The Green Knight: Genius Ending or Two Hours You'll Never Get Back?

Just Blane (00:00)
It is Parallel Frequencies. I'm Just Blane This is Coco. And we're out with the freqs in person today at one of our favorite local coffee shops, Land of a Thousand Hills.

Coco (00:12)
some of our favorite people working at the counter today. Yeah, is it a soda? It's a soda.

Just Blane (00:15)
This drink is wild.

It's a mocha fizz, so it's both. I came in here one day and I was like, you know what? I don't know if I want the soda fountain that they've got or if I want a coffee and she's like, oh, I got something for you. I got both. I'm like.

Coco (00:32)
I don't know if I'm brave enough to try it.

Thank you,

you so much for commenting. It is. I'd love to see what you guys have to say. I do. It is hot.

Just Blane (00:55)
It is popping, let me tell you that. And we had a lot going on all the way back to our Golden Girls. Somebody said, I love this username, the at I don't be Karen, rewatching the entire Golden Girls series was the first thing I did during the pandemic. See, that's another one of these instances where somebody gets emotionally attached. It's almost like we carry trauma with some of this stuff that we.

attached ourselves to during the pandemic.

Coco (01:25)
Yeah, for sure. Yeah, because I talked about me being in the hospital. You did, yeah. Watching Golden Girls and I'm pretty sure my twins still react to the theme song because they heard it so much in the womb. But that's, it's like comfort. I love to hear about your guys' comfort shows. What is your comfort show? You're like, I don't really want to something new. I don't really want to get into it, but I just need something that makes me feel good and comfy and cozy.

Just Blane (01:50)
Yeah, no, I love that. And then we got here ⁓ at John Doyle 1487. I love this because this is when we're talking about a league of their own and he says quote, because I believe I said it, I don't know that that matters, then goes on to say how much it actually matters and there's no resolution for the character if she didn't knock the ball out. Huh? And he's laughing. look, now listen.

Whether she knocked the ball out or not, I realize, doesn't matter to the story. But I wanted to say that I did think she knocked the ball out. That's all. That's all. Maybe I was trying to start a little controversy. I'm glad that at John Doyle caught that. More from that episode though. At belated reflections says, thanks so much for posting the never before seen interview with Gina Davis. It was very nice to see it for the first time.

I hope other people if you missed it we we intentionally did that we buried a And I don't mean buried because it was off. I mean like Secretly hid a Gina Davis interview exclusive in that episode that we talked about a league of their own Yeah, that was that was incredible. We didn't actually do that interview. It was

Coco (03:05)
Bex did that ⁓ and it was posted on Promise to Live. So I just want to point that out because it was getting that messages for Promise to Live.

Just Blane (03:14)
Yeah, and then here's another comment from that same episode. Somebody commented on the interview itself. ⁓ AtKindCountsDeb says, she is right and works to improve the issue. That's when Gina was talking about doing stuff for female roles and getting gender parity, gender equality, those kinds of things. Love those types of comments. That's incredible. We did get some questionable comments.

We won't read some of those. Actually though, I will go to this one because... We did get a couple here that people were ⁓ upset about and it was when we talked about the new adult Toff voice. And some people were like, what was wrong with the original? I don't know. I don't get into the who should be recast and why the original shouldn't be that...

That's not what I saying when we went through that story. I was just highlighting the fact that a blind voice actress got cast in that role. It didn't matter what role it was.

Coco (04:24)
I don't think there's any competition. I mean, I think it can be great that everybody who does the role is awesome.

Just Blane (04:30)
Yeah, I think so. think so. Let's see what else we got here from the freqs out there. you got corrected, Coco ⁓ Bart Simpson's voice actor. We were talking about that. I believe you said 10 year old Bart. It's eight year old Bart. Thank you freqs.

Coco (04:47)
a fact check on that one because I was under the impression it was 10 year old Bart and 8 year old Lisa.

Just Blane (04:54)
That might be it. We're gonna have to check because that's a...

Coco (04:57)
I'm

not saying you're wrong, I'm just saying I want clarification on that one.

