Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott, the subject of this week's blog, has been filmed eleven times as a movie or miniseries (most notably in 1952, 1982 and 1997) and twice as a television series (In 1958 and as "Dark Knight" in 2000). Various episodes of children's shows (like Wishbone) also do adaptations of the story. Since the book is almost ridiculously inaccurate, you can't expect much from the films, either. But the film adaptations work best when they adhere to the story's central theme-outlaws-and specifically the wild and passionate Templar Preceptor Brian de Bois-Guilbert.
Bois-Guilbert, Ivanhoe's rival at a tournament and Rebecca's kidnapper/would-be lover, is in twice as much of the story as Ivanhoe and has even inspired his own sequels. But the story only works when Bois-Guilbert is, as in the original, a Templar. Make him a "regular" knight and the story loses its charge. The 1952 version worked by having Ivanhoe return Rebecca's love, even while choosing Rowena, and taking a more central role in the story. The other versions (especially the 1997 ITV miniseries) basically make Bois-Guilbert the protagonist, giving free rein to fantastic actors like Sam Neill and Ciarán Hinds.
Why does this story work so well? Certainly not because of its historical accuracy: no Templar, let alone a prominent officer of the Order, could gallavant around the countryside with a couple of Norman marauders and keep his habit, let alone his position. In the 1982 version, Bois-Guilbert even shares a tub with his partners in crime (medieval Templars never stripped down in public). In the 1997 version, he goes around without his habit, even in a Templar preceptory. Bois-Guilbert flouts both Bernard of Clairvaux's and the Order's own vision of a Templar as a sort of anti-knight-calm, disciplined and quiet.
Maybe that's why Bois-Guilbert is one of the greatest characters in literature. Scott's good guys are outlaws in one sense, but they never transgress their social roles in life. Scott lays out clear boundaries for them, making even legendary Sherwood Forest bandit Robin Hood a party animal not a brigand and Ivanhoe wronged not wild. Meanwhile, knightly brigands like Bois-Guilbert's partner in crime, Front de Boeuf, are unsympathetic and true to their knightly class. Only Bois-Guilbert enthusiastically blasts through laws, customs, oaths and religious prejudice, turning outlaw and heretic for a woman who isn't even Christian and hates his guts. Medieval or modern, any age can sympathize with a fool for love.
