As King George V (Michael Gambon) makes his 1934 Christmas address, he explains the importance of broadcasting to the modern monarchy to his son. Later, Albert plays Logue's recording and hears an unbroken recitation of Shakespeare in his own voice. He returns to Logue, and they work together on muscle relaxation and breath control, while simultaneously probing the psychological roots of his stammer. The Prince reveals some of the pressures of his childhood: his strict father; the repression of his natural left-handedness; a painful treatment with metal splints for his knock-knees; and a nanny who favoured his elder brother, deliberately pinching Albert at the daily presentations to their parents. As the treatment progresses, the two become friends and confidants.
When George V dies, the Prince of Wales accedes to the throne as King Edward VIII (Guy Pearce), but he wants to marry Wallis Simpson (Eve Best), an American divorcée socialite, which would provoke a constitutional crisis. At Christmas in Balmoral Castle, Albert points out that Edward cannot marry a divorced woman and retain the throne, Edward angrily accuses his brother of a medieval-style plot to usurp his throne, citing Albert's speech lessons as an attempt to ready himself for power. Albert is tongue-tied at the accusation, and Edward resurrects his childhood taunt of "B-B-Bertie". At his next session, the Prince has not forgotten the incident. In an attempt to console him, Logue insists that Albert could be king and says the shilling of their wager should bear the Duke's head as monarch. Albert accuses Logue of treason and, in a temper, he mocks Logue's failed acting career and humble origins, causing a rift in their friendship.
When King Edward abdicates to marry, Albert becomes King George VI. He needs Logue's help and he and the Queen visit the Logues' residence to apologise. When the King insists that Logue be seated in the king's box during his coronation in Westminster Abbey, Dr Cosmo Gordon Lang, the Archbishop of Canterbury (Derek Jacobi), questions Logue's qualifications. This prompts another confrontation between the King and Logue, who explains he began by treating shell-shocked soldiers in World War I. When Logue sits in St Edward's Chair and dismisses the Stone of Scone as a trifle, the King's clear remonstration of Logue's disrespect for the relics leads him to realise that he is as capable as those before him.
Upon the 1939 declaration of war with Germany, George VI summons Logue to Buckingham Palace to prepare for his radio speech to the country. As the King and Logue move through the palace to a tiny studio, Winston Churchill (Timothy Spall) reveals to the King that he too had once had a speech impediment but had found a way to use it to his advantage. The King delivers his speech as if to Logue, who coaches him through every moment. But this scene moves beyond coaching to generate an understanding of the essential dynamic of successful public performance: in order to perform comfortably, the artist must maintain a connection to the audience. When Lionel says, "Speak to me," he is giving a lesson to all of us. If you can feel safe with your audience, if you can befriend them, then no matter what happens, you will be fine. The many pauses necessitated to prevent his stammer therefore sound convincingly dramatic, and the speech is a success. As Logue watches, the King steps onto the balcony of the palace with his family, where thousands of people assembled for the speech applaud him.
A final title card explains that, during the many speeches King George VI gave during World War II, Logue was always present. Later, he was inducted into the Royal Victorian Order for his service to the King, with whom he remained friends. The film is distributed by The Weinstein Company. So download free The King's Speech (2010) movie online.
David Seidler, the writer, had himself developed a stammer as a child, due, he believes, to the emotional trauma of the war, which had included the murder of his grandparents during the Holocaust. As a child, Seidler was inspired on finding out that King George VI had overcome a stutter. “Here was a stutterer who was a king and had to give radio speeches where everyone was listening to every syllable he uttered, and yet did so with passion and intensity,” Seidler recalled. When Seidler became a writer as an adult, he resolved to write about King George VI. During the late seventies and eighties he voraciously researched the King, but a dearth of information on Logue. Eventually, Seidler contacted Dr Valentine Logue, who agreed to discuss his father and make his notebooks available, if The Queen Mother gave her permission. She asked him not to in her lifetime and Seidler abandoned the project.
In 2005, Seidler suffered from cancer, and returned to the story during a bout of creative work it inspired. His research, including a chance encounter with an uncle whom Logue treated, indicated he used mechanical breathing exercises combined with therapy probing the underlying causes of the condition. Thus prepared, Seidler imagined the sessions. He showed the finished screenplay to his wife. She liked it, but pronounced it too "seduced by cinematic technique" and suggested he re-write it as a stageplay to focus on the essential relationship between the King and Logue. After he had completed it, he decided he quite liked it and sent it to a few people for feedback.
In early 2006, one of the people Seidler sent his play passed it to Joan Lane, of Wilde Thyme, a production company in London. Lane saw the script as a potential screen drama as well as stage play, and showed it to Simon Egan of Bedlam Productions, who recorded the first rehearsed read-through. Together Lane and Bedlam organised a reading of the play in Pleasance theatre, a small house in north London, to a group of Australian expatriates, among whom was Tom Hooper's mother, who called her son immediately and said "I've found your next project". With a view to mounting a stage production, Wild Thyme sent the script to Geoffrey Rush for his interest, simultaneously championing film director Tom Hooper for any future screen adaptation; and Bedlam Productions passed the script to Iain Canning at See-Saw Films, who saw its potential as a feature film. Hooper liked the story, but thought that the original ending needed to be changed to reflect events more closely, "If you hear the real speech (made by the King on the outbreak of war in 1939), he’s clearly coping with his stammer. But it’s not a perfect performance. He’s managing it."
The UK Film Council awarded the production £1 million in June 2009. A script read-through was held on 11 November, ahead of the beginning of filming on 13 November. Principal photography, scheduled to last seven weeks, concluded on 17 January 2010.
The set design presented a challenge for the film-makers, since as a period drama, the film relied to an extent on the quality of its production, but the budget was a relatively limited £10 million. At the same time, the film had to be authentic, combining regal opulence and scruffy, depression-era London. On 25 November 2009, Rush and Derek Jacobi took part in filming at the Pullens buildings in Southwark. On 26 November, a week's filming with Firth, Rush and Jacobi began at Ely Cathedral, the location used for Westminster Abbey. Though Lincoln Cathedral is architecturally a closer match to the Abbey, the crew preferred Ely, a favoured filming location. Its size allowed them to build sets which showed not just the coronation but the preparations before it. Lancaster House, an opulent period house in London, was used for the interiors of Buckingham Palace when the King walks to make his speech and for the official photograph afterwards; it cost £20,000 a day to rent. The crew investigated Logue's former consultation rooms, but they were too small to film in. Instead, they found a high, vaulted room in 33 Portland Place not far away. Eve Stewart, the production designer, liked the existing wallpaper so much that she recreated the effect across the entire room.
The opening scene, set at the closing ceremony of the 1925 British Empire Exhibition at Wembley Stadium, was filmed on location at Elland Road, home of Leeds United and Odsal Stadium, home of the Bradford Bulls. Elland Road was used for the speech elements of the prince stammering his way through his first public address, and Odsal Stadium was selected because of its resemblance to Wembley Stadium in 1925. The crew had access to the stadium only at 10pm, after a football game and filled the terraces with inflatable dummies dressed in period costumes, which gives a better image than using special effects. Actors, who move and shout, are interspersed to give the impression of a crowd. An open casting call for extras was put out ahead of an expected filming date of 16 December 2009.
Other locations include Cumberland Lodge, Harley Street, Knebworth, Hatfield House, Queen Street Mill Textile Museum in Burnley