Happy to be wrong. No problem. If I am wrong, I'll admit it, but I am not totally ⁓ sold on that yet because I believe it was 10 year old Bart and 8 year old Lisa. We'll get to fact checking that and Freaks, you want to help me out there? Let's do a bow.

Just Blane (05:22)
beyond something there I think you could be

Yeah, let's look into that. We'll look into

that and see. But here's where things got fun. And do you remember when I kind of went off the rails and talked about physical media versus the Mandela effect versus maybe it's corporations taking stuff out? Lots of comments flooded in about that. Ooh. At Jimmy H.S. H.S. says, yes, preach it.

Coco (05:49)
Yeah.

Just Blane (06:00)
If you own no physical media, you own nothing. Exactly, that's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. And then at KWTH says, I keep my physical media because they can't just reach in and remove something I've paid for and then try to gaslight me by saying buying isn't owning or whatever corporate bullshit they try to use. That's what it is. You're not actually buying a movie when you buy it digitally.

Coco (06:24)
Yeah.

No, I never felt very ⁓ good about it. I mean, it just feels like a snap of the finger, everything goes and it's gone forever. mean, who knows?

Just Blane (06:36)
They

could take it away though, that's the thing. Or they can change stuff. They could remove music because maybe the licensing has run out and they don't want pay for that no more. that's what I was saying with physical media and people, sure I do think the Mandela effect is real. think there's some... yeah. I think that's... But I think there, I know for a fact there are corporations and this last comment we're gonna read right here on Freaky Friday is one of the...

Coco (06:54)
We can talk about that for.

Just Blane (07:05)
worst examples of this. And at Tyrone Bruins My Films said Disney poorly digitally extended Darryl Hannah's hair and splash for Disney Plus to cover her butt. Because sure Disney now that's something that's that's a crown against humanity to cover up that beautiful. I remember.

Coco (07:28)
Oh my gosh, totally. I remember seeing her backside as a child, seeing that movie. I remember. I remember being like, something I probably wasn't supposed to see as a child.

Just Blane (07:36)
⁓ that's

And they covered it up though, digital. Now you can't get it. Unless you own the physical copy, you're not seeing Darryl Hannah's butt. And I'm telling you, that is an absolute crime against humanity, is it not?

Coco (07:47)
Such a

I guess so. I would.

Just Blane (07:56)
Who's got a better butt out there than Darryl Hannah? In her prom, you know what saying? Probably even today, I don't know. But let's go ahead and get into Feature Friday because what the hell is all in the front of us here?

Coco (08:01)
Yeah, could be.

show and tell today because we are talking about A24 the Green Knight and this movie slipped past me but I am a huge Arthurian legend fan. am one of the Sisterhood of Avalon. Avalon being the mythical island of healing in Arthurian legends. Morgan Le Fay. ⁓ I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed. So I brought my

books, Arthurian legends and myths. I brought my painting. Okay. Okay, and I'll talk about this a little bit, but this is a painting of one of the archways at Glastonbury Abbey.

which has a lot of connection to Arthur and Arthurian legend. Is there anything better than those like mythic quests where anything can happen? It's all a little bit spiritual, mystical. I mean like absolutely anything is possible. And so as we get into this movie today, I just have to say this is the peak for me of like what these kinds of legends and stories around Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table, all of that.

kind of pulls together. But yeah, this is my element you guys. I'm so excited to talk about this movie.

Just Blane (09:31)
I gotta say shout out to A24 for continuing to fund films that feel like they were discovered in a haunted library instead of the final draft. I mean, see, who re-lit this movie? More importantly, who understood it on the first read? There's no way that somebody saw this and was like, yep, that's it. Because it's crazy.

Coco (09:47)
Yeah.

It's.

Just Blane (09:59)
The

idea alone of it is wild. I mean think about the poem itself We don't even know who the real author is. No it's not us. just they're Sir Garwin, Gar-Wayne. They were like Gar-Win, Gar-Win. They almost had an R in

Coco (10:09)
14th century. Gawain. How do they? Yeah.

