A Knight's Tale

A Knight's Tale (2001)

  • 58% of critics liked it
    (146 reviews)

  • 80% of users liked it
    (345,764 ratings)

This crowd-pleasing medieval adventure tale is very loosely inspired by Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales and mixes the anachronistic elements of modern-day rock music and colloquialisms with a period setting and characters. Heath Ledger stars as William Thatcher, a low-born 14th century… More

Play Trailer

PG-13,
Directed By
Written By
Brian Helgeland, Curtis Hanson
Genres
Drama, Action & Adventure, Romance
In Theaters
May 11, 2001 Wide
Columbia Pictures

Critic Reviews

  • Geoff Andrew, Time Out

    Whipping along at speed, with elaborate camera movements and rousing speeches, this knows how to engage a crowd. It's corny, of course, but a guilty pleasure: romantic, diverting, with mildly amusing modern gags.

  • Peter Rainer, New York Magazine

    Instead of pulling young audiences imaginatively back into the past, A Knight's Tale cheapens the process by demonstrating that there's no essential difference between then and now.

  • Rita Kempley, Washington Post

    The movie promises to rock you, and much of the time it does.

  • Richard Schickel, TIME Magazine

    The result is half Python, half Ivanhoe -- and not as much fun as either.

  • David Edelstein, Slate

    You might find yourself smiling and laughing all the way through it.

Read all 19 critic reviews

See more critic ratings and reviews on Rotten Tomatoes

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

Featured Audience Ratings

  • jay n


    Okay spoof of medieval movies but what starts out as a jaunty adventure takes far too long to finish up.

  • Wildaly M


    Ledger didn't rock me but it's still a good, enjoyable movie. Love the soundtrack.

  • Universal D


    Medieval times revamped with a late '70's rock 'n roll/renaissance festival aesthetic, this is a charming, crowd-pleasing dream of the Middle Ages w/o all that dirty, grimy, plague-infested filthiness the times warranted. Enjoy the hedonism or get out of the way. And… More

  • Melvin W


    Prince Edward: Your men love you. If I knew nothing else about you, that would be enough.  "He didn't make the rules. He was born to break them." A Knight's Tale is a cool and fun ride through the Medieval time period with a classic rock soundtrack. I honestly… More

  • Dead A


    Oh Heath Ledger, you were so good in here. I seriously felt bad when watching this. This was awesome. He was just fantastic. R.I.P Heath Ledger :(

Read all 20 featured audience ratings

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Trailers & Clips