DC ROCK CLUB
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Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Heath Ledger RIP

Well, that's too bad. A good actor who seemed like a nice enough dude.

I always though A Knight's Tale was a pretty clever movie. Loosely based on a story from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, the plot follows a young commoner who pretends to be a nobleman, as he competes in--and wins--various jousting competitions. The film cleverly, and deliberately, inserts a number of historical anachronisms into the plot, with a classic rock flavor. In one instance, the crowd at a jousting contest starts doing the handclaps from Queen's "We Will Rock You." I thought the best scene of the movie was when Ledger's character bumbles his way into a post-tournament feast. He is attempting to win the hand of a beautiful princess when his evil adversary puts him on the spot and asks him to lead the dinner party in "a dance from [his] homeland." What follows is a hastily improvised minuet-type thing that devolves into everyone disco dancing to David Bowie's "Golden Years":



It goes without saying that his princess was impressed.

In addition to Queen and Bowie, there's also some Thin Lizzy, Sly and the Family Stone, War, and other good 1970s shit on the soundtrack. So put a Knight's Tale in your Netflix queue in honor of young Heath, you won't be disappointed.

6 comments:

Jon said...

"...Queen and Bowie, there's also some Thin Lizzy..."

Now, THAT'S my brand...

Potsy said...

well done. I never saw that flick, but it looks better than I would have imagined. Who is that Lisa Bonet - Angelina Jolie princess? I like those chicks that look a tad bit strung out/half dead.

Also, I happened to click on one of the Youtube videos that followed your clip. I thought it would have some relevance to the one you posted, but there was no relevance. I'm not sure how Youtube categorizes things. It's definitely not a "if you liked A Knight's Tale, you'll love Monty Python's Holy Grail." Instead, you get a video clip of a bunch of Italians in a room playing Charades (I think). As far as I can tell it has nothing to do with a Knight's Tale (which I admit I've never seen). I thought charades was the type of game that broke the language barrier. But again, I was wrong. My best guesses were as follows: "Girl who is too warm.... girl trying to dry her fingernails.... girls is no longer warm but may have farted and needs to leave the area immediately." Charade indeed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7qsQDtifj0

You failed to mention "Eye Conqueror" - Third Eye Blind, track 13 off the soundtrack. A glaring omission.

Jimbromski said...

I deliberately left off the Third Eye Blind mention. Ledger's gone, hasn't his family suffered enough?

Anonymous said...

Heath sings in 10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU, so I may honor his rock heritage and watch that. A KNIGHT'S TALE is good, too.

So sad.

Jimbromski said...

I need to see "10 Things", I'm a sucker for teen movies

Anonymous said...

10 THINGS is very good. It's based on THE TAMING OF THE SHREW so it's practically a classic.