It's definitely Welsh in origin and a lot of the Arthurian legend is Welsh. Wales.

or Cumbri as its actual name is called, like to kind of lay claim to the Arthur legends like he's ours. Yeah, okay. When talks about King of Britain, it's actually, you know, they like to be like, he's from here, this is ours, he's ours, you know, but so does England and so does Cornwall and so does like all of those areas. Everybody kind of has their own Arthur claim, but I was a little unsure about the pronunciation because in Welsh, would think it would be Gawain.

Just Blane (10:56)
I think it's how I learned it in school was Gawain.

Coco (10:59)
That's how I would pronounce it, seeing it written down. ⁓

Just Blane (11:02)
Garwin is how to kind of say it.

And let's just break it down right from the top because you got Dev Patel playing Sir Garwin. And I'll say Garwin. I like it like that. Not the polished knight, not the legend that we've heard. I'm going let you break down the legend here in just a minute. But no, this is Dev Patel playing a Garwin that, you know, it was before the story people tell about him.

and this is a version of you before you become who you claim to be. What is the original? Just real brief.

Coco (11:37)
Well, so the original story again written down like 14th century, ⁓ it's Pretty simplistic and that it's basically him going on this quest and I think that the movie kind of blended two different going characters in prose of that time because there was one that was sort of philanderer sort of known for being a you know, bit of a troublemaker out doing Whatever and with whoever

Just Blane (12:04)
And then

there was Galavanting. I think that's what we like to call it around here.

Coco (12:08)
youthful all of that kind of thing and then there's ⁓ Arthur's nephew Gawain who was

essentially kind of a pure of heart innocent knight. So you get a little bit of both in that, in this story. You get a little bit of like, maybe they took those two characters and said, what if they were the same person? And kind of played with that idea a little bit. I don't know if they did that on purpose or if that was because they did the research. I'm gonna assume they did their research. But it was much more simplistic in that his journey basically got him to the castle and that castle, I have it right here in our third

So the story of Sir Gwyn and the Green Knight, the Bertilic Castle that he ends up in at the end of the movie is kind of the whole of it. His journey gets him there and then he spends three nights with the Lord of the House, Lord of the Castle, who essentially is the Green Knight. They're maybe one and the same character. Gotcha. And because of his three nights, he was hit on by

by the lady of the house and because he was so pure of heart, he kicked back her advances and was like, no, that's not honorable, I won't do that. And then when it was time for him to meet the Green Knight and take his beheading, he essentially said... ⁓

like tread three times and stopped himself and said it was because of the three nights of his showing his morality, his chastity, all that. And then gave him again on the final cut, just a nick on the neck because he took the green sash that she offered. And because he took it.

Just Blane (13:54)
That's right.

Coco (13:56)
That was his only infraction. That was like the one thing he did wrong and so he just got a nick on the neck and was able to be released and go home. So I had to look it up. was like, I don't know the story well enough to know if he survived. And age 24, of course, in this movie, they leave it very ambiguous. Didn't show it.

Just Blane (14:12)
Ambiguous. there then. It's kind

of the style they go for anyway, which is why I love their movies. But this is really a story about somebody making who they are. Making themselves what they end up becoming. And how many of us are walking around calling ourselves something we haven't actually earned yet right now?

And that's what this is kind of happening. It's like people you hear all the time say stuff like, I'm disciplined. Are you? I'm ready. For what? Sometimes it-

Coco (14:43)
Yeah.

I don't

require you to say it if you really are.

Just Blane (14:51)
But this movie is one that sits down and makes you actually prove those things. The whole premise is pretty simple. mean, it feels like a dare. ⁓ Mysterious Green Dude rolls into King Arthur's court like it's open mic night. He says, hit me with your best shot. And in one year, I get to hit you in return. Yeah. I get to return the favor. In the same way. I get to return the favor. And Garwin...

fueled by ego, curiosity, and a little bit of, I need a story about me. Yeah. Takes the deal. to prove himself. little ego. He needs a little boost here. He takes that deal. And this is where it gets dangerous, because it's not about the axe swinging. It's the promise. It's the promise that you have to make to this green knight. And the whole film, it's not about the journey outward. It's about the slow realization.

that you made a deal with your future self and now you gotta show up too. We all do this.

