For about the past year or so I have been a bit of a sucker for historical battle type of movies. So when I discovered The King, I was immediately intrigued!
I had no idea really, what historical time period/event this film was portraying. But soon I realized this film involved Wales, England and France.
It's a bit difficult to perhaps properly write about this movie considering I don't know the true historical accuracy of this film. But still, I am generally aware that many historical films have holes or inaccuracies. Still, I think I can share my thoughts on the film itself and how I felt about it.
The movie is almost too slow at times, but ultimately well paced. I've watched much slower films.
What struck me the most is frankly just how young the main character King Henry V is. But not just his youth, but his small stature as well. Maybe it's predictably simple minded of me, but I do imaging a king to be at least a bit sturdy. King Henry V, played by Timothée Chalamet looks maybe 150 pounds at most to be honest. To be fair, he did seem rather agile and fierce during many battle scenes, so that helped a bit.
Its not necessarily a bad thing though, that King Henry V was small, just sort of surprised me. His smaller stature and youthful features honestly made him quite relatable for me personally. It made me really put things in perspective. Those Kings and Queens from back then were human like all of us.
In a way, King Henry's presence sort of set the stage for the vibe of the whole movie. The movie did a great job at feeling very realistic. All the characters seemed to have a raw fear and sort unpredictable nature about them. Many characters felt both willing to fight, yet also reluctant to fight if that makes sense.
This movie did not really try to hard to be insanely different and that's what made it stand out to me. Of course they have original fresh aspects to it I suppose since almost any movie wants to accomplish that to an extent. But this movie simply was well acted, and dramatic. Each character seemed to pop and have distinctly different personality traits.
Robert Pattinson honestly did a great job at playing a total psycho as who I guessed was a Prince of France or something but I guess he was Louis, The Dauphin. This guy was both funny and scary as hell. Definitely a memorable character.
Overall man, I would watch this movie again, and that says a lot in my opinion! The battles were 'clean' and just really intense. Lots of hand to hand viciousness. The music and backdrops were like, perfect for an old European battle/war movie. I felt like I was really in the 1400's!
This movie makes me want to learn more about history, specifically European history.
I give this a strong 7.8 out of 10! I am trying to be super honest with these reviews! That's a solid rating I feel.
Give it a watch!!
Any other battle/medieval movies I should watch?
