Knight's Tale (DVD)

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Surely, you joust. Knights rocking out?

You have to admire artists who take risks. In just his second directorial outing, Brian Helgeland took one whale of a chance by opting to infuse a period piece set in the 14th century with a boatload of anachronisms—including a 1970s rock 'n' roll score and costuming that was partly inspired by the Rolling Stones 1972 tour, as well as, apparently, the elegant Audrey Hepburn.

In the opening scene, "A Knight's Tale" explodes on the screen with a jousting contest enlivened by the raucous original version of "We Will Rock You," performed by Queen. As the music plays on, medieval peasants clap, stomp, and dance in modern fashion, even doing the "wave," as if they were spectators at a contemporary sporting event. From that initial moment, you'll know almost instantly if you're going to love this quirky film, or hate it.

But a word of warning to any Chaucer scholars out there. The Bard of Canterbury gets a make-over as one of two markedly anachronistic characters in this otherwise standard medieval tale of jousting knights and would-be nobility. "Geoff" (Paul Bettany) appears butt-naked on more than one occasion, completely stripped down by a worldly pardoner who seems to have doubled as the "muscle" in charge of collecting gambling debts. It's not the nudity that stands out, of course, but the loan-shark treatment and the contemporary spin Chaucer puts on his new job as herald, the one who's to announce his knight at every tournament. While the rest of the heralds conform to the medieval practice of simply announcing their knight's lineage, Chaucer can't resist the captive audience and the challenge to his powers of imagination and wordsmanship. With great flair, he introduces Sir Ulrich of Lichtenstein (Heath Ledger)— who's really the commoner Will Thatcher posing as a knight after the nobleman he was serving died, leaving the squires without income or food—the way a Madison Square Garden promoter introduces a professional wrestler.

The other largely anachronistic character in "A Knight's Tale" is the Lady Jocelyn (Shannyn Sossamon), who looks and acts flat-out contemporary, dressing at times like Audrey Hepburn, with broad-banded lampshade-style hat and a black-and-white dress that looks as if it could have come from the wardrobe closet of "Breakfast at Tiffany's." Other times, she wears her hair like Cyndi Lauper circa 1987, crimped, streaked, and partially spiked in '80s punk style, with a gown that sports a plunging neckline and a side view of her breasts. She and Chaucer stand out the most as being contemporary characters who seem dropped, like Twain's "Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court," into an otherwise believable medieval scenario—which, along with the music, gives this a unique spin. On one of the many extras in this Extended Cut, Sossamon says, "I forget I'm in a period film. Everyone's acting very modern" and cool. Cool people everywhere. And that's because Helgeland said he saw these knights who traveled from tournament to tournament as the medieval equivalent of today's rock stars, and devised a film that would treat them that way, and also make this period of history come alive for contemporary viewers. That, he certainly does—though when he abandons all pretexts of creating a portal into the Middle Ages and opts for a thoroughly modern dance scene, Helgeland pushes the anachronisms to the max. That will bother some, while (come on, relax) will find it the blend of humor and action that Helgeland intended.

Ledger turns in a decent performance as the commoner who takes up armor and lance first to provide a meal for himself and his friends, but then in order to act out the part of the knight that he always dreamed of becoming as a young boy. You can change your stars, he's determined to prove, and as Sir Ulrich, with Chaucer's help, Will becomes a bit of a populist hero. The plot isn't terribly complex, however. It's joust after joust, with interludes that are part romantic and part showcase for his goofy entourage, which includes Chaucer, the rotund and quick-witted Roland (Mark Addy), the dense and fiery Wat (Alan Tudyk), and a slightly anachronistic female blacksmith and armor-maker named Kate (Laura Fraser). The entire film was shot in the Czech republic, and while the subscript announces different locations for the jousting contests in France, if every "stadium" starts to look the same, it's because there were just two jousting sets—one for Rouen, France, and the other to represent London.