In this week’s episode of the Film After 11 podcast (remember, we changed the title of the show), I take my son Thomas on a journey back to Medieval times for the rollicking adventure of A Knight’s Tale. Clever boy, he picked up right away that something might be amiss as soon as a rock song started playing on the soundtrack. Honestly, though, what music could possibly be more appropriate for this story than Queen?
A Knight’s Tale used to play regularly on cable. Maybe it still even does? I’ve seen it a bunch of times and it remains plenty of fun. Even at so young an age of just 22, poor Heath Ledger had what felt like an effortless leading man charisma. He would no doubt have had a long and prosperous career if not taken so cruelly by a drug overdose a few years after this.
| Title: | A Knight’s Tale |
| Year of Release: | 2001 |
| Director: | Brian Helgeland |
| Watched On: | Fandango at Home |
| Also Available On: | 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Blu-ray BBC America Tubi Various VOD rental and purchase platforms |
Video Streaming
Sony Pictures released A Knight’s Tale on Blu-ray in 2006, during the earliest and most troubled days for that format. The Blu-ray was of mediocre quality, recycling a video master from the studio’s prior SuperBit DVD, squeezed onto a single-layer 25gb disc burdened with space-hogging uncompressed PCM audio. While it would eventually get better, Blu-ray was simply not capable of doing well with those conditions at the time. The transfer also had noticeable problems with edge enhancement, contrast boosting, and some dirt and grit on the film elements. Poor compression then left grain in the picture looking extremely noisy, sometimes even pixelated. All in all, it was watchable, but the movie deserved better.
Nearly two decades would pass before the studio finally remastered the movie for a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release in 2025. Unfortunately, it was only offered in a limited SteelBook edition that sold out quickly and is no longer available for anything approaching a reasonable price. I missed out on that, hopeful that Sony might eventually reissue the 4K disc in regular packaging. I’m still waiting for that to happen.
In the meantime, I went to rent the movie from Fandango at Home, only to pleasantly find the 4K streaming edition available on sale for just $5, only a dollar more than the rental. How could I refuse that? As such, I now own the movie digitally.
I wouldn’t necessarily call the 4K remaster a revelation, but it certainly looks better and more stable than the old Blu-ray. Film grain is much better resolved and tightly controlled. Gone are both the artificial sharpening and all the dirt on the print. (I assume this version was scanned from the camera negative.) Even compressed for streaming, the picture has few to no distracting artifacts.
That said, A Knight’s Tale was shot on the Super 35 film format, and although I don’t believe it had a full Digital Intermediate in 2001, the movie includes a considerable number of digital effects, some of them subtle (such as wire and safety mat removal during stunts), and all those shots would have been composited at 2K resolution or less. Even in scenes without visual effects work, the 2.39:1 image is only moderately sharp and rarely appears to have 4K worth of detail.
Colors are pretty good, perhaps a little richer than the Blu-ray, but contrast is a bit flat and the HDR grade is nothing to write home about. The Blu-ray’s clipping of highlight details has been rectified, but those highlights rarely look to exceed Standard Dynamic Range, at least not in this streaming copy.
Those quibbles noted, this 4K edition is a worthy improvement over the Blu-ray and I’m glad to have it.
The movie’s soundtrack has been remixed for Dolby Atmos. The track has some satisfying bass action in the score and songs, and nice dynamic range from clanging swords to tromping horse hooves. Surround activity is immersive and sound effects are often steered with pinpoint precision. That being said, is the Atmos substantively better than the PCM 5.1 on the Blu-ray? Not especially. This isn’t the type of movie that calls for sounds from overhead, beyond some ambience and the noise of crowds cheering from the stands, both of which already upmixed well from 5.1.
The Blu-ray had no bonus features, so I feel no disappointment that the digital copy doesn’t either. However, the 4K physical media release ported an audio commentary and handful of other items from older DVD editions, plus dug up some additional deleted scenes and a gag reel.
Related
- Alan Tudyk
- Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004) – Film at 11 Podcast
- Firefly (2002)
- Serenity (2005) – Film at 11 Podcast
- Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)
- Rufus Sewell
Note: Screenshots on this page were taken from the 2006 Blu-ray edition of the film and are used for illustration purposes only.
The Video File Blog 
Saw this one in the theatre, as an impressionable 17-year old. This was my introduction to Heath Ledger, and I remember thinking ‘How does a complete unknown get to headline a major movie?’, haha. I had apparently missed his lovely turn in ’10 Things I Hate About You’ three years prior. I also remember Ledger not immediately capitalizing on the phenomenal promise he showed here, with a few follow-up duds like ‘The Sin Eater’ and ‘The Brothers Grimm’ (that I quite liked, though). But he came back in full force with ‘Brokeback Mountain’ (hasn’t aged a day, perfect movie). I was in Sweden, doing my Erasmus, in January 2008, when I first saw the first ‘Dark Knight’ trailer. The only Joker glimpses are Ledger stumbling around on the street after his truck had flipped, and his ‘WHY SO SERIOUSSS’ quote. Chills. Loved it. The backlash when his casting was announced in late 2006 (or early 2007) was IMMENSE. People went nuts. I had never heard of Nolan at that point in time (had missed all his movies, even ‘Batman Begins’), but I remember thinking “Hm. Bold choice. But Ledger is fearless. He showed as much in Brokeback. This could be a disaster of epic proportions, or it could be awesome.” And then he passed away. Quite the shock. And regardless of how one feels about ‘The Dark Knight’ (Josh is not the biggest fan), I will always cherish Heath Ledger’s Joker performance. He seems so vibrant, so alive. He seems to be having so much fun. Nolan confirmed as much, Ledger was skateboarding around the set between takes, he wasn’t depressed or ‘in too deep’ with his portrayal. What a loss. Great thespian. He’d still only be 47 today. Taking into account pensioners like the Arnies, the Fords, the Stallones, he could have had at least 4 or 5 decades more of amazing performances. What a loss for us, for the craft, but most importantly, for his family. His daughter is 21 now. She only knew her father for 3 years.
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I like The Dark Knight well enough (though it’s a bit overrated). It’s The Dark Knight Rises I think is total garbage.
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Haha. Even ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ took “some” effort and skill to make. I can’t even make a 5-minute silent short featuring two actors on a barren set, so who am I to call a movie ‘total garbage’? 😉 But yeah, it’s definitely the worst of the TDK trilogy, and probably the worst of Nolan’s career (although I tend to dislike Interstellar and TENET more, just because I don’t understand them. I do at least understand ‘TDKR’).
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