Barnes & Noble

Erstwhile teen heartthrob Heath Ledger finally attains stardom as the charismatic leading man of A Knight's Tale, a breezy, briskly paced romp that chronicles the hilarious misadventures of an ersatz nobleman and his band of merry men. Ledger plays a lowly squire who assumes the identity of a recently deceased knight in hopes of competing in a lavish tournament. Mark Addy lends support as a skeptical fellow squire, while Shannyn Sossamon brightens the screen as a beautiful princess, and Rufus Sewell shows suave style as a cruel competitor. Paul Bettany steals many scenes in an absolutely first-rate turn as a garrulous, unknown writer by the name of Geoffrey Chaucer, who forges documents attesting to Ledger's nobility and thus embroils himself in the perilous scheme. Writer-director Brian Helgeland (Payback) employs a delightfully novel approach in the telling of this Tale by liberally sprinkling it with deliberate anachronisms: a tournament audience sings Queen's "We Will Rock You," for example, and the characters spice the King's English with 20th-century slang. Both Helgeland and Bettany discuss the rationale for this in their commentary for the DVD, which also includes an HBO "making of" documentary and a whopping 11 behind-the-scenes featurettes in addition to deleted scenes (introduced by Helgeland), production notes, music videos, web site links, and DVD-ROM content. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

This crowd-pleasing medieval adventure tale is very loosely inspired by Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales and mixes the anachronistic elements of modern-day rock music and colloquialisms with a period setting and characters. Heath Ledger stars as William Thatcher, a low-born 14th century squire who, in a fit of inspired spontaneity, replaces his deceased employer as the competitor at a jousting competition. Jousting is a pastime only permitted to knights, who are of noble birth, but Thatcher wins and decides to continue his new pursuits. With the help of his two fellow squire friends Wat and Roland (Alan Tudyk and Mark Addy) and none other than the gambling-addicted Geoffrey Chaucer (Paul Bettany), Thatcher has soon adopted a false identity and is winning one joust after another on his way to a championship in London. His victories inspire the affection of a female fan, Jocelyn (Shannyn Sossamon), and the ire of a competitor, Count Adehmar (Rufus Sewell), but Thatcher's ruse is threatened with exposure. A Knight's Tale is the sophomore directorial effort of acclaimed screenwriter Brian Helgeland, who won an Oscar for his work on L.A. Confidential (1997) and debuted behind the camera with the troubled production of Payback (1999). Karl Williams

Washington Post

Savvy without being smug, cute without being saccharin, and funny without slipping into over-the-top goofiness, this is a 14th-century good time. Desson Howe

Product Details

• UPC: 043396094147
• Source: SONY PICTURES
• Region Code: 1
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Time: 2:13:00
• Sales Rank: 59,026

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• Knight's Tale / First Knight

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