Coco (15:51)
Yeah, the clock is ticking. feel that throughout the movie he's getting ready for Christmas time to come around again and he knows what that means.

Just Blane (15:54)
The clock is ticking like...

And

that's on purpose. The pacing, it's slow, like walking through fog where every step feels like it matters. And we see his journey. And Dev Patel, you can see it. He's playing it in a space even. You can see almost... He was amazing. But some people hate that. You know, they hate that it's a slow movie or whatever. But this is not a movie that you watch.

For once, think it's one of those ones that you have to actually wait out. Waiting this one out. that's how I felt watching it. What'd you think about this premise and the whole thing? the green night, I thought the opening, not the opening scene, but well, even that one was incredible. That And we'll talk about the.

Coco (16:31)
yeah.

yeah!

When the green knight shows up.

Just Blane (16:53)
Yeah.

Coco (16:53)
questions. I wasn't clear on ⁓ Gawain's mother's relationship here, so I did a little digging, you know, to kind of get some clarity on that. I don't know if it's because the movie wasn't just quite as clear about it, but I was like, being obsessed with Arthurian legend, I was like, wait, so who's this and who's this planet? Where does this play into it? I wanted to know all the things. But the very, very first scene and some of the very first scenes was going through these archways and doorways of those castles.

visuals and things like that. That's why I brought my painting because I am obsessed with doorways. I was when I went to England and Cornwall and Wales and these places, I got fascinated with doorways, archways, staircases, these kinds of things just like opened up something with for me. And so I love this scene where there's an archway and I you just see the camera going under it.

Just Blane (17:47)
Even though beginning scene doesn't it come through a window like I would pull back through a window and we see I'm upset Now tell me about going over there because where did you go where you were in? land of Arthur you were in Camelot Yeah, but you went over there and did some of this stuff like what was that like?

Coco (17:54)
The fish wasn't in the smithere...

So that's why I brought this archway for Glastonbury Abbey because Glastonbury Abbey is known for being the burial place of King Arthur and ⁓ Guinevere. So I painted this one because ⁓ that's the archway in what's left of Glastonbury Abbey. It's in ruins now, burned down in the 1500s when King Henry VIII was going on a rampage for the church.

Just Blane (18:34)
Anyway, Now let me ask you, did you paint this while you were there? Were you sitting there looking at all

Coco (18:39)
No,

I did all these when I got home. I did a whole series of portals and paintings, but I loved...

just the landscape, everything about it. ⁓ In Glastonbury Abbey, they had what they believed to be the grave, they uncovered the grave of King Arthur. They believed it was King Arthur. And it's greatly associated with Avalon, being that King Arthur was taken to Avalon when he was struck down by his son slash nephew, Mordred. I just love the mythology. ⁓

Just Blane (19:11)
Get into it, get into it. Nerd

out, that's what we do here.

Coco (19:15)
Most

likely the grave that they found there was not actually King Arthur. I mean, we don't know if King Arthur was a real person or not. Anyway, it was basically a ploy to get more money for the church so they could build on their abbey and make it even more grand and large than they had before. And it worked. Tourists came flooding in to see King Arthur's grave, all that. Glastonbury is an incredibly sacred place for both Christian and Pagans, like because of the red and white spring there.

Just Blane (19:32)
But they

Coco (19:48)
the Chalice Well, the tower of St. Michael on the top of the tour. There's a lot of really cool history there. And because on that hill where the tour is, it used to be that it would create an island before the levees were built. So right now it can be shrouded in mist at times, kind of look like an island. And so that's why it's heavily associated with Avalon, the island of apples.

place of the Lady of the Lake in the Arthurian legend. So it was incredible to get to actually walk on those places and be in those places. Then we got to go to Cornwall and visit Tintagel, which is ⁓ the ruins of a castle there. ⁓ And there's a statue of King Arthur on the top of the cliffs, which is incredible to go hike up there. There's Merlin's Cave. The people of Cornwall there, they claim King Arthur because they believe he was born there in that.

place ⁓ and there's a lot of history to that with the Duke of Cornwall marrying his mother and that being Morgan Le Fay's actual father. All of this is myth and legend. Nobody knows if this is historical.

