Knight Without Armor: A Long, Cold Trek Through History

Is it worth your time?

If you like movies that feel like a dusty history book you found in an attic, sure. If you need pacing that moves faster than a steam engine in 1917, you’re going to hate this.

Marlene Dietrich fans will be happy, but anyone looking for a tight, punchy thriller should probably go watch The Phantom of Paris instead. This isn't a film you watch for the plot; it's a film you watch to see people try to look elegant while everything around them is burning down.

The vibe

There is something about the way these older movies handle revolution that feels oddly stagey. You get a lot of guys with beards yelling in rooms, and then a sudden cut to a train chugging along a track. It’s got that weird, jerky rhythm.

Robert Donat has this face that looks like he’s constantly carrying the weight of the entire British Empire on his shoulders. He plays an agent, but he mostly just looks tired. I get it. I’d be tired too if I had to deal with the Bolsheviks for two hours.

Odd little things I noticed:

• The way the costumes seem to stay strangely clean despite the characters living in literal war zones.
• One scene where they are hiding in a room, and the silence goes on for so long I started checking my phone.
• The background extras in the train station look like they were told to just stand there and breathe, and they took it very seriously.

There is this one moment where Dietrich just stares out a window. It lasts forever. It’s not profound or anything, it just feels like the director forgot to yell cut. But then, the lighting hits her face in a way that makes you go, oh, right, that’s why they’re the stars.

It reminds me a bit of the aimless wandering you see in Tribu, though obviously in a very different setting. Everything is so big and grand and slightly hollow. You can feel the studio money in every frame, even when the sets start to look like cardboard.

Honestly, the ending is a bit of a shrug. They arrive where they are going, or they don’t—it doesn't really matter. You spend so much time in the middle of the movie just watching them walk through snow that the resolution feels like an afterthought. It's not a disaster, but it’s not exactly a movie I’d rush to recommend. Watch it on a rainy Sunday when you don't mind getting lost in some very pretty, very old black-and-white shadows. 📽️