A few days ago, I rented The King's Speech from Video Ezy, because I heard that this movie was extremely well-received and I was eager to watch it as well. Now let me express my thoughts and feelings about this successful movie. :)
The King's Speech can be described as an historical drama, which depicts how King George VI overcomes his stammer with the help of speech therapist Lionel Logue, during the period around the 1920s to the 1930s, before World War II.
The movie begins with the Duke of York, who is the future King George VI (who is known to his family as Bertie) trying to make a speech to the public. However, he fails horribly, due to his terrible stutter. His wife Elizebeth tries to find various speech doctors in an attempt to cure his stutter. However, all of them fail until she persuades Bertie to seek the help of an Australian speech therapist, Lionel Logue. After his father dies, Bertie's elder brother, David, who is the natural heir to the throne, takes to the throne. However, David wants to marry a (soon-to-be) twice divorced American socialite. As he cannot marry a divorced woman and retain the throne, David abdicates and Bertie very reluctantly takes to the throne. Meanwhile, Lionel has been helping Bertie improve his speaking, and although their friendship is tested and strained at some point, Bertie finally realises that he needs the help of Lionel to be able to speak eloquently. Finally, the movie ends when Bertie successfully makes a radio speech upon the declaration of war with Germany, with the help of Lionel coaching him throughout.
The King's Speech may appear to be a boring drama to some people, but in actual fact, it is an emotional and warm film. King George VI had a terrible stutter, and had a career that forced him to speak to the masses - only that Lionel Logue helped reconcile the two. On a side note, there is a certain sign of class tension, in which Lionel is a mere commoner and Bertie is a royal. The actors were marvellous throughout, and the emotional tension and conundrums that were present throughout the story were acted out and depicted extremely well. Colin Firth was brilliant in acting as Bertie; fear, hopelessness, self-irony, self loathing, courage, anger, he plays it all with supreme masterful skill. Geoffrey Rush as Lionel Logue was excellent as well, and his character was shown though tenacity and humour at times, resulting in a man who refused to be restricted by others of a higher social class.
The buildup to the final speech was nothing less than wonderful. The final scene was the most important one of them all, with King George VI walking up to the microphone slowly and silently, with all the staff and the household in tense silence, almost like he was walking up to the guillotine. Throughout his speech, there were different scenes of the whole of England listening to his broadcasted speech. This helped create a sense of great importance, and I cannot express how much of an emotional impact this had on me.
All in all, The King's Speech is an amazing historical drama, with values like resilience an important theme of the story. Ordinary people like you and I can also easily grasp the essence of the movie. I feel that it really reaches out to the viewer; it may be based on royalty, but in actual fact, the story itself is a simple one that is a resounding triumph.
Cheers,
Roystan
Dear Roystan,
ReplyDeleteI wish to explain a few things that I think you left out about The King's Speech. Firstly, the reason why David could not keep his throne. I think that the reason why he placed the woman he loved above his throne is because to him, the throne does not really seem his. Even in the movie, his father, George the Fifth, told him that it is part of his duty to look after his elder brother after Edward ascended to the throne. It sounds a lot like saying that even if Edward did ascend the throne, the power would belong to George. If we contemplate the atmosphere and pressure that Edward would have been facing at that time, it is unsurprising that he would choose to give up the throne, for to him, the throne is like an addition, a thing that can be cast off anytime. Originally he would be possessive of it like a child would be of a new toy, but gradually the appeal of the throne would fade in his eyes. The other thing is the reason why the King could not marry a divorcee. From the time of Henry the Eighth, the King or Queen has been the head of the Protestant church in England. Therefore, he/she is supposed to be holy and pure, and not do impious things like marrying a divorcee. Not to say that marrying a divorcee is impious, but the divorcee in question in the movie appears to be a women of only moderate character, a women, who from her portrayal on the screen and the fact that she was divorced twice, appears to be fully capable of using the fact that her husband is the King of England for unscrupulous personal means, and as such cannot be trusted to marry him.
The other thing I wish to point out is about why Bertie is afraid of becoming King. I do not think class tension is the reason why he dismissed Lionel's urgings for him to become the King. We must remember that Bertie's wife, the Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was according to British Law, a commoner. This meant that Bertie was not a person to be affected by class prejudice. He was fine with Lionel being a commoner. What I think deterred him were the bad memories of his previous public appearances. He was a great stutterer, and the few times he appeared in public were enough to give him a phobia of appearing in public, which is a must for a king. This is why he did not want to become King.
Regards,
Jian Shern
Hi Jian Shern,
ReplyDeleteThank you for raising two very valid points, one of which I totally missed out. I apologise for that. For the first point, I agree with most of what you have said, especially about the part where the king or queen was the head of the Church of England. However, I wish to point out something else regarding your point on how "the throne is like an addition, a thing that can be cast off anytime." Edward VIII had wooed a huge number of women, and coupled with many other cases of reckless behaviour, this drew the worry and attention of other aristocrats. His lack of maturity could also be the reason why he chose to give up the throne solely for his lover. It could be possible that he had failed to realise the gravity of the constitutional crisis that happened once he had abdicated the throne.
As for your second point, I admit that there's been a bit of miscommunication in what I have written. My point was that it was extremely humbling to see a royal like Bertie seek the help of a commoner and failed actor like Lionel. I did not mean that Bertie dismissed Lionel's encouragement solely because of the difference in backgrounds. I apologise for the communication error. As for Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, I am not too sure about the British laws at that point of time, as from what I know, she was born into a family of Scottish nobility, so I am not too sure about whether she was regarded as a commoner in Britain. Thank you for pointing that out!
Overall, I must really thank you for your comment. It really sparked off my thinking, and made me realise that I had missed out on a few points in my post. Thanks a bunch, Jian Shern!
Cheers,
Roystan :D