The film focuses on the rise of Henry V as king after his father dies as he also must navigate palace politics, the war his father left behind, and the emotional strings of his past life. The King premiered at the 76th Venice International Film Festival on 2 September 2019, and was released digitally via Netflix on 11 October 2019. The film received generally favorable reviews from film critics but was criticized by historians for its inaccuracy to both the original plays and historical reality.
Plot
Henry, Prince of Wales, "Hal", is the emotionally distant eldest son of King Henry IV of England. Hal is uninterested in succeeding his father and spends his days drinking, whoring, and jesting with his companion John Falstaff in Eastcheap. Henry IV summons his son Hal and informs him that Hal's younger brother, Thomas, will inherit the throne. Thomas is sent to subdue Hotspur's rebellion but is upstaged by the arrival of Hal, who challenges Hotspur to single combat. Although Hal kills Hotspur, ending the battle without further conflict, Thomas complains that Hal has stolen his glory. Shortly thereafter, Thomas is killed in battle after taking his campaign to Wales.
Henry IV dies in his bed with Hal present, and Hal is anointed King Henry V. Hal opts for peace and conciliation with his father's many adversaries, despite his actions being seen as weakness. At his coronation feast, the Dauphin of France sends Hal a ball as an insulting coronation gift. However, Hal chooses to frame this as a positive reflection of his boyhood. His little sister Philippa, now the Queen of Denmark, cautions that nobles in any royal court have their own interests in mind and will never fully reveal their true intentions.
Hal interrogates a captured assassin who claims to have been sent by King Charles VI of France to assassinate Hal. The English nobles Cambridge and Grey are approached by French agents hoping to induce them to the French cause. Their trust in the new young king wavers, and they then approach Hal's Chief Justice, William Gascoigne, with their concerns. Gascoigne advises Hal that a show of strength is necessary to unite England, so Hal declares war on France and has Cambridge and Grey beheaded. He approaches Falstaff and appoints him as his chief military strategist, saying that Falstaff is the only man he truly trusts.
The English army sets sail for France. After completing the Siege of Harfleur, they continue on the campaign but are taunted by the Dauphin. The English advance parties stumble upon a vast French army gathering to face them. Dorset advises Hal to retreat, but Falstaff proposes a false advance to lure the French to rush forward into the muddy battlefield, where they will be weighed down by their heavy armour and horses. They will then be attacked by the English longbowmen and surrounded by a large, lightly armoured flanking force hidden in the nearby woods.
Falstaff insists on leading the dangerous false advance, as it was his plan, prompting Hal to challenge the Dauphin to single combat to decide the battle and minimize bloodshed; however, the Dauphin refuses. The Battle of Agincourt commences. Falstaff's plan works – the bulk of the French army charges to engage Falstaff's force and is soon mired in the mud. Hal leads the flanking attack, and the outnumbered but far more mobile English army overpowers the immobilized French, though Falstaff is killed. The Dauphin, still fresh and in heavy armour, reinvokes Hal's challenge but repeatedly slips and falls in the mud until Hal permits his soldiers to kill him. Hal orders all French prisoners executed for fear that they might regroup, an order that Falstaff had refused to carry out following the Siege of Harfleur.
Hal reaches King Charles VI, who offers his surrender, makes him his heir, and offers him the hand of his daughter Catherine of Valois. Hal returns to England with his new wife for the celebrations. In private, she challenges his reasons for invading France and denies the supposed French actions against Hal, suggesting the assassin was a plot from within his own court. Suspicious, Hal confronts Gascoigne, who confesses that he had staged the insult and acts of aggression and declares that true peace comes only through victory. In a cold fury, Hal stabs Gascoigne in the head, killing him, and returns to Catherine, asking that she promise to always speak the truth to him, as clearly as possible.
Cast
Cast and order are per closing tombstone stand-alone credits. The roles are per closing credits scroll.
Filming on location at Berkeley Castle, Gloucestershire, UK.
