| | | He Will Rock You.
Features: DVD, Widescreen, Aspect Ratio 2.35:1, Dolby Digital (5.1), English, Subtitled, French, Spanish, Dubbed & Subtitled
The 14th century takes a rocking new twist in this extended cut of A Knight's Tale, with over ten minutes of never-before-seen footage! The heroic action-packed adventure features an all-star cast, including Heath Ledger (Lords of Dogtown, The Patriot), Paul Bettany (Wimbledon, Master and Commander), and Shannyn Sossamon (Rules of Attraction) plus all the original special features including: 11 featurettes, a making-of special, and more!Ledger stars as William Thatcher, a peasant squire who breaks all the rules when he passes himself off as a nobleman and takes the jousting world by storm. The only thing standing between William and his dream of becoming the world Champion is bad boy Count Adhemar. When the two rivals go lance to lance at the world finals to determine who will be named the ultimate champion, you'd better arm yourself and hang on tight for the thrill ride of you're life!
"Savvy without being smug...and funny without slipping into over-the-top goofiness, this is a 14th-century good time." Desson Thomson, The Washington Post
"...witty, fresh and fun." Gemma Files, Film.com
"Smart, wry and awesome, all at once." Gregory Weinkauf, New Times
"...maintains a joie de vivre that's surprisingly refreshing." Kim Morgan, Portland Oregonian
"Spectacular!" The Wall Street Journal
Editor's Note
In the Middle Ages, before television or professional sports, there is only one form of competition to separate the men from the boys: jousting tournaments. William Thatcher (Heath Ledger), a poor and humble squire, has always dreamed of proving himself worthy as a knight. When he gets a lucky chance--seeing an opportunity to disguise himself in the identity of a knight--William decides to maintain the illusion for as long as possible. He is aided by his friends Wat, Roland, and Geoffrey Chaucer--a writer with a knack for forging official papers. Under his new title, Sir Ulrich of Liechtenstein, William wins tournaments and receives monetary awards. However, the only way for William to prove himself as truly noble is to beat out all of his enemies, including the arrogant and undefeated Count Adhemar (Rufus Sewell), in a series of jousts. Once he does so, William will reveal his his true identity. Writer-director Brian Helgeland creates a unique blend of rousing adventure, comedy, and modern sensibility in A KNIGHT'S TALE, giving a contemporary make-over to the medieval genre with a soundtrack that includes hit songs from Queen, David Bowie, Sly & The Family Stone, and Thin Lizzy.
| Features | HBO Making-Of Special | | 11 Behind-The-Scenes Featurettes | | Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound | | Audio: French Dolby Digital Stereo | | Audio: Spanish, Portugese Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound | | Dubbed: French, Spanish, Portugese | | Interactive Menus | | Music Video | | Over 10 Minutes Of Additional Footage | | Scene Selection | | Subtitles: English, French, Spanish, Portugese |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Sony Pictures |
| Release Date: 5/23/2006 |
| Running Time: 144 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2001 | | Catalog ID: 10811 | | UPC: 00043396108110 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English [CC], English, French Dubbed, Portuguese Dubbed, Spanish Dubbed | | Available Subtitles: English, French, Portuguese, Spanish | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35:1 |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Nominee (2002) | | | MTV Movie Award, Heath Ledger, Shannyn Sossamon, Best Kiss | | | MTV Movie Award, Heath Ledger, Shannyn Sossamon, Best Musical Sequence | | | MTV Movie Award, Shannyn Sossamon, Breakthrough Female Performance |
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| | Professional Reviews | Rolling Stone
"...It's dazzling....And fun..." 05/24/2001 p.92Box Office
"...A KNIGHT'S TALE delights in comparisons to present-day sport....[Bettany] is especially delightful..." 06/01/2001 p.55 New York Times
"...An impressive ensemble; there aren't many movies in which the actors use their voices so well, making each line reading memorable..." 05/11/2001 p.E16 USA Today
"...[Bettany's] silver-tongued exaggerations of the jousting jock's brave deeds and mighty stature before each match are great fun..." 05/11/2001 p.9E Sight and Sound
"...Sometimes great fun....Heath Ledger does handsome and sincere well..." 09/01/2001 p.48-9 Total Film
"...The easy charm of Ledger and the chemistry with his buddies make the training scenes a treat..." 09/01/2001 p.92 Chicago Sun-Times
"...There are many fearsome jousting matches in the movie....The movie has an innocence and charm that grow on you....A KNIGHT'S TALE is whimsical, silly and romantic..." 05/11/2001 p.29 Chicago Sun-Times 8 of 10
It is possible, I suppose, to object when the audience at a 15th century jousting match begins to sing Queen's "We Will Rock You" and follows it with the wave. I laughed. I smiled, in fact, all through Brian Helgeland's "A Knight's Tale," which tells the story of a low-born serf who impersonates a knight, becomes a jousting champion and dares to court the daughter of a nobleman...Some will say the movie breaks tradition by telling a medieval story with a soundtrack of classic rock. They might as well argue it breaks the rules by setting a 1970s rock opera in the Middle Ages. To them I advise: Who cares? A few days after seeing this movie, I saw Baz Luhrmann's "Moulin Rouge," which was selected to open the Cannes Film Festival despite being set in 1900 and beginning with the hero singing "The Sound of Music." In the case of "A Knight's Tale," Helgeland has pointed out that an orchestral score would be equally anachronistic, since orchestras hadn't been invented in the 1400s. For that matter, neither had movies. - Roger Ebert
Reel.com 6 of 10
You'll experience three distinct emotions while watching A Knight's Tale: disbelief, delight, and disappointment. The first sensation arrives early, as we see a huge crowd of authentic-looking 14th-century jousting spectators carry on like Oakland Raiders fans, doing the wave and stomping their feet in unison to the booming chords of Queen's "We Will Rock You." The camera even zooms in on a group of tunic-clad trumpeters, as though Freddie Mercury's voice was bellowing out of their horns. It's a moment of stupefying absurdity, one of the most bizarre juxtapositions of medieval and modern culture since Ed Harris led a band of armor-clad biker punks in Knightriders...Add the predicable, overlong showdown at the "European Knights' World Jousting Championships" -- not to be confused with the Crusaders' Saracen-Slaughtering Playoffs or the Vikings' All-Scandinavia Looting and Pillaging Cup -- and what was originally a laughable fiasco, then a rousing adventure, becomes just another muddled disappointment. - Tor Thorsen
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