Ira Bloomgarden

Were I still to be teaching Medieval Literature I would certainly alert my students, and perhaps even incorporate it. As a film, it works quite well; the middle distance perspective keeps the viewer from going all in the characters, yet produces enough connection for affect. Using distance shots of the castles avoids the sort of fairy tale like effect of Tolkien/Martin films. Fine historical sense: the mostly rough clothes, the gaudiness of the finer ware. Definitely a source for the cinematic feel of the time. So what is missing? Consider a well known scene from Romance: Sir Gawain awakes after a rough night, for the following morning he is to receive a killing blow from a monstrous giant. But as he stirs from his sleep he see his host's wife enter, smiling, lovely, and his heart rises. We can't see the chamber, and the accompanying pictures are crude, but we know what Gawain feels. A fictitious character in an unfamiliar situation yet known to us as we never know this movie's characters. So Scott's film is a masterpiece of a sort, but not quite a work of art. Though a treasure.