The King
December 16, 2021 by admin_name
The King
released 2019
www.ink2quill
“The King” is an action, historical, war drama produced by Joel Edgerton, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, David Michod, Christina Oh, Brad Pitt, Liz Watts, Ildiko Kemeny, David Minkowski, Anita Overland and Sylvia Warmer. It was directed by David Michod who co-wrote it with Joel Edgerton. It stars Tom Glynn-Carney, Gabor Czap, Tom Fisher, Edward Ashley, Steven Elder, Stephen Fewell, Sean Harris, Ivan Kaye, Tom Lawrence, Ben Mendelsohn, Timothee Chalamet, Joel Edgerton, Josef Davies, Roderick Hill, Nike Kurta, Andrew Havill, Dean-Charles Chapman, Nick Whittman, Tara Fitzgerald, Philip Rosch, Lucas Hansen, Thomasin McKenzie, Robert Pattinson, Lily-Rose Depp, Thibault de Montalembert and many more.
“The King” takes place in England of the Hundred Years War were a reluctant prince Henry of Monmouth, also known as Hal, is crowned Henry V, king of England after his war mongering father dies. Henry V, played by Timothee Chalamet, goes to war over an insult where he received a tennis ball as a gift, presumably from the French King. In the given situation of king Henry V such an insult is an act of war and a very serious matter being that he was so young, known to have a disapproving father and was newly crowned and presumed to be inexperienced. “The King” is probably the most historically accurate account of this time in history and reveals just how much liberty The Bard took when he wrote his play. This is a very different telling of what happened and even the famous Battle of Azincourt. That is one of the reasons why this is such a good film. It is not just for history buffs because the story sticks so well to how things probably happened. The young king has to deal with the aftermath of the wars of his father and the manipulative people around him who have their own selfish reasons to want Henry to go to war.
The first thing I really liked about this film was the sets and customs. Castles in the Middle Ages were not these well-lit places and life on campaign was not comfortable or clean. This wasn’t a time when people, like the noble class and royal family, sat around all day drinking and wasting money. The wealthy were worried about their fortunes and turned to the king to secure their wealth. If that meant invading such and such country, then such and such a country would be invaded.
Another great part of the film was how it stuck to events avoiding exaggerated story lines and scenes with silly choreographed fight scenes and stupid cliches and one-liners. We were spared all of that and ended up with a good film as a result. Take for example the Battle of Azincourt scene. Most historians never mention just how messy and dirty a battle it was. They fail to mention the fact that both sides were literally rolling around in the mud and under those conditions the more lightly armed English had the advantage and won the battle. That is to say, they barely won the battle but they won it nonetheless. The English did face daunting odds since they were fighting in France, which is a clear disadvantage in this case, they did not have as many heavily armed knights as the French and they did not have the numbers on their side either. The English did have the the rainy, muddy weather on their side and the tactics of Falstaff, played by Joel Edgerton, according to the movie.
My favorite part of the film was the ending and the twists in the story. The conversation King Henry had with Catherine, played by Lily-Rose Depp, turned the entire story in another direction and it was a master stroke. I don’t know how historically accurate it was but it was a master stroke. The conversation he had afterwards with William, played by Sean Harris, was also great. With their conversations we learn the reasons and real causes for the war. This is both infuriating and revealing to the King of England. As powerful as he is he is not immune to the machinations of devious people and that just might be one of the most important lessons he or any other ruling monarch can learn. The importance of having as good a group of people around you as possible is so important it cannot be overstated. Schemers and slanderers just might be the most dangerous enemies to healthy leadership.
My reaction after seeing “The King” was to ask why they do not make more of these movies. Is it possible that the movie industry can make more of these kinds of movies or is it stuck in the opium den of exaggerations, propaganda and socially engineered, predictable plots? I bet that there is a huge but little tapped market of people clamoring for more realism in films. I bet that those people are not just historians and academics either. I bet that that group of people are much larger a group than thought and made up of mostly people like you and me.
Go check out “The King” because it’s an excellent watch and a breath of fresh air in an industry awash with trite and stale projects.
John Ink2Quil
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