Just Blane (20:59)
never knew that

you were a King Arthur freak. How did this movie slip past you if you I know! That's crazy to me.

Coco (21:02)
I'm a little...

I apologize. I apologize to everybody. I did not see this movie until we watched it for this.

Just Blane (21:14)
I love the scene where he meets the girl and needs the head out of the water. thought that was an incredible scene. And let's talk about Temptation for a second, because this movie hits you with a quiet question. Who are you when nobody's watching? And everything is on the line, because it is.

Coco (21:17)
Yeah.

That's the.

Yeah, he was kind of marching to his doom. He was. these little tasks and quests and side quests, which are all very Arthurian legend type. I mean, just incredible.

Just Blane (21:48)
And the metaphor there is, aren't we all? Like, even though he...

Coco (21:51)
Yeah. Little

test of honor, little test of like morality and are you an honorable brave knight or are you worthy of this reward at the end of it?

Just Blane (22:06)
And the things that he is tested on are like honor versus comfort, truth versus survival, courage versus just getting out alive. Every test felt like a mirror, but not in a preachy way, in that uncomfortable way where you're watching this and it kind of felt personal. You're like, I even, thought about that. I'm like, man, yeah, sure. Christmas is what he's, his end he thinks is, but.

Coco (22:16)
Yeah.

Just Blane (22:36)
We all have an end. We're not getting out of here. Nobody wins.

Coco (22:39)
I get angry real life. But how did you show up along the way? And I mean this is so...

Just Blane (22:43)
Exactly.

Coco (22:47)
perfect for all of the kinds of ⁓ Celtic myths and legends. A lot of them, ⁓ I studied the Mabinagi, which is the Welsh mythology, ⁓ quite heavily. And all of these stories have things in common, like the Sovereignty Goddess. In this case, his mother is as part of the Sovereignty Goddess. Because the question is, when you realize she's the one that did her magic, her witchcraft, her pagan whatever it is, and created this green knife.

to come and challenge Arthur and the Knights. Why would she do that? Knowing that it's her son that would step up to the task, putting him in danger, why would someone do that? And the question, it's very similar to the story of Ariane Road and ⁓ Rhiannon in Mabinagi, which is like, sometimes you're tested, even to the point of you may not survive this, but if you do, you'll become

a man, you become worthy of kingship, the kingdom. Because it's not just about being, and sovereignty gauzes by the way, sovereignty characters, they are testing the main character, the hero, and you do not become king unless you are found worthy. And if at any point you are not worthy, that can be stripped from you at any time, which is fantastic in our current political climate. It would be awesome to strip someone of that king power, right?

out.

Just Blane (24:18)
The tests over and over and over, that's what I love about this film because we see all this but we never see Garwin get judged. Like we're not doing it. Nobody around him is doing it but they don't really glorify him either. We're just observing, like that's what we're doing. We're watching this. We're sitting back and we're just, you know, we're watching him try to figure this thing out. He's a human.

Coco (24:32)
No.

Just Blane (24:44)
just trying to figure it out, aren't we all? And once again, it's like looking in the mirror. But I just really thought that, well, the movie was beautiful and you touched on the real life aspect of it, but the cinematography itself hooked me big time from the beginning, from the opening scene where they're doing the voiceover thing. I'm like, oh my God, what am I watching? This is awesome. Once again, 824. And then, you you get all these incredible scenes that are...

broken up almost in chapters.

Coco (25:15)
Yes, kind of reminded me of Monty Python in very serious way.

Just Blane (25:18)
It but a serious first.

Add that to our list. We should do that movie. We didn't do that one yet, I don't think. No. But go ahead and tell me your final thoughts on this movie on a green night, because I know that might be long, but...

