the people who make them , and I have a sneaking suspicion that a well-deserved fonging is on its way , rob . What are we talking about today ?
A Knight's Tale 2001 is a medieval adventure comedy film written and directed by Brian Helgeland . It stars Heath Ledger as William Thatcher , a peasant squire who dreams of achieving knighthood and glory in a world where one's birth dictates one's destiny .
After the unexpected death of his master during a jousting tournament , William seizes the opportunity to impersonate a knight . With the help of his loyal companions , Roland and Watt , he embarks on a journey to compete in tournaments across Europe .
Along the way , they encounter Geoffrey Chaucer , a penniless writer who forges William's noble lineage Under the alias Sir Ulrich von Liechtenstein . William rises in fame and prestige . He captures the heart of Lady Jocelyn , but also earns the enmity of Count Adhemar , a ruthless nobleman and rival jouster .
Ultimately , William must confront his humble origins and prove that a man can change his stars to become a true knight . The film concludes with a climactic joust where William triumphs over Atomar , solidifying his place among the nobility and fulfilling his dream .
As you wish . Wrong movie . Oh my sweet Wesley , oh right . Oh , you know fantasy it . Oh , my Sweet Wesley , oh right .
Oh you know , fantasy .
It's a fantasy adventure comedy .
It's great to have you on , Mike . It's really great to have you on here . I'm happy to be here .
It's nice to be on a show where I can , you know , dial back the cranky old man and just love on movies a little bit , you know .
It is a grand old fun time here on . I Freaking Love that Movie and of course we also love working on our sister podcast Rebooted . But sometimes it's great to get in here and just pick out a movie that we all freaking love and have a little chat .
Yeah , to not be the snappy film school nerds that we we are , or maybe just me , I don't know . Do you get , do you guys want to know , a funny uh , uh mike ron perlman moment with this movie ?
mike .
I would love to know a funny mike ron perlman moment with this movie I don't know why , but it doesn't matter how many times I see this movie . If you ask me who plays Count Atomar , my immediate knee-jerk response is Joaquin Phoenix . For whatever reason , it is wired in my brain that Joaquin Phoenix was the bad guy in this movie .
You're thinking Gladiator , like somehow it's like programmed .
It really is , cause there's like there's like bits of there's , there's bits of like what actually happens in Gladiator . That that was like mentally in this movie and I was watching like wait a minute , that was no mentally in this movie and I was watching like wait a minute , that was no .
Oh , I did it again . Oops , I did it again . So , rob , yes to . To circle back to , I believe , our last episode . We talked about shannon susserman , we did , who played lady jocelyn and also the pink haired girl and is in the band war , was in the band war paint . Did you happen to check them out , rob ?
I have not had an opportunity to check them out . No , sadly .
A month I had , a month did I . Is that how long ?
ago we recorded this . It's at least been . It's at least been a couple weeks . That that's on me . That's my bad .
No , that's all right . I was just curious because I was like , oh well , we just happened to follow up with another Shannon Sussman movie .
We just happened to . I feel like we talked ourselves into the movie whilst recording the last episode .
Yeah , I think you're right , but I did want to take an opportunity , because we put this to a vote on our Facebook page and thank everybody who jumped on there and voted on the different films , and A Knight's Tale squeaked out one more vote than Ocean's Eleven .
So those other movies are coming , but really appreciate folks for getting on there and casting their ballot . And then Mike was like I like this movie , I might even freaking love it . And we were like sure , come on aboard and we'll have a little chat about A Knight's Tale .
That's right . We were like you get a horse , you get a horse .
And a lance Hello , this is called a lance , hello .
I think one of my favorite lines in the movie , though , is when the king is like he's like . My royal historians have found your noble heritage and it is unquestionable he's like fact check me I'm just like , ah , to be a king , to just go no .
My historians found the my word is law , literally .
Yeah , uh , man , so I ? I just this movie has been a favorite of mine since I saw it and I mean , I think part of it is like that opening track with the we Will Rock you part , yes , which was filmed or put together as a joke by their second union , I believe , yeah , and just kind of made it into the movie . That's what makes this movie though .
