The Green Knight | 2021 | R | – 7.6.1

Why is “The Green Knight” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “violence, some sexuality and graphic nudity.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a couple of sex scenes with partial nudity and a scene that includes full female nudity at a distance, a beheading leaving a bloody severed head, a near beheading, a robbery, a long journey with many unusual characters encountered, a fight with punches, and some mild language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

---

Adventure inspired by the Arthurian legends: After accepting a challenge by a colossal wood-skinned knight, Sir Gawain (Dev Patel), King Arthur’s nephew, embarks on a quest to confront his fears, and encounters ghosts, a magical fox, giants, thieves and time distortions. Also with Alicia Vikander, Joel Edgerton, Sarita Choudhury, Tara Mae, Atheena Frizzell, Sean Harris, Kate Dickie, Chris McHallem and Ralph Ineson. Directed by David Lowery. [Running Time: 2:10]

The Green Knight SEX/NUDITY 7

 – A man lies in bed shirtless and a married woman sitting in the room moves close to him and asks why he didn’t visit her in her chamber the night before; she touches his face and speaks seductively as she seems to be reaching below his waist as he breathes heavily and rhythmically, she straddles him briefly and moves away revealing ejaculate on his hand; the man panics when he sees an elderly woman standing in the room and he runs out of the house. A man and woman have sex and we see him thrusting and hear moaning (his bare back and buttocks are visible).
► A man chases a woman through a brothel and we see men and women caressing, kissing and hugging with the women in various states of dress including fully nude (we see bare breasts and pubic hair, cleavage, bare legs, abdomens and buttocks at a distance). A man and a woman are undressed by attendants and we see the man’s bare chest and abdomen and the woman’s bare shoulders; they are seen lying in bed and sex is implied.
► A man kisses another man deeply. A man and a woman kiss: she is wearing a slightly sheer nightdress that reveals cleavage and bare shoulders, and she climbs in bed straddling him; she remarks that he is impotent. A man kisses a woman on the cheek. A man kisses a woman’s hand. A man and woman ride on a horse together and she wraps her arms tightly around his waist.
► A woman says that a man “sought to lay with me” and after she refused him, he returned to harm her (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details). A man talks about his sister’s child being, “cleft from her womb.” A woman asks a man if he still fancies her and if she makes him happy.
► Giant humanoid beings are shown without clothing and breasts and buttocks are visible. A man is shown shirtless in several scenes and we see his bare shoulders, chest, abdomen and back to the hips. A woman wears an off-the-shoulder dress that reveals her bare shoulders. A woman wears a low-cut dress that reveals cleavage in several scenes. A woman bathes her adult son and we see his bare back to the hips as he sits in a tub.

