The King's Speech

I saw this last night and loved it. I like Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush and both were excellent. I didn't know all of the backstory, but still found it very interesting and engrossing. (And now I want to find some books to read about the subject!)

I saw this last weekend and I thought the acting in the film was fantastic. I though Geoffrey Rush was really, really great- but then again, he's a favourite of mine. (He always steals the Pirates movies for me- far more than Johnny Depp, meh!)

I am more than sure dramatic licenses were taken, as they always are in these things, but it really is an amazing story.  Plus, these kind of stories are always helpful in reminding ourselves that sometimes we overcome our differences and do great things in life. 

I saw The King's Speech for the second time yesterday.  It was just as good as the first time I saw it.

Today in Waterstone's on the 2 for 3 table was the book The King's Speech by Mark Logue (grandson to Lionel) and Peter Conradi.  The book is based on the diaries of Lionel Logue.  The book contains photos of Lionel and his family.  Should be an interesting read.

I saw it this week and loved it too! Like a few others of you, I've never been a huge Colin Firth fan, but he really was excellent in this.

My only criticism would be that David and Wallis were sort of caricatures. Far too one-dimensional.

I saw the film last Saturday and thought it was great !

My parents had been trying to see if for 2 weeks (Orange Wednesday) and it's been so popular that it was sold out everytime they tried to go (and there 5 mulitplex cinemas in Bristol!). Eventually we saw it at one of the smaller cinemas and the majority of the audience were OAPs .

Everyone clapped at the end of the film, which I thought was pretty cool, since people don't really do that here - us Brits are too 'reserved', lol (I've only seen people clap at the end when I've been to movies in the US).

I did think it was fun to see Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle (Logue's wife) acting together again - they will always be Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy to me . It did feel a bit like a Harry Potter reunion though... with Bellatrix Lestrange, Professor Dumbledore and Peter Pettigrew!

 It did feel a bit like a Harry Potter reunion though... with Bellatrix Lestrange, Professor Dumbledore and Peter Pettigrew!

That's what DS said too 

The film has been slated heavily for the way it has allegedly re-written history. Christopher Hitchens wrote a piece in the Guardian setting out some of what he calls not errors or simplifications, but gross falsifications. Winston Churchill is shown as a consistent friend of the stuttering prince and his loyal princess and as a man generally in favour of a statesmanlike solution to the crisis presented by the abdication of the prince's elder brother, King Edward VIII. In point of fact, Churchill was – for as long as he dared – a consistent friend of conceited, spoiled, Hitler-sympathising Edward VIII, who was what is only lightly hinted in the film: a firm admirer of the Third Reich who took his honeymoon there with Wallis Simpson, the woman for whom he forfeited the throne, and was photographed both receiving and giving the Hitler salute. Hitchens says that the film applies "airbush and vaseline" to the way the Royal Family behaved over Munich and got involved, unconstitionally, in pro-appeasement politics.

I don't know how much this matters; very few people now alive will remember the events portrayed in the film. I do know that the real Queen Elizabeth (the present Queen's mother, not Helena Bonham Carter) was a racist snob who referred to black people as "nig-nogs" or "blackamoors". She backed white minority rule in Rhodesia. She criticised Lord Mountbatten, viceroy of India, "for giving away the empire" and his wife because "her mother was half-Jewish".

I also know that in the spring of 1939 George VI instructed his private secretary to write to Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax. Having learnt that ‘a number of Jewish refugees from different countries were surreptitiously getting into Palestine’, the King was ‘glad to think that steps are being taken to prevent these people leaving their country of origin.’ Halifax’s office subsequently telegraphed Britain’s ambassador in Berlin asking him to encourage the German government ‘to check the unauthorised emigration’ of Jews.”

If Halifax’s telegram was a direct result of George VI’s letter, then not only was this a case of the sovereign behaving unconstitutionally, (in bypassing and pre-empting Parliament, as he also did in welcoming Chamberlain back from Munich in 1937) but also an odious act.

Still... great costumes... lovely stately homes... hunky Colin Firth... Helena in those weird ringlets...

I don't know how much this matters....

If it was a documentary it would matter a lot, but since it's not, it doesn't matter much.

If it was a documentary it would matter a lot, but since it's not, it doesn't matter much.

Like U-571?

Like U-571?

Some of Jon Bon Jovi's finest work.

Some of Jon Bon Jovi's finest work.

Ha! 

I agree with Camoscato that it's not a documentary, so all of those facts you mentioned don't really apply here. Did you see the film? I'm not sure how they would have worked in everything you mentioned. It was about how George VI dealt with his stutter and his relationship with Logue. Not sure how they would have brought up the Queen Mum's racism. As for Edward VIII's relationship with Hitler well, that's a whole separate film in itself!

Did you see the film?

Yes I did, and if I hadn't known about the facts I mentioned, I would have thought it was quite a decent attempt at humanizing George VI. If the facts don't actually matter, as it wasn't a documentary, what else can we look forward to? A cute collie helps a guitar-playing Burl Ives lookalike Pol Pot overcome his fear of heights? A winsome redheaded harmonica playing therapist helps fishing enthusiast Heinrich Himmler beat his agoraphobia?

A cute collie helps a guitar-playing Burl Ives lookalike Pol Pot overcome his fear of heights? A winsome redheaded harmonica playing therapist helps fishing enthusiast Heinrich Himmler beat his agoraphobia?

I just optioned both of those ideas to 20th Century Fox.  You want to help on the screenplays or just take a "Story by" credit?

I just optioned both of those ideas to 20th Century Fox.  You want to help on the screenplays or just take a "Story by" credit?

I could use some help with the screenplays... I wrote the above in a sarcastic frame of mind, (yes! really!) but afterwards, this evening, while I was watching Álex Ollé & Isidro Ortiz' Fausto 5.0 with the delectable Najwa Nimri, I thought, "Hey! why not?".

therapist helps fishing enthusiast Heinrich Himmler beat his agoraphobia

How's this for a title? The Reichsfuhrer Steps Out (It's a play on words, get it? He eventually steps out of the house and by the end he'll be steppin' out with the winsome gal* - useful romcom element there - could lead to a musical finale at the joint wedding with beerhall pals Hermann and Emmy Goering)

*She needs to be a Catholic or Protestant, but we need not dwell on that too much. Keep it light! Who remembers all that 1930s stuff anyway?

I just watched a film on TV this weekend, called "Bertie and Elizabeth." It was a UK TV movie from 2002, and portrayed the relationship between George VI and his wife. The leads were not actors I am that familiar with: James Wilby and Juliet Aubrey but there were a few "big" names. Alan Bates was George V, Eileen Atkins was Queen Mary, Robert Hardy played Pres. Roosevelt and Corin Redgrave was Genl. Montgomery. The stammering issue was only briefly touched on with the Wembley Stadium scene, the first meeting with Logue (a stereotypical portrayal of him as an Australian!) and the later radio broadcast. It was more about the abdication and how Elizabeth abominated Wallis!