With all the time we’ve had during the quarantine has been getting a chance to watch a lot of classic movies which are available on the different streaming services. After having watched the Heath Ledger classic “A Knight’s Tale,” I have come to a conclusion.
Almost all movies are really sports movies, we just have to look a little to see it. Every good sports movie has someone to cheer for, someone to cheer against, some sort of underdog tale where our hero has to overcome an obstacle and the “chill” moments when you feel so invested in the hero’s success that you get chills.
I get it, there really is a sports feel to the movie with the jousting tournaments and the winners versus losers element of the film. We have the true underdog story of William Thatcher and his band of friends that accompany him on their journey to “change his stars”. You can easily imagine William as an undersized football player or small school basketball player aspiring to play on the NBA,
We also have a clear villain to cheer against with Count Adhemar, who is easy to hate from the first scene until the end. You know someone is a scumbag when you are happy to see him get crushed in the final scene. Here you can easily imagine Adhemar playing for the Yankees or Patriots and fitting right in with their evil empire reputations.
We also have a strong supporting cast with Williams friends Roland and Wat who have been with him from the beginning. Geoffrey Chaucer Chaucer joins the team and provides a great deal of knowledge about the rules of the game. And Kate the plucky blacksmith who reminds us that women can accomplish anything men can do by conquering the chauvinism of the time. So we have a great supporting cast of great players coming off the bench to allow the hero to have his moment in the sun.
And just like a lot of great sports movies (like Bull Durham or Hoosiers) we have the obligatory love interest in the beautiful Jocelyn who puts William to the test. He proves his love and loyalty through a few trials and tribulations to emerge as a happy couple destined to live happily ever after. Now I personally can usually live without the love story aspect of most sports movies but it clearly fits the mold of great sports movies.
When it’s all said and done, “A Knight’s Tale”, is a great sports movie. Next time you turn on Netflix or Prime look for a movie that you might not think of as a sports movie and try this simple experiment.
All movies are sports movies!
Comments? Questions? Suggestions?
