A Knights Tale - Entertaining, Mainstream Hollywood Film - Movie Review Example

Prof’s Gender and A Knights Tale Gender is obviously a construct that is present in every cultural production ever made – everyone expresses gender of some sort, and some actively construct or act against gender in their daily lives. A Knights Tale, a 2001 featuring Heath Ledger, is an incredibly straightforward text that portrays many of the gender stereotypes that are so common in films and television in America. Though it does contain some features which seem to work against gender stereotypes, they are somewhat obvious as such, almost reinforcing the gender stereotype by making a character or event a strange exception to that stereotype. One of the complicating factors is that this film is a historical film (of sorts) and spends much of its energy on authenticity of certain features (such as the designs of armor or the way people train and practice for tournaments). This could complicate an analysis, leaving the viewer to question whether the film is simply reinforcing current attitudes or attempting to reference older ones. However, though this could theoretically be an issue with the structure of the film, on viewing it dispels any concerns on this front. It is immediately obvious that this is a cultural text meant to be viewed from the constructs of our own modern culture, with everything from dress to music being entirely modern. The crowd even sings along to the Queen song “We Will Rock You”: this is absolutely a modern film about modern culture clothed in the trappings of a medieval story. Thus it represents many of the gendered stereotypes and constructs that are so common in our society. The most basic reading of this film is a relatively simple, common story. A man (William, played by Heath Ledger) wants to win glory and the heart of a woman, so he engages in bouts of physical combat to do so. He eventually wins both by demonstrating his prowess in physical and martial tasks, showing that he is indeed better than his opponents and thus more worthy of breeding and other rights and privileges. On top of this basic analysis there is a heavy element of class. William is born a commoner, but wants to become a knight. He takes an opportunity presented to him when his former master dies, leaving his armor and so forth available to him. He then pretends to be a knight, forges acts of nobility, and participates in games. This text thus argues a relatively populist message, saying that nobility is simply a construct of people who have seized power, and nothing more. William, despite being a commoner, is able to overcome his noble competitors, showing that there is nothing inherently different of people from different classes, but that those differences are instead constructed by one class to keep the other in subservient positions. At no point is any of this content presented with any subtlety: lines such as “how did they become noble in the first place? They took it” make it impossible for the audience to misunderstand the class implications. The target audience for this movie seems to be fairly broad. Judging from a trailer released before the film, it appears to mainly be targeting young (18-49) men and women. To attract women as a target audience it plays heavily on the attractiveness of the leading actor, Heath Ledger, and the draws of spectacle such as dancing and beautiful costumes. The violence portrayed in the film though, and its heavily masculine air, would seem to be tempting to young male audiences. Finally, the film has some tongue in cheek humor presented in the advertisement, which would presumably serve as a draw to both (Knights Tale Trailer). This film seems in every way to be the prototypical Hollywood attempted blockbuster, trying to draw in large audiences from both genders in a wide age range. This film plays heavily on masculine stereotypes and constructs. The men in this film almost universally want to engage in some sort of martial fighting, and the very nature of the film judges them on their ability to do so well. Men are typically garrulous, sometimes clumsy, and usually willing to put women down. Women, on the other hand, are presented in ways that typically fight their stereotypes. There are two main female characters in the film, a blacksmith and a noble woman. The noble woman is the more prototypical: she is the object of men’s sexual desire dresses, quite revealingly, fits many hegemonic views of beauty and so forth. She is also fickle and demanding: at one point she demands that William lose a tournament to demonstrate his love for her (because winning would be for his own personal glory), only to reverse her position in a moment and demand that he then win the tournament for her. This is exactly the kind of emotional behavior one is trained to expect from women by hegemonic constructs of their features and nature. Furthermore, she is relatively passive, with most of her choices involving favoring a certain man over another, and watching men’s exploits from the audience. There are, however, moments that seem to contradict typical constructions of women. The noble woman, for instance, is proud and able to go tete a tete with any man in the film verbally, not being cowed by either knights or priests or anyone else. This shows a degree of power that somewhat contradicts stereotypes (though again, not very strongly). Furthermore, the blacksmith, the other main female character, breaks many stereotypes of women. She is able to make her own way in the world, bargain aggressively to meet her own requirements and so forth. She shows a great deal of activity, and is rarely passive throughout the course of the film, making her own way rather than waiting for opportunity to fall into her lap. Furthermore, she is incredibly talented in a profession that is usually dominated by men. She is able to make armor that is both lighter and stronger than any of her competitors, giving her patron, William, a decided advantage against his opponents. However, the film seems to constantly need to remark on how novel she is in being able to do all of these things, both through character’s dialogue (which is constantly amazed at her abilities) and through the fact that she is so exceptional in being the only woman presented in this light. Thus she almost serves to reinforce rather than minimize gender stereotypes, by being an “exception that proves the rule.” She is novel precisely because she is not what women are expected to be – much like a man who wears a dress, she certainly defies gender stereotypes, but not necessarily in a way that leads to actually undermining them. Finally, Heather Ledger is occasionally presented as a sex symbol (there are many shots of him shirtless tending to his wounds and so forth) but he is rarely the object of sexual desire in the film itself – despite the film trying to attract women through is good looks, the entire course of the film is still largely shown through his eyes, and the object of his sexual desire is clearly the forefront of the narrative, with him being an after note. A Knights Tale is an entertaining, mainstream Hollywood film. And as such it does very little to undermine, and a great deal to prop up, hegemonic features of the gender layout of American culture. This film is entirely without subtlety, and its rare instances of trying to undermine gender norms actually serve to reinforce them a little bit extra. Works Cited "A Knights Tale Trailer." YouTube. YouTube, 06 Feb. 2009. Web. 23 July 2012. . A Knights Tale. By Brian Helgeland. Dir. Brian Helgeland. Prod. Brian Helgeland. 20th Century Fox Film Corp. and Sony Pictures Entertainment, 2001 Read More