Myths and legends abound with humble blokes who endure the hero’s journey, overcoming the odds and coming out strong on the other side. They accomplish this due to their inherent goodness, honesty, and strength of character. The Green Knight takes place in a Camelot that removes the rosy glow of knighthood and reveals that there are no shortcuts to being the stuff of legends.
David Lowery’s atmospheric and surreal fantasy is loosely based on the Arthurian legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Our Gawain is a ne’er do well who spends his days drinking and shacking up with his mistress, Essel. On Christmas Day, he enters the court of King Arthur with no stories to tell. In his eagerness to impress the court and his King, Gawain accepts a challenge to play a game with the tree-like Green Knight and must travel to the Green Chapel in one year to complete his end of the bargain. Gawain tells Essel that, “I have plenty of time.” – a sentiment he lives out fully. Instead of preparing for his ordeal, he continues to spend his days carousing at the local drinking hole.
The day arrives and as he begins his journey, he fails to exhibit the five virtues of a knight: chivalry, honesty, courtesy, generosity, and piety. At each leg of the trip, he does the opposite of what he should do, inverting the hero’s journey into a scoundrel’s journey. He is stingy with beggars, opportunistic towards fair ladies, cruel to his helpers, and dishonest towards those who did him a good turn. Things go from bad to worse. In addition, he wears a green belt gifted to him that offers him protection from all harm. It’s a lovely but problematic gift, a manifestation of his cowardice and unknightly behavior.
He finally reaches the green chapel, humiliated and sniveling. He hasn’t reached greatness, and his time has run out. As waits for the final blow to land, Lowery launches into a 15-minute wordless montage of a possible future in which Gaiwan flees from this fate and returns home a celebrated hero without earning any such title. This path ensures the destruction of himself and his kingdom. Gaiwan sees this like a movie in his mind and finally decides to do the first right thing. Before kneeling for his death, he removes the green belt, breaking a stronghold and destroying an illusion of protection he had tied around himself.
At this lowest point, Gaiwan takes one right step, starting a new path that will most certainly lead somewhere better, if not in life than in death. Each day, each moment, we like Gaiwan have opportunities to choose wisely. We can’t control the future, but we can decide what kind of person we want to be. The fruit of the Spirit, like the virtues of a knight are hewn one day at a time, one step at a time.
“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Matthew 7:13-14
— Lindsey Dunn (2025)
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