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Author Topic: A Knight's Tale  (Read 33397 times)

Sir Nate

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A Knight's Tale
« on: 2013-12-23, 23:23:29 »
Sir Ulrich Von Lichtenstein
Does A Knights Tale portray Sir Ulrich Well?
Considering He was a real knight with a love story involving letters and jousting, Did Movie do A good job At that at least?
I think it did.
Even though the Time period when ulrich would have lived is wrong, and The music Although old, Is inaccurate as well.
And Im sure there are Other Inaccuracy's that are to be mentioned.

I enjoy this movie and I think It does show what tournament life would have been like during that century.

P.s. The love scene in it can easily be switched or voiced over by some of Jokers lines from the Dark Knight. Hahaha.
« Last Edit: 2013-12-23, 23:24:31 by Sir Nate »
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Re: A Knight's Tale
« Reply #1 on: 2013-12-24, 00:01:59 »
You mean they didn't have David Bowie in the Middle Ages? I call shenanigans! Bowie is timeless. Really, though, if you want to get technical, the sweeping orchestral soundtrack you hear in most medieval-esque movies isn't accurate, either. ;)

I thought it was a rather fun movie. One of my favorites. I wouldn't put too much stock in the historicalness of it, but it has good entertainment value. The real Ulrich was an Austrian/German ministerialis who, like you mentioned, was around at a much earlier time. I always just kind of assumed William had heard the name somewhere before and just decided to take it up as his own for the tournaments. At least, that's the story I always went with. So it's not so much an account of Ulrich von Liechtenstein's achievements as it is of William Thatcher's achievements.

Also, I think at that time "Jocelyn" was still predominantly a masculine name, so I always kind of giggle a little at that. Guess it's along the lines of a boy named Sue. ;)
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Ian

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Re: A Knight's Tale
« Reply #2 on: 2013-12-24, 01:22:29 »
Remember in the movie that 'Sir Ulrich von Lichtenstein' is just the name he 'invented' for himself to sound noble.  I think they just randomly picked the name of an actual historic figure that sounded cool.  It has nothing to do with the actual Ulrich von Lichtenstein.  There are a couple historical facts in the movie.  There was indeed a Battle of Poitiers in the 14th century, Edward of Woodstock, the Black Prince (although he wasn't known as that until well after his death) was the prince of England at the time, and knights did indeed ride horses and joust!  Other than that, nothing in this movie is remotely historic.  That being said, I love this movie and watch it every time I see it on TV and I totally dig the sound track! 
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Sir James A

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Re: A Knight's Tale
« Reply #3 on: 2013-12-24, 03:33:05 »
If I remember right there's some info on the historical Von Lichtenstein in the "Knight of the Week" thread on here.

Sir Ian covered it well.

A Knight's Tale is one of my favorite movies; historically flawed by far, but it's "jedi on a t-rex fighting a knight riding godzilla" fun.
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Don Jorge

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Re: A Knight's Tale
« Reply #4 on: 2013-12-24, 04:18:37 »
I own my DVD and my wife's DVD and kept both incase one breaks. I love it that much!!!


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Thorsteinn

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Re: A Knight's Tale
« Reply #5 on: 2013-12-24, 05:23:10 »
It's pure mind candy. I love that flick. :)

On a side note: The love interest in the flick went to High School in my town. I have friends that were in her class. Said she was kinda stuck up.
« Last Edit: 2013-12-24, 05:30:21 by Thorsteinn »
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Sir Nate

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Re: A Knight's Tale
« Reply #6 on: 2013-12-24, 16:18:30 »
You mean they didn't have David Bowie in the Middle Ages? I call shenanigans! Bowie is timeless. Really, though, if you want to get technical, the sweeping orchestral soundtrack you hear in most medieval-esque movies isn't accurate, either. ;)

I thought it was a rather fun movie. One of my favorites. I wouldn't put too much stock in the historicalness of it, but it has good entertainment value. The real Ulrich was an Austrian/German ministerialis who, like you mentioned, was around at a much earlier time. I always just kind of assumed William had heard the name somewhere before and just decided to take it up as his own for the tournaments. At least, that's the story I always went with. So it's not so much an account of Ulrich von Liechtenstein's achievements as it is of William Thatcher's achievements.

Also, I think at that time "Jocelyn" was still predominantly a masculine name, so I always kind of giggle a little at that. Guess it's along the lines of a boy named Sue. ;)

It is A fun movie, I love the soundtrack. (I like the part when there in london and it plays the boys are back in town)
I always Thought that He took the name from the same place he got his first set of armor. He saw the Grave reading, sir Ulrich von lichtenstein, opens it up and gets some old armor.
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Aiden of Oreland

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Re: A Knight's Tale
« Reply #7 on: 2013-12-24, 16:29:06 »
Why did he hit on the princess and not her assistant? Or the black smith? I found both more attractive. Think about it, he would have won more, and wouldn't have lost "in the name of love". Also the Whole david bowie Labyrinth thing with the princess at the beginning of the movie was intersting. When he first sees her. I still enjoy the movie nevertheless.
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Sir James A

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Re: A Knight's Tale
« Reply #8 on: 2013-12-25, 03:51:03 »
Boys Are Back in Town = Thin Lizzy song

The armor is from Sir Ector, the knight who is jousting in the very beginning and then shites himself to death in between rounds.
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Aiden of Oreland

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Re: A Knight's Tale
« Reply #9 on: 2013-12-25, 18:57:02 »
The sad thing is, every time I turn on that movie I always just happen to turn it on to the seen where they meet the guy nude. EVERY TIME!
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Re: A Knight's Tale
« Reply #10 on: 2013-12-26, 13:44:52 »

I do love this movie. When I first saw it in the theater, I was rolling my eyes at every little nuance that they fudged, such as the music, the costuming, and the fact that they're not getting flogged for saying certain things outside of their station ;)

But I came to realize that the movie is no more or less "accurate" than just about any other movie out there. It's just that this one one is completely unapologetic about it, and has fun with it. The story itself is a lot of fun, so I like to pull the DVD out periodically and give it a spin.

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Sir James A

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Re: A Knight's Tale
« Reply #11 on: 2013-12-26, 19:58:57 »
Sir Edward, agreed. Part of the "success" rating of a Hollywood movie is how much income it generates; by leaving a broad target audience and not worrying about any of the historical details, to get a more modern style story - I think the movie succeeded in that. And if it gets people interested in renn fests, we can only hope they will seek out the sword fighters and jousters. Then we can draw them to the historical side. :D
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Sir Brian

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Re: A Knight's Tale
« Reply #12 on: 2013-12-27, 12:41:09 »
In an interview under the special features of the DVD, Brian Helgeland explained the reason he used contemporary music in the movie was to convey the concept that the main characters were like any younger generation regardless of the time they live insofar as they would like music that their parents would hate, they would dress differently than their previous generations, etc. – I personally think he captured that nuance very well.  :)
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Don Jorge

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Re: A Knight's Tale
« Reply #13 on: 2013-12-27, 14:07:16 »
Yeah, the movie doesn't take itself seriously and it has a great score! Considering how little directed attention for historical accuracy you still walk away from the movie wanting to go put armor on :)

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Re: A Knight's Tale
« Reply #14 on: 2013-12-27, 18:21:55 »
They use the rhythm loop from We Will Rock You before one of the jousts at the Pittsburgh RenFest. I wonder how many people actually get the reference to A Knight's Tale. ???
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So a Norman, a Saxon, and a Viking walk into England....