Knight film

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The knight film is a subgenre of the adventure film . He draws on motifs from the Arthurian epic and historical novels such as that of Walter Scott and deals with the themes of the courtly Middle Ages . Due to the high production values, many knight films can be counted among the equipment films.

Motifs

Often set in medieval England , Scotland or France , the knight film takes on historical themes in a popular way, such as the conflict between Anglo-Saxons and Normans , crusades or disputes about the succession to the throne. Against this background, the knight film relies on romantic, fairytale-like stories as well as opulent equipment and backdrops. Scenes with high show values ​​such as sword fights, knight tournaments , feasts and minnigious entanglements are typical for the knight film. The heroes stand for “knightly” virtues such as kindness, bravery and sincerity and use an often pathetic, popularizing language based on Shakespeare's English.

history

Bolton Castle was used as the filming location for Ivanhoe - The Black Knight

American film studios were already making use of medieval motifs at the time of silent films . Douglas Fairbanks managed a formative portrayal of the noble outlaw in Robin Hood (1922). The enormous effort paid off financially for the United Artists . Nevertheless, there were no further works even after the introduction of the sound film . It was Paramount's in- house director Cecil B. DeMille who brought the knight film back to the screen. In Kreuzritter (1935), the historical background was primarily used to effectively stage equipment and crowd scenes. More than a decade after the last silent film version, Robin Hood, King of the Vagabonds (1938) was remake. The Warner Bros. reached not only on the expensive three-color Technicolor process, but also on the popular screen couple Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland back. The efforts were rewarded with the Oscars for equipment, editing and music. The color film thus became the standard of the film genre. At the end of the war, the production of imitators also began. For legal reasons, Columbia introduced Robin Hood's son as the title hero in The Bandit and the Queen (1946) and Robin Hood's Retribution (1950). In addition, the distributors brought out Robin Hood's great love (1948) in cinecolor and Black Arrows (1948) in black and white, which came from independent producers and were intended for quick sale. The actor Burt Lancaster had set up his own production company in the meantime. With Der Rebell (1950) he showed his acrobatic skills in addition to his acting skills. For Warner Bros. it was the most successful film of the year. The color camera and the music received Oscar nominations. Universals Die goldene Horde (1951) and Columbias Der Rebörer (1954), in which Eastern peoples were among the opponents, left fewer traces .

At the end of the 1940s, Hollywood studios began to produce directly in England through subsidiaries. The 20th Century-Fox began the era of The Black Rose (1950). The main actor Tyrone Power last acted as an adventurer. Even Walt Disney took up this concept. His Robin Hood and his daring journeymen (1952) only came up with British actors. The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer with Ivanhoe, the black knight (1952) was able to book a great success. The film became the epitome of knight films and Robert Taylor became its star. The successor The Knights of the Round Table (1953) also triumphed with the new CinemaScope . However, the novel widescreen format could not prevent Prince Eisenherz (1954) from 20th Century-Fox, Der Talisman (1954) from Warner Bros., The Iron Knight of Falworth (1954) from Universal and The Black Prince (1955) from the Allied Artist no longer met the financial expectations of the film studios. The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer made one last unsuccessful attempt with Liebe, Tod und Teufel (1955). The same thing happened to the Paramount with Der Hofnarr (1956) in VistaVision with Danny Kaye in the role of the involuntary hero.

In the 1970s, Monty Python satirized the genre conventions excessively with The Knights of the Coconut . From the 1970s onwards, the theme of the knight film was taken in various directions, for example as a humorous consideration of aging heroes in Richard Lester's Robin and Marian (1976) or as a darkly archaic end-time vision in John Boorman's Excalibur (1981). Robert Bresson demythologized the genre in Lancelot, Knight of the Queen (1974) and adopted a laconic tone in acting and dramaturgy. Also Eric Rohmer approached in Perceval le Gallois (1978) the genre deconstructing and let his protagonists stage way in stressed simple Pappkulissen act.

Hollywood attempted a comeback of the genre in 1995 with The First Knight , but without lasting success. As a result, elements of the knight film were used in fantasy films ( Dragonheart , 1996; Game of Thrones , 2011 ff.) And also - placed in a prehistoric context - successfully used on television ( Hercules and Xena ). As a nostalgic reminiscence, parodic interpretations of the knight film are still popular, for example in (T) Raumschiff Surprise - Period 1 (2004) or in 1½ Knights - In Search of the Adorable Herzelinde (2008).

See also

literature

  • Georg Seeßlen : Adventure. History and mythology of the adventure film . 3. Revised and updated new edition. Schüren, Marburg 1996, (series: Basics of popular film), ISBN 3-89472-424-2