Yeah , I think it's funny . So the way I found out about this movie was I used to like , instead of having a study hall or things like that , I would be like a student volunteer in the AV lab and we had you know , among the other things we did was copy tapes and take clips out of things A lot of linear editing .
Back in the day , and one of the English teachers brought down a copy of this movie and wanted me to take the scene out of it with chaucer , because they were reading chaucer's books , or canterbury tales , that's what it is . I was like you're not thinking the name .
They're reading canterbury tales in class , and so he wanted to like intersperse some clips of chaucer , which I think is hilarious , because this is probably the most uh , let's say inaccurate representation of jeffrey chaucer I was gonna say I just like , wait a minute , like his character is supposed to be , like that chaucer .
I didn't , I don't think at least at least the english teacher decided .
So I mean , yes , it is , but I don't think .
I don't think .
I realized that nice that was my introduction to the movie was cutting parts of the movie out on on the linear error , and so , you know , back with linear errors , you had to watch the clips and as they , you know , rewind , play , mark in , mark out and all that stuff , I just remember being like what is this movie ?
it's amazing , it's so incredible and you're like and I had to watch it a lot this is seriously one .
This is absolutely 100 . One of those movies that's on my list of like . Oh , night's tale is on . I don't care what I set out to watch , I'm watching night's tale like it's just . If I find it , I I drop everything and I watch it because it's just , it's fun . It's just a great fun movie and , yes , the classic rock made it that much better absolutely .
I think , with without the classic rock uh soundtrack , the like jock jams of it all , it's just kind of a regular romantic comedy period piece .
Yeah , it doesn't .
But it totally flips it on its head . One of the things that the production crew talked about was this idea that they put it in there and then they left it in . And they did it because they felt like that's how people of the time felt about their music . It's like , oh , this is the zeitgeist , this gets the blood pumping .
So they give that to the modern audience . This is my jam .
We want you to hear Queen rocking out , and just imagine that's how these folks felt about their music back in the day , as they were getting ready to watch Joust .
It's like we're listening to it through a translation circuit , right .
Yeah .
They're actually playing old-timey William Tell Overture kind of thing , but to us that's Queen .
Yes , exactly Another funny or not maybe not funny thing , but just interesting happenstance is just looking back at the episode we just did on black hawk town and this one , they both came out in 2001 also , so we're really just running through the early aughts right now . So we'll see what . We'll see what happens when we spin the wheel next .
Maybe we're gonna hit another uh 2001 . Maybe we'll finally get to Spider-Man and Michael will be back on .
Yeah , what you should do is just to spin the 2001 on its head like do 2001 , Space Odyssey . So it's not really a movie in 2001, . But it's about 2001 .
He's blonde , he's pissed . He'll see you in the lists Lichtenstein , lichtenstein .
Kill the .
Lichtenstein , I just watched it last night , and so I had a smile on my face the entire time .
It's also funny to me now , like every time I watch it , right , because , obviously , like , paul Bettany is Vision , so that's like , hey look , another Marvel tie-in for me to geek out . Oh , here we go , but we're bringing it back . And alan tudyk is just , I mean , he's a national treasure , let's , let's be honest .
But then um , that was nicholas cage yeah , but um , mark mark addy is funny to me in this movie because it's robert baratheon from game of thrones right playing against type , I guess , because he's very not robert baratheon , he's very not . He's like being the voice of reason he's being the voice of reason .
He's taking good care of his body to be fair , though , when I first saw the first episode of game of thrones and I saw him I was like hey , he's from a knight's tale , it's rolling yeah the cast in this film is just amazing , like we've already talked about , paul bettany , jeffrey chaucer , heath ledger , alan tudyk , mark addy and , uh , shannon sossaman , as
we've also mentioned Rufus Sewell , who just plays bad guys that you love to hate . He's just always just the most awful dude , but he also has , like the coldest lines in this movie . He's just like you have been weighed , you have been measured and you have been found wanting .
