A Knight's Tale movie corrections

When William first fights Adhemar, Adhemar picks up his lance. Then, he shuts the visor on his helmet with the hand that he held his lance in. The lance miraculously disappeared, then reappears as he rides up to fight William. See more...

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Geoff Chaucer threatens to immortalize the summoner and the pardoner in literature, and the real Geoffrey Chaucer did just that in his Canterbury Tales. The Pardoner and Summoner were portrayed as two of the most corrupt and vile people imaginable in Medieval society. They are also homosexual lovers. See more...

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A Knight's Tale (2001) - 28 corrections

Directed by Brian Helgeland, starring Heath Ledger, Laura Fraser, Paul Bettany, Rufus Sewell, Shannyn Sossamon (add more)

Genres: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Romance

Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. As such, any aggressive/abusive corrections (and I get quite a few) written as if they're comments I've made myself will be ignored. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click the edit icon under an entry, then choose "correct entry". Some entries have "duplicated entry" after them - these are entries which were already listed on the main page, but were submitted again. I occasionally leave these online for a while, just in case they were moved in error, so don't worry about pointing them out to me.

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In the scene where Jocelyn turns the scarf for William in her hands you can see that it is a light yellow one without embroidery. In a later scene where Christiane brings the scarf to William it is another one with yellow embroidery on it. [There is nothing to suggest the two scarves are meant to be the same. We see Jocelyn folding a piece of cloth, but she never says anything about it being meant for Ulric/William. The next day it turns out she has sent a different scarf with Christiane. To say that the two are supposed to be identical is the submitter's assumption.]

Corrected by Twotall Time

The Marks of Kate's trade are not the same when she was seen creating them and then when they are pointed out on Sir Ulrich's armour. [I just watched this several times, and the marks look completely alike.]

Corrected by Twotall Time

When William is training there is a scene when he falls into the water in his full suit of armor. Each time the camera angle changes the bubbles from the water can be seen on different sides on the lance. Happens about 4 times during the scene. [Actually, you only see the bubbles in the river three times. Two of these shots are from Wat's side of the river, and one is from Roland's, making it appear as if the bubbling changes sides (in relation to the rope and lance), but it is really just an effect of the angle change.]

Corrected by Twotall Time

William uses Sir Ector's armor, which still has his device (the emblem on the shield) painted on it. Since Sir Ector was a regular on the jousting circuit, other knights and nobles would have been able to identify the device and expose 'Sir Ulrich von Lichtenstein' as an imposter. [William only used Sir Ector's armor in the very first match he competed in since he was pretending to be Sir Ector at the time anyway. He kept his face covered so he couldn't be identified. In every competition after that, William competed under his own made up symbol: the Tri-Phoenix.]

Corrected by Phixius

Before one joust, the characters discover that William is about to fight "the Black Prince of Wales, the future King of England." While he was an actual historical figure, the Black Prince wasn't given his nickname until 200 years after his death. [The song "We Will Rock You" by Queen hadn't been written yet either, yet the peasants are shown to be dancing and singing along with the song. This is a highly fictionalized version of history. So there is no reason why the Black Prince couldn't have had his nickname a little earlier in this fantasy world.]

Corrected by Phixius

The Royal Guards who arrested William wore a Spanish helmet. This helmet actually didn't became in fashion until the time of Elizabeth the First, 200 years later. [The helmet worn by the Royal Guard is not a Spanish helmet, it is actually a Comb Morion, which was designed and exported by the Italians and looks extremely similar to the Spanish helmet worn by Elizabeth the First's courtiers. The Comb Morion very well may have been worn by the Royal Guard in the time period of the film.]

Roland (Mark Addy) tells Christiana (Jocelyn's handmaiden) that Will's tunic will be green, and he and the rest of the clan glare at the tent. However, the tunic Roland actually makes is not made out of the same material; it's green, but not the same pattern or anything. [It is never stated specifically that they used the outer tent walls (which would most likely be too stiff and heavy) for the tunic. In the scene where Jocelyn visits "Ulrich" in his tent, we see that the inner walls of the tents are made from a softer and lighter fabric. It is possible they used this for the tunic.]

Corrected by Twotall

When William defeats Adhemar at the end, and Adhemar is lying on the ground, the floor underneath him is blatantly not real - it appears to be some kind of mat. [It has been already stated in a previous correction that this scene is taking place in Adhemar's mind. Therefore, it is not supposed to look real and the floor under him probably looks like this on purpose. A similar-looking ground can be seen in "The Gladiator" when Maximus is waking up from his unconsciousness after being taken as a slave.]

