The King

Directed by David Michod

Written by Joel Edgerton and David Michod

Rating: 🔥 That’s hot

Prince Hal is the black sheep of the family who is not supposed to inherit his father’s crown. But when his younger brother is killed in battle, Prince Hal becomes Henry King of England. When his goal to unite the kingdoms under the English crown becomes threatened by outside forces, King Henry leads his men into battle against the King of France. Throughout the ups and downs of the beginning of his reign King Henry’s character is tested at every turn. What kind of king will he become?

This movie had many strong points, most notably the outstanding performances by Ben Mendelsohn, Timothee Chalamet, and Robert Pattinson. I very much so respected the decision to include the French language with subtitles, rather than have the entire film be in English. I also respected that the French characters had French accents, rather than the all-too-common British accent for all foreign characters. The storyline was compelling and I found myself engrossed in a period of history that I know very little about. The costumes and set design were perfect and allowed the audience to be sucked in wholeheartedly to this period piece.    

Pacing was a bit of a problem with this film. It drags at points and leaves you yearning for the action to pick back up again. It might just be my own personal bias against violence and gore, but I found some of the battle scenes to be long and drawn out. Another issue I had with this film was the lack of female characters. There are only three female characters and their dialogue was limited. However, all three female characters were strong and opinionated, so I guess if you’re only going to have three women with limited screen time, these three characters were wonderfully crafted. Overall, this film is well-written, well-acted, and well-directed. The King is now streaming on Netflix.

Review written by Zianna Weston