The Green Knight

Sir Gawain is a young, headstrong knight at King Arthur's court who accepts a strange challenge from an enormous green stranger who tests a man's courage and honor. After a startling encounter, Gawain leaves home with a year to live up to his promise and prove himself, traveling through bleak countryside and uncanny encounters that push his convictions. The film follows his path to the appointed meeting, showing how pride, fear, desire, and doubt color every choice he makes. Along the way he meets figures who complicate his sense of duty, and the story stays more concerned with mood and moral pressure than with tidy adventure beats or clear answers.

Released in 2021, the film was written and directed by David Lowery and draws on the medieval poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Dev Patel leads a cast that includes Alicia Vikander, Joel Edgerton, Sarita Choudhury, and Sean Harris, and the production favors practical sets and painterly cinematography over gloss.

It opened in theaters with a relatively limited run and appealed mainly to arthouse audiences, so it didn't play like a mainstream blockbuster. Its commercial performance was modest, with steady interest from cinephiles rather than mass-market grosses.

Visually striking moments, like the towering green challenger and the ritualized beheading game, have stuck in viewers' minds, and the film's ambiguous ending has become a frequent topic online and in film discussions. Its stylistic risks helped push conversations about what modern mythmaking can look like on screen and encouraged interest in slower, more symbolic fantasy among critics and fans.

Critical response was mixed to positive, reflected in a roughly 6.6/10 user vote average. Reviewers praised the performances, atmosphere, and cinematography, while some viewers found the pacing slow and the symbolism oblique. Major themes include honor, mortality, the cost of reputation, and the clash between youthful bravado and hard consequences.