5. A Knight's Tale
If ever you want a pitch-perfect example of a film which kicked its own message hard in the balls, you needn't go much further than A Knight's Tale. The premise of the film is pretty bog-standard it's about a man who wants to overturn the system which has kept him down. Such a blueprint has been used time and time again, except in this case, the man's a peasant who decides to go around jousting knights in his master's stead after he suddenly kicks the bucket. This is all done to the soundtrack of Queen, and it's brilliant in an entirely awful way. The film makes a big show of a man hoping to reach beyond his station, and to its credit, it makes a pretty compelling case Will Thatcher is able to knock all sorts of landed gentry off their horses, showing that despite his lowly origins, talent is in fact the great leveller. Yet eventually, a nadir has to come in a heroic film, and it comes for Will in spadefuls. Namely, the nobility helped by his curious night-time travel habits learn that he's in fact a thatcher, and one of the lowest order. He's stripped of his position as the pornographically named Ulrich Von Lichtenstein, and he's pelted with fruit in the stocks. You're left wondering key questions how's he going to get out of this, especially considering his dire societal situation? Whatever it is, you know it's going to be suitably absurd. Except, it kind of isn't. William is saved by The Black Prince, who claims that his historians have found that this lowly bloke is descended from ancient knights. Granted, it's a cool way to end a film William's able to waltz into the sunset with the girl of his dreams and his status intact, but for us, it gives off a mixed message. Basically, we learn that despite William's desires to subvert the system, he's actually part of it, and that's the reason why he can do the things he's done. He can act noble because he his noble his ancient bloodline points to it. Yet apparently, there's no such luck for medieval Mark Addy or Alan Tudyk, or even for silver-tongued Paul Bettany, who've missed out on a similar, unascended social mobility by a few hundred years. Still, at least Heath got the girl, and that's what counts.. ...Right?