The Green Knight VIOLENCE/GORE 6

 – Many men seated in a room stand and draw swords when a wood-skinned man on horseback enters the room, presents a letter that a woman reads in a very deep voice (as if possessed) and asks for one of the men to face him in a challenge; one man accepts, the wood-skinned man lays down his axe and the man cuts his head off with his sword (we see it roll on the floor and blood pours from the wound); falling motionless briefly, the wood-skinned man gets up, retrieves his head and rides away. A man kneels on the ground as a wood-skinned man raises an axe over him preparing to cut off his head; the man flinches and recoils three times before running away. A man reaches into a wound in his abdomen and pulls a long sash out; the man’s head tumbles off his shoulders and onto the floor where it lies with blood on it.
► A man leading a horse through a forest encounters a woman that draws a dagger and he reaches for his sword, as another man draws his bow with an arrow, and then attacks the man and the woman holds him with the dagger to his throat; a young man cuts off a belt the man has wrapped around his waist and we later see the man bound and gagged and without his weapons, outer clothing and horse. A man says that another man’s mother is a witch and they go outside fighting with one man straddling the other and punching him in the head and face repeatedly. A man uses his sword to cut the bindings from his wrists and cuts his hand (we see blood). A man dives into a body of water where he seems to fall unconscious briefly, he wakes up to find a skull at the bottom, retrieves it and surfaces gasping; he carries the skull into a house where it transforms into a woman’s head and she speaks to him, he drops the head and we see blood at the neck before it transforms back into a skull and he places it on a bed with a woman’s skeletal remains. A man trudges up a mountain and into a cave where a small fox follows him and the man throws a rock at it; it is not struck and the man invites the fox to stay when it steps into the cave opening again. A fox speaks to a man and warns him of a place and the man swings an axe at it and walks away. A giant hand reaches over a mountain ridge and a man sees several enormous beings walking in a valley (please see the Sex/Nudity category for more details) and calls out to one that reaches for him and he pulls away as a fox barks and howls at the being; the beings mimic the sound and walk away.
► A man on horseback rides through a dark forest and finds a dead man propped against a tree with arrows in his chest (we see bloody wounds). Many bodies with bloody wounds are shown in a field where a young man retrieves arrows and tells a man that his two brothers died there. What seems to be a man seated in a chair bursts into flames as a deep voiceover talks about adventure and myths. A house in the background of a scene catches fire and burns through the roof; we hear voices of people beginning to intensify and a man and woman enter a barnyard and the woman rides away on a horse while the man draws a sword from its pack. A man sees his hand disintegrating and panics. A man imagines seeing someone in the distance, and it later appears to be a tree. The ground slowly turns upside down in a scene as a man and a fox walk along. People pound on a castle door and eventually open it.
► A man, lost in a thick forest, finds a house that he enters and finds stale food and no one inside; he sleeps in a bed until a woman wakes him and takes him outside to retrieve her head that she says was cut off by a man (she’s intact). A man stumbles through the door of a castle and falls to the floor unconscious; he wakes up in a bed. A man tumbles down a mountainside and drops his axe; he seems shaken later. Lightning flashes in the background of a scene. A woman throws a bucket of water on a sleeping man and he wakes up in a start. Several puppet shows with children watching depict a scene of a man and a wood-skinned man fighting with blood represented by red cloth, with most depicting the wood-skinned man being beheaded (one of the performances shows the man being beheaded). Boys play with wooden swords and follow a man on horseback. A wood-skinned man awakens and when he moves, he creaks and cracks like tree limbs in wind. A man and a woman lie in a bed and seems to die (we see the man not breathing). A woman screams in childbirth and holds her newborn with blood and goo on its head; the woman moans mournfully when the child is taken away from her and she pulls herself along the floor calling for the child (we see blood on the bed clothes). A man cries over a young man as he dies with blood on his face and head.
► A woman asks a man what it felt like to cut a wood-skinned man’s head off and he says that it felt like cutting a melon in two. A man asks a man to tell him a story about himself and the man replies that he has no stories.
► A scene shows a man bound and gagged on the ground, the camera turns completely around to show the man now skeletal with a beetle crawling through its eye socket, and then turns again to show him alive. A man on horseback passes a skeleton in a cage hanging on the side of the road. A man moans and wiggles a tooth in his mouth saying that it hurts (we hear a crunch). A man and woman both seem ill with grey-colored skin and wheezing. A woman wraps a cloth over her eyes during a ritual where women sit in a circle chanting, a tooth is pulled from an animal jawbone, the women place items on the floor in a pattern and a woman writes a letter that when held out over the circle catches fire and falls to pieces. A man stumbles home drunk. A man is knighted by another man touching his shoulders with a sword.
► People throw balls of dung at a man as he rides through a village. A bear lies dead in a forest with arrows sticking out of bloody wounds. A man drops a dead deer on the ground and talks of hunting. People talk about colors representing life and death (red is the color of lust and green is what is left). A man eats wild mushrooms and vomits almost immediately (we see goo and hear him retching). A worm is shown wriggling in dirt.

The Green Knight LANGUAGE 1

 – Name-calling (witch, trick, silly, rot), 3 religious exclamations (e.g. Christ Is Born, Christ Is Born Indeed, Our Christ, prayers are recited over a man and his shield). | profanity glossary |

The Green Knight SUBSTANCE USE

 – A man drinks from a large mug in a saloon, a woman asks her adult son if he has been drinking from the sacrament all night, a man drinks from a goblet at a celebration, a man drinks in a saloon, and a man stumbles home drunk.

The Green Knight DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, adventure, myths, legends, courage, greatness, self-doubt, honor, mercy, betrayal.

The Green Knight MESSAGE

 – Courage is to accept your fate without any artificial protections.