May 14, 2001 -- The pounding rhythm of Queen's "We Will Rock You," rocks a movie set in the Middle Ages. Peasants and royalty alike stomp their feet and hands to the rock music as the knights begin to joust.

Strange? Yeah, it is weird, but it is kind of fun. In the tradition of Xena and Hercules and various other TV shows that don't give a flying frig about historical accuracy, comes the rock opera "A Knight's Tale." Here's the story, you take your basic romantic adventure costume drama, but add young fellow as the hero and jazz up the story with "Rocky" style training sequences and add lots of rock music and you've got a nice little summer movie.

Heath Ledger of "The Patriot" stars as William Thatcher, a boy born on the poor side of London, who dreams of being a knight. He gets his chance one day when the knight he is working for dies. He dons the dead knight's armor in secret in order to finish a jousting match. Since Thatcher is not of noble blood, he is not allowed to compete against other knights. He and his friends (Roland, played by Mark Addy of "The Full Monty" and Wat, played by Alan Tudyk of "28 Days") conspire to create a fake title so he can compete. He also seeks the aid of a man with a gambling problem who happens to be a pretty fair writer, Geoffrey Chaucer (played by Paul Bettany of "The Suicide Club"). He also gets a more modern suit of armor made by a woman blacksmith named Kate (Laura Fraser of "The Man in the Iron Mask").

Along the way, Thatcher falls in love with a lady of noble birth, Jocelyn (Shannyn Sossamon) and becomes the enemy of the dangerous Count Adhemar (Rufus Sewell of "Bless the Child"). Thatcher is beaten by the haughty Count Adhemar in a jousting match, and vows to return the favor. It is not tough to guess how this will turn out. The use of rock music in the film is inventive. One of my favorite songs, "The Boys are Back in Town," by Thin Lizzy, is played when the knight and his friends come back to their hometown. The "Rocky" style training scenes (to the tune of War's "Low Rider") are fun and the jousting competition is interesting. Some of the characters have some depth to them, but the loyalty of Thatcher's friends seems a bit extreme. They are almost like James Bond movie minions.

The film is broadly comic in places, with some drama and romance. The protagonists represent the popular values of the day, equality and feminism, against the villains who want the put the peasants back in their places. These themes may resonate more deeply today than they have in a long time. We're living in a country ruled by the son of a former president, who was aided in his election by his brother, the governor of Florida. Many of our politicians, movie stars and business leaders are the sons and daughters (and grandchildren) of former politicians, stars and business leaders. We are living in a country in which the gap between rich and poor is a yawning canyon that grows wider every day. Our nation is becoming more and more oligarchical every day. We're not exactly heading back to the middle ages, but our social mobility is lessening. Our futures are limited not only by who our parents are and where we live, but where we go to school. A lot of kids today are like William Thatcher. They believe the only way out of their situation is to compete in sports, which is still a putative meritocracy.

Another thing I liked about the film is the relationship between Thatcher and his father, James Thatcher (Christopher Cazenove of "3 Men and a Little Lady"). Although Cazenove does not get much screen time, he does a wonderful job showing us a loving father who has the strength to let his son follow his impossible dream. He also shows us, with facial expressions alone, his pride in what his son accomplishes. This is something we seldom get to see in the movies, a strong, caring father, as well as a healthy father-son relationship. This relationship gives emotional depth to what would otherwise be a rather shallow adventure film. Heath Ledger also holds up his end of the acting chores. He shows just the right spirit of iron determination and honor in overcoming all obstacles.

Paul Bettany provides us with an interesting Chaucer, a man not only of many words, but with swagger and flair. He announces Thatcher like a literate WWF ring announcer. Mark Addy and Alan Tudyk are good as the funny sidekicks. Shannyn Sossamon and Laura Fraser are O.K., but they look way out of place. Sossamon looks exotic among the English royalty (she is from Hawaii) and Fraser does not look like a blacksmith at all, she looks like a dainty model. The script also provides little motivation for Fraser's character to leave her forge and follow this group of guys all over Europe. She's just sort of there as one of the guys, as it were, along for no particular reason.

As for the anachronisms, they didn't bother me much. As some have pointed out, no period film has ever been made that used the actual music of the time for a score and the speech of the time for the dialogue. Most people would find the speech of Chaucer's time fairly unintelligible and they did not have symphony orchestras in those days, either. Rock and Roll music isn't much more anachronistic than the standard types of scores used in most costume dramas. The music, the editing and the stunt work add a lot of energy to the action scenes in the film. A period dance scene that turns into a modern dance number to David Bowie's "Golden Years" is a little over the top, however. This film rates a B.

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