Almost to the very end of the film he's above it all until he's flat on his back , as was promised to him , that he was going to get knocked off his horse .
But this whole cast is just amazing .
I would say he is and it's funny , because I see him again and again in things and he's always playing like a bad guy and he's just one of my favorite bad guys and I was like I wonder if he's ever played a good guy in a movie , guys , and I was like I wonder if he's ever played a good guy in a movie and I hate to say this about you know , an
actual human being , but and it could just be a lot of the way that it's shot but it's like he's got like a face that you just want to punch no I , but like that's , but that's .
I think that's like part of like what makes him such a great villain . It's the way he presents himself on screen . He just gets under your skin so expertly and it just comes down to even the way he looks at people on camera . You're like somebody just needs to punch you in the nose .
Oh , man when he sits down to explain the rules of the joust to jocelyn , and it's interesting because it's like a way to do exposition , so he explains the game to all of us and so he's like well , let me educate you and you're like you are the most patronizing little vile jerk . Yes , like man .
That is mansplaining , it is like such , and the way he does it is such a like patting her on the head almost , and it's like man . I already hate this guy and he's been on screen for like a whole of two minutes maybe . Yeah , and you're already like no , don't like him , don't like this guy . There's a lot to freaking love about this movie .
I love the jousting , which is interesting , mostly just because it's not like I wouldn't put it up there as like I want to see people joust , just because it's not like I wouldn't put it up there as like I want to see people joust , like I don't go to medieval times or you know any of that , but I love the , the sport of it and how they .
It kind of feels like you're watching in those segments . You're watching like a sports film , um , where there's competition . It's like almost like the ? O Olympics , like that Olympic feel .
It's like medieval March madness .
Yes , I remember watching one of the special features , and this was back in the days of you know , hard hard disc special features . Yes , shout out , shout out to the film cabinet . Um , and they were talking about how to get that splintering . Look , they want , they filled the hollow .
Uh , jousting sticks with spaghetti noodles , like hard spaghetti noodles , hard spaghetti noodles which I think is amazing .
They were like don't eat the props yet like some of those like movie magic , yeah , things I've gushed a lot about the different aspects of this movie that I really loved .
I would love to know , andrew , what did you really freaking love about a knight's tale well , you know , in general I'm not much of a horse guy but I do love the jousties . Uh , you know , it makes me , makes me want to go to bristol renaissance fair and watch the jousties . I've taken my kids a few times and watch the jousties .
Um , this movie just makes me love the jousties , the jousties and , um , I think that is the . I mean , it's weird but that's like my , my biggest takeaway from the movie .
I just love the jousties and they do it and they go clingity , clangity and they go bang and the spaghetti flies everywhere and and then , like the one where the guy gets like knocked off and like rides down the rail a bit , yeah , you know , I don't know , it's just it's exciting . Yeah , you know , it's like man , sports back then were sports .
¶ Knight's Tale Fun Facts and Banter
They were sporty , yeah , they were sporty spice sporty sports .
It was sporty potential to be dismembered , yeah , maimed , punctured yeah oh , like when rufus seawall uses his soap covered .
Oh , filthy cheater boy filthy cheater boy I don't know how he thought he's gonna get away with that , because they're like , yeah , if he would have killed him .
It would be like , hey , look , there's a metal point shiving where there should have been a little fist and we've already laid out that like the , the prince of wales is like kind of a bad dude like he's . He's kind of tough and I don't his .
His army already got withdrawn for like doing really horrible stuff , so he was already probably on his naughty list with the prince . So I gotta imagine if he gets caught cheating at at his tournament right after he'd already gotten fired and after he's already given uh william the indisputable family history tree , and now he's gonna stab him .
Bad look , uh , that's a ballsy .
Uh , mr rufus like I said , that's why he's so bad guy .
He's the bad guy , so it's agreed . We all love the jousting . We love adamar because he's wonderfully , deliciously horrible , and I don't know how y'all feel about this , but when I watch all the different sports segments in the film so we have the joust and we have the sword I always get a little sad when he gives up on the sword .