Development
In 2013, it was revealed that Joel Edgerton and David Michôd had collaborated on writing an adaptation of Shakespeare's "Henriad" plays, Henry IV, Parts 1 & 2 and Henry V, for Warner Bros. Pictures.[6][7][8] In September 2015, it was announced that Michôd would direct the project, with Warner Bros. producing and distributing the film, and Lava Bear producing.[9]
The film's original score was composed by Nicholas Britell, who thought of approaching the film's music from the 21st century, instead of the medieval 15th century approach, saying "because of the timelessness of these issues, if felt like something that we could explore with the sound of different time periods, just to make you look at the early 1400's in a way that it felt like you hadn't seen it before". He felt that the "1400s looks like it was a foreign planet".[19][20] He experimented the film's music using bass clarinets run with tape filters, and sounds of metal while composing.[21] It was Britell's most "dark and sombre" music reflecting the zone of the film.[22]Lakeshore Records released the album consisting of 15 tracks from Britell's score, on 1 November 2019 in digital and CD formats, while the vinyl edition was released three years later on 8 July 2022.[23]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 71% of 148 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.6/10. The website's consensus reads: "While The King is sometimes less than the sum of its impressive parts, strong source material and gripping performances make this a period drama worth hailing. "[28]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 62 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[29]
Box office
While released on Netflix, The King did receive a limited theatrical release (43 screens total, for three weeks) in South Korea and New Zealand, grossing $126,931 at the box office.[30]
After its release, The King became the subject of widespread commentary over its historical accuracy; as The Independent opined, "as an adaptation of an adaptation, a few things are bound to have been lost in translation".[35] The film, based on the Henriad, a collection of Shakespearean history plays about the monarchs of England, includes several fictional characters (such as John Falstaff) and contains several historical dramatizations of the real events the movie was based on.[36] In France, the movie was criticized for its perceived anti-French sentiment, with French historian Christophe Gilliot stating that "I'm outraged. The image of the French is really sullied. The film has Francophobe tendencies." Gilliot also claimed that "The British far-Right are going to lap [the film] up, it will flatter nationalist egos over there."[37]
Numerous articles were published on the historicity of The King, analysing the historical accuracy of various elements of the movie. The following historical inaccuracies were mentioned:
The film depicts Henry V as being reluctant to go to war with France, but being eventually persuaded by the Archbishop of Canterbury. In reality, Henry V was keen to go to war with the French, with his primary motivation being expansionist territorial claims in France.[38]
The character of John Falstaff, as depicted in the film, is a fictional character created by Shakespeare. Many historians have suggested that the English knight Sir John Fastolf served as a real-life inspiration for the character of Falstaff.[38]
The film depicts a rivalry between Henry V and his brother, Prince Thomas, who is depicted as dying in Wales prior to Henry's coronation, an event which pushes Henry to ascend to the throne. In reality, Thomas was killed in action at Battle of Baugé in the Duchy of Anjou eight years after Henry V's coronation.[39]
The King depicts the Battle of Agincourt as taking place on green and hilly terrain, when in reality it occurred on fallow fields on the French plains. The film also depicts the French as holding the heights during the battle when in reality it was the English who did so.[40]
The film implies that Henry V and Catherine of Valois married almost immediately after the Battle of Agincourt, when in reality their marriage occurred five years later on 2 June 1420.
The film depicts the Dauphin of France, Louis de Guyenne, as being present at the Siege of Harfleur and the Battle of Agincourt (dying in the latter battle), when in reality he was present at neither battle and died of dysentery in 1415.[41]
A crucial part of the English defence, the sharpened stakes, or palings, which were set at an angle towards the French cavalry to protect the archers, was almost entirely ignored in the film although there was a brief shot of a small pile of palings awaiting deployment.[42]
The film's costume design consists of numerous anachronisms and inaccuracies, consisting of armor and clothing from the entirety of the fifteenth century not present during the film's period, alongside entirely ahistorical designs.[43]
^Davies, Luke (June 2013). "Joel Edgerton after Gatsby". The Monthly. Archived from the original on 18 May 2018. Retrieved 18 May 2018. With David Michôd he has written King, an adaptation of Shakespeare's Henry IV, Parts I & II, and Henry V, for Warner Bros.
^Samuel, Henry (4 November 2019). "Netflix's 'The King' is anti-French nonsense that flatters a war criminal, says director of Agincourt museum". The Daily Telegraph.