Before the companions reach Paris, there is a camera shot which includes the Eiffel Tower. It would be factually inaccurate to place both Chaucer and the Eiffel Tower in the same place at the same time seeing as though Chaucer was around centuries before the Eiffel Tower was constructed to mark the centenial year of French Independence, in 1889. [The shot of the Eiffel Tower is a visual joke. In another scene you can see a wooden version of the London Eye, which was opened in the year 2000. (Mentioned in the commentary).]

In the first jousting scene after William is given his new armor from Kate, Roland and Wat lie to him about his next opponent having raised his country's taxes to pay for the tournament and then cut to a shot of his opponent trying to mount his horse. The problem is he mounts the horse from the wrong side. The knight should have mounted from the left side but can plainly be seen mounting from the right. Mounting from the left is an equine tradition dating back to the times of knights and is done because the sheath of a sword is worn on the left and gets in the way if they try to mount from the right. Surely a knight would have known this. [If you watch this particular knight try to mount his horse, you can obviously see that he has no idea what on earth he is doing, which probably means he has no idea you are supposed to mount from the left side and not the right.]

When William is facing Adhemar in the final match, Adhemar almost destroys Williams' frontal armor's right side (you can even see it is folded in two). When they are preparing for the second round his armor is intact again. When the second round begins, back to the destroyed armor. [This is incorrect - there is no scene between the end of the first joust and the start of the second where the front right portion of the armor does not look badly dented.]

Time

In the opening sequence when the captions come up "In medieval times, a new sport emerged...", we see a knight being knocked off his horse in a joust. The knight being knocked off is wearing Heath Ledger's original suit of armor. (You can tell by the shield he is holding - it has the three phoenixes on it.) [The knight mentioned is the one that dies in the movie, and Heath Ledger takes the armor off of the corpse and wears it himself, so obviously it is the same armor.]

In the scene at the first banquet when William and Jocelyn are dancing to David Bowie. The entire dance scene was improvised by the cast at the time of filming. [During the first banquet scene, Heath Ledger choreographed the dance sequence.]

Count Adhemar claims he commands a Free Company in the south of France. The Free Companies were mercenaries who refused to disband when they were "de-mobbed" and then marauded the country. They were called "Free Companies" because they had no leader. [This is not true. One of the best known of the free companies was the "White Company" who were led by Sir John Hawkwood. They weren't sworn to a feudal lord, but had their own leader.]

The redheaded peasant Wat constantly carps on about not having enough money to eat yet he wears a rather modern very thin silver chain throughout the entire film. Perhaps he could have pawned that to buy some Tansy cakes with peppermint cream? [It prehaps was an old family heirloom, that carried great sentimental value for him. However hungry he was, he still wouldn't have given it away.]

When there was a flashback to when William was a child, the child actor used looked exactly like the adult actor...with one major flaw: The boy had sparkling blue eyes, the man, dark brown. [This mistake has been cited in many, many other movies, and always seems to have to be addressed. A person's eyes can change color from childhood to adulthood, and the most common change is from blue to brown.]

During the pub scene when the French drunkards are challenging Chaucer and the others to bet that Ulrich will not win the tournament, Wat throws a fit and calls one of them Quasimodo. Quasimodo is a character from "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" by Victor Hugo, published in 1831 - about 500 years later. Even if Quasimodo had been based on a real person, the story took place in the 15th, not 14th, century. [Quasimodo's name comes from the fact that he was found on the church steps on Quasimodo Sunday. Quasimodo Sunday (first Sunday after Easter) gets its name from the first words of the introit for that day "Quasi modo geniti infantes" - in the way of newborn infants. There are other possible reasons for them to use this name than having impossibly read Victor Hugo.]

Corrected by Myridon Time

In the scene where Heath Ledger is talking to the girl who knows his father, the camera is facing him and there is no rain falling around him. In the next shot, he walks toward the girl to sit next to her to tell her a 'secret' and there is rain all around him again. [There is an archway above blocking the rain, so whether we see rain falling depends on the angle, and whether the archway is on top of the background or behind our view.]

When Heath and his crew are entering into the World Championships, we hear the crowd begin to chant Ulrich's name, but if you look at the crowd in the background, they are simply yelling, and their mouths are not in sync with the chanting at all. [There's a lot of crowd stretched along many streets. If you've ever been to a modern sporting event you'll know that a few people can make their chant heard over many others. Isn't it possible that the people not near Ulrich are shouting for him and those we see are cheering randomly because they have finally seen him?]

At the end of the film, everyone stands up and starts to cheer for William, including Jocelyn and John. The camera focuses on them, and then goes back to William, and then zooms in on to them again. They are still standing. Then the camera zooms out, and it has gone back enough so we can see the stand, all the way to the Prince's seat. Jocelyn is running down the steps. But John is seated again. [It is safe to assume that since Jocelyn was leaving John's side to go congratulate William, that John would sit down so as not to get confused in the crowd (since he is blind). This was not a mistake.]

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A Knight's Tale (2001) - 28 corrections