When William says I'm not going to do the sword anymore because I was like I love the action set up on the sword .
When William says I'm not going to do the sword anymore Because I was like I love the action set piece with the sword , like coupled with taking care of business , playing in the background , and he's just like wailing on guys , I was like , dude , you were so good at the sword , you could have been like all time great , all time great in the sword .
You could have had them both .
You could have done it one of the the things that I really like about the movie . I think I like the because we talked about it with like the classic rock music .
That's not really the only like tongue-in-cheek modern pop culture bit in the movie too , right when the blacksmith when she like makes his armor and she like chisels the nike , swoop in to the plate like I I laugh . I laugh at that every time .
Like that's funny and I love like she makes this like super lightweight armor and he comes like strolling out of the tent in this little like you know , lightweight , like fake , like paper , thin , yeah , like plate armor , and all the other knights are like cackling and laughing at him , making fun of him , and then like he walks up to the horse and just jumps
up and like they all like turn around and go back about their business . I love that . That like it's such like a campy , like throwaway thing , but it's like that kind of stuff is what makes this movie so good . Like at no point does this movie try to take itself too seriously .
Like it embraces that level of silliness without sacrificing , without sacrificing like the drama and the action of like of everything else that's going on . They just like strike that balance so well and lean into it and it just .
It hits on every single mark they do have like really good physical comedy notes like that yes , so there's that one , there's the , the one where william is following jocelyn into the church on his horse and he doesn't realize he's in a church until the bishop is like you desecrate the house of God .
And it cuts to this wide shot where you can see that he's literally in a huge church and everyone is staring at him .
Or the bit where he's learning to dance with Alan Tudyk's character and Joss is teaching them , teaching them , and then Tudyk gets mad and it cuts back and he's like all binged up and he's like okay , let's go , it's just yeah , piece of paper like in his nose , and one and two and three and four , and what doesn't lead he ?
follows like a girl .
One and two , okay . So one thing that I think is particularly fun about this movie well , fun , I guess this is a someone who didn't get to be featured in the film . But a fun thing about physical media . Once again , shout out to our buddies over at the film cabinet who encouraged us to to go back to physical media , which I've done in a big way I've .
I've actually now been not only collecting DVDs but I've been on the hunt at my half-priced books for steel cases or steel book DVDs . Yes , I've got a nice little collection of those growing .
And shout-out to half-priced books . We're shouting out half-priced books too right ? Film Cabinet half-priced books got to get in there .
Right film cabinet , that's right . Books got to get in there right . Still not sponsored , but one of these days hpb jump on us . Yeah , yeah , but anyway . So in the dvd copy I don't know if you know this , rob , but there is an entire group of scenes of jeffrey chaucer's wife , felipa , felipa , philippa , but they were all cut .
They cut her out , they cut the wife out completely from them .
Yeah , it was played by Olivia Williams .
Oh , okay .
Yeah , Maybe not a name you recognize , but if you see a picture you'll be like , oh , Olivia Williams .
We'll be sure , we'll put it on the Facebook group and everyone will probably collectively go .
yeah , I remember her uh right , and then they'll go buy the dvd and watch the uh , the cut scenes , right ?
exactly . So that's pretty awesome , and you know if we're we're moving into fun facts territory here . I find it kind of humorous where we have all these people playing brits and like really none of them are are British . Uh , you got Australian . Heath Ledger , american Alan Tudyk . Uh , shannon Sossaman is also American , um , and then , uh , laura Fraser , who's the ?
She plays the blacksmith . Um , she was Scottish , but she auditioned with an english accent because they were wanting english . Uh , everyone to be english , so , but she's the only one who's really playing naturally . So they got on set and they were like no , just use your regular accent .
And it was like the first time she's ever been allowed to like , use her actual scottish accent and when you say the name laura fraser , you make me think of jamie fraser from outlander , who's scottish , scottish I also think mentally there's this , especially if you're like big into fantasy , I think there's this like mental connection of the rough and tumble dwarves
always having a little bit of like a scottish hint to them .
