The Green Knight
In 2017, when IMAGE Journal still owned and operated the Arts & Faith website, its film issue came with a photo from David Lowery’s A Ghost Story on the cover. Like The Green Knight, that film polarized Arts & Faith members. Lowery’s quiet films are not exactly non-narrative, but they do show far more than they tell. And while Christians can and do like films for any number of reasons, ambiguity can make them skittish. Rarely does formal artistry alone tend to win the hearts of souls. Maybe the fact that so many Christians first encountered the 14th-century poem on which the film is based through a translation by J.R.R. Tolkien makes the film feel more orthodox and safe than it might otherwise. The surface of the narrative, about how King Arthur’s knights are cajoled into risking their mortality on a seemingly unlosable wager might tempt readers to interpret the story as a cautionary tale rather than a triumphal one. And Christians — especially modern American ones — like their heroes to be triumphant. So the question arises: over what (or who), if anything, does Gwain triumph? Gawain’s reaction to the wager is a product of a chivalric system that sees honoring one’s vow as more important than preserving one’s life, leaving little room for distinctions between mortal and venial sins and none at all for justifiable ones. In this way, The Green Knight is similar to another film on this year’s list, Asghar Farhadi’s A Hero. Both seem more aware of the demands that a rigorous system of values places on its practitioners and sees a bit of horror in the fidelity of the faithful. — Kenneth R. Morefield
Arts & Faith Lists:
2021 Arts & Faith Ecumenical Jury — #1