Coco (25:34)
I

know, I'm sorry Remember we can come back to some I'm trying to bundle it because there's so much and it's so juicy and it's just so good. I love the themes of playing with civilization versus nature. You see that in like London, Camelot, you know the dirty city kind of vibe that you get when they're in the court and in the king's court. But then he goes out into nature and like green has taken over.

Just Blane (26:00)
Lush.

Coco (26:01)
The

Lush Yag, which is exactly, made me actually homesick for whales. that's a thing. But ⁓ I loved the play with the pagan beliefs and the Christianity beliefs. know, he was given a shield with the Virgin Mary and Jesus on it. But then his mother also writing runes and a spell into the green sash and giving that to him for protection. There's all these like really cool plays with that. The mother, by the way, could have been Morgane Le Fay or Margot.

was ⁓ Arthur's sisters in the legend, priestesses of Avalon, pagan priestesses, that kind of ⁓ archetype. And I want to talk about a couple of symbols real quick.

Just Blane (26:46)
Yeah,

let's hear some of those.

Coco (26:47)
So the green knight comes in for his challenge and he's holding a holly bush. And it's Yuletide, obviously, Christmas time, right? There's this really cool pagan mythology about the battle of the Oak King and the Holly King that happens every Yuletide. The Holly King wins out for the light half of the year and the Oak King wins out, well, Oak King for the light half of the year, Holly King for the dark half of the year. You know, it's kind of that play of like, it's summer, begin.

and it's winter beginning and I just loved seeing the Green Knight who looked like the Green Man in, again, mythology. But he's holding that oak branch and then drops it. It was very, I don't know if they meant to do that, but it was very symbolic of that. Of light and dark and light half of the year versus the dark half of the year. And then the fox.

Just Blane (27:34)
Shorty.

The

fox, I like the fox. I would love to have a fox like that. Follow me around, cuddle up with me.

Coco (27:50)
Fox pets, they exist by the Do they really? They do. I don't know how to get one, but I want one.

Just Blane (27:56)
Yeah, I'm gonna fucks.

Coco (27:57)
The symbolism

of the fox having to do with ⁓ adaptability and being able to like, hey, this isn't what you thought it was going to be, switch, be adaptable, be able to do this or that. And ⁓ I love how the fox shows up in a lot of really cool mythology in a lot of ways. And then there was the giant... Can we not... We just have to mention it. The giant...

Just Blane (28:20)
I love that.

I love that scene. scene... I ran that scene back and watched it twice. I had to. get goosebumps? Yeah, that was incredible.

Coco (28:33)
Man, I don't really have anything to say other than what...

Just Blane (28:37)
Watch the movie for that scene. Really? You can watch the entire movie just for that one scene.

Coco (28:42)
visions of that while doing a ketamine treatment. I'm pretty sure that I was in the...

Just Blane (28:46)
⁓

I was gonna say there was some ketamine ⁓ maybe about the movie about the movie they had a couple things and then it was very when he went into the water for the skull that was a ketamine dream right there

Coco (28:50)
about you the

Gosh, yeah, the galaxy. Like, feelings. I see that every time I go to any kind of meditation. I don't need ketamine for that. That is where I go in my astral projection, but that's just me.

Just Blane (29:16)
Go

check this movie out if you haven't seen it. If you're idiots like us and it slipped by you for this long, then go watch it. It's gonna be one, no spoilers, but the ending, you're either gonna say, ⁓ my god, this is genius, or you're gonna say, nah, I my two hours back. It's one of those.

Coco (29:34)
Yeah,

some people the criticism was it was slow or there was a lot of like lag and things like that, but I think it's worth it. I think I think it's

Just Blane (29:44)
It's worth it visually. It's stunning. Stunning. yeah, that's it for this. Is that it? That's it. Sorry. I was like, man, I thought we were to let her keep going.

Coco (29:55)
I could, but no, I'm done.

Just Blane (29:57)
Alright, let's this thing up. With parallel frequencies, I'm Just Blane, Coco, and all the freqs out there. We'll see you on the other side.