So it's like as soon as you get somebody that has a scottish accent , they're immediately more tough drinking buddy kind of that just played really well .
Yes , in mike's mind this is of course . The scots are dwarves , the irish are the are men , the brits are elves and the Welsh are hobbits . I like living in this world .
Where Mike breaks up the English house into the classic fantasy . I don't know , I think I feel like the hobbits and the Germans are the orcs .
Yes , hey , we have German listeners . We like the Germans . They're not .
I was I was actually going to . I was actually going to correct you and say that no , the , the , the hobbits are irish um , yeah , but I like to think that welsh people are very short and tiny aren't you part welsh ?
yes , I am , you are not tight you're . You're tall . I don't understand . What is this ?
I , I'm actually , I'm actually everything in the english isles except scottish .
There you go so nice , nice nice yeah , so , but I mean I don't know uh to , to segue horribly uh , laura fraser playing a scott as a blacksmith . Did you guys know that one of the other blacksmiths in that scene where he's going around trying to get his armor fixed , one of them , is actually dubbed by alan tudyk ?
honestly , at this point , at this point in my life , I just assume that every voice I hear is alan tudyk , until the credits tell me otherwise even even if it's live action and you see the person's mouth move it could be alan tudyk .
You have no idea right , yeah , is that .
Is it an animal ? It's probably alan tudyk . He did play a chicken in a disney movie . So yeah , exactly , a dog barked on screen .
Of course I read this before I went and watched it again . So I went and watched it .
¶ Film Discussion and Ranking Fun
There's three blacksmiths in the scene before he goes and talks to Laura Fraser's character . It's not the first one and it's not the last one where he has extended conversation with William , has extended conversation with this third blacksmith , but I'm really sure it's the second blacksmith is Alan Tudyk's voice .
We'll show it on the Facebook group , this scene , and we'll see if people can pick out the Alan Tudyk . I mean , if it's the third one where he's having an extended conversation and it's all Alan Tudyk , that would be pretty amazing .
And better yet , if you know Alan Tudyk and he can weigh in on our Facebook , let us know if we're right or wrong , and that'd be great too .
Yes , he can join in on the fun which also shout out to one of our longtime listeners , emily , because we requested people to talk about like what's your fan question . She was like I don't have like a request or a question , I just want you guys to give Alan Tudyk his love , and so these flowers are for Alan Tudyk .
He's a leaf on the wind , we all know this , and so I really hope he hears this episode . Too soon .
Too soon .
Oh , it will always be too soon for wash . Another fun fact oh , paul bettany developed laryngitis because of all the shouting he did as chaucer that tracks . There's even parts in the movie where I'm like I feel like I can hear him getting laryngitis I got laryngitis just listening to him .
Yes , I can hear your vocal cords screaming at you right now he really does make those pronouncements and his delivery of intro-ing William just so amazing and you know what he sacrificed his vocal cords for us .
A couple other folks who gave us kind of some fan reactions said and Suzanne , let me know , she was one of the people who voted in our poll about , you know , picking out A Knight's Tale and she just loved the uniqueness of the film and how it meshed like the modern , like relevant timely , like music , clothing and like phrasing of the day and kind of it
just meshed so well together with that medieval setting . And then Sandrine , another voter , and she just says that this is such a quotable movie and it's why she loves it . And she likes to say that her answer when people ask dumb questions , her answer is usually it's called the Lance hello , which we've all done a time or two . Who amongst us has not ?
It's either that or you're a cotton-headed nitty-muggins for me .
If I had the secret bingo chart I could cross out the Mike references elf .
You probably have a Mike bingo at this point .
Like confusing actors , marvel references , elf quotes Six of the squares are , it says Mike . Quotes elf .
But they're all different quotes , they have to all be different .
They can't be the . You know it's funny . As I was trying to remember that line from this movie , I was like I don't remember that . It must have been a watt thing .
I don't I hear , like the captain america , I don't understand that reference um .
It's in the trailer , which , for the record , also includes a title card that says he will rock you , and that's amazing .
All I remember is the 30 second DVD intro roll that DVDs used to have , where it would be like blasting rock music on loop with B-roll of some of the jousting and the sword fighting and stuff and it would just loop if you didn't , and if the loop restarted you couldn't actually play the movie until the intro clip finished .
And then you like , if the loop restarted , you couldn't like actually , no , you had to wait till the intro clip finished and I got back to it and then you'd see the little highlight on the play button and you're like yeah , that's , that's one of my core memories , because this was like one of those first like dvd discs I think we got in our , our house
thank you to all of our wonderful voters , listeners , questione people who sent us them ding dang , dare queries .
We always appreciate it and we always love it . And now , robert , it is that time , it is that sparkly and wonderful time where we have to decide where this ends up on our listies . We'll meet you at the list . Lichtenstein , that's right , and that also means mike's gonna get to add something to his list today . So his list of five movies .
Yes , we now get to add a sixth . So , robert , let's start with Mike , our guest Sounds like a good idea . We're on your list , which , mike ? Just a reminder your list is number one ALF two , independence Day . Three , Toy Story . Four , 28 Days Later . And five , the unreleased Die Hard .
Yeah .
It sounds like there's like a bootleg version of Die Hard . It's interesting .
The unreleased . I also don't remember talk I is it bad that I don't remember talking about die hard with you guys . I don't think we did , we just lost the episode yeah , that's funny the episode was lost forever , forever . Okay , I think I have to put this movie probably between Toy Story and 28 Days Later .
It doesn't quite have the ideal career path , nostalgia for me that Toy Story had Like Toy Story is the reason that I went to film school . It's definitely one of those movies that if I see it on TV , I'm going to stop and I'm going to watch it . Um , because it's it's just that , it's just that fun , it's just that good , like it was .
Just I , just I'm going to say it , I freaking love that movie there . I said it , I said the thing . Roll credits .
All right , rob . What about you ? Where on your list does this end up ?
I think that I'm going to put this film at number 15 , because I would watch this movie over and over and over and over . I freaking love it so much so it is going to be between uh , furiosa and the mummy for me all right , and for me , I think I love this movie .
I love it a I think it's going to end up at number 27 between Alien and Independence Day . Love all these movies and it's getting harder and harder to figure out where the heck these go . There you have it Once again . Our lists are growing and we would love to see your lists .
Make sure you stop by our website at jammerfuncom to see our lists in that readable form instead of with our sweet , sweet voices , and you can share your list with us there .
You can also give us a little bit of a question or a comment to be read on the show , and you can also follow us on our social channels , which are all listed on that great jammerfun slash I-F-L-T-M . That's J-A-M-R dot . Fun slash I-F-L-T-M , for I freaking love that movie . All right , well , thanks for joining us again on this episode .
We look forward to having you back next week . In the meantime , please remember we all freaking love different movies , and that's a good thing . So , as Blockbuster used to say , be kind and rewind . As always , we encourage you to share with anyone who will listen what movies you freaking love . Bye , say bye , michael . Bye , bye , say bye Michael
¶ Country Road Reflections
.
Bye , michael . All right , we're going to wheel it back .
Wheel it back . Can you bring us home Country Road ? Wheel it back . Wheel it back . Can you bring us home Country Road Andrew ?
Sears , gotcha , gotcha , mark , almost heaven , west Virginia , blue Ridge Mountain , shenandoah River . Saying I know a river , life is old there , older than the trees , younger than the mountains , blowing by your knees Country road , take me home to the place .
I think we've reached the demonetization threshold I hey if you think that can demonetize us , I should be selling , you should be . I can not hear that song anymore without thinking of kingsman .
Oh , I can't tear without thinking of fallman oh , I can't hear without thinking of Fallout .
Or Alien Covenant .
Or Rainbow Road , rainbow Road .
Let's-a-go Rainbow Road . It's-a-me Mario .
Mario , so really we can hear it without thinking of a lot of things .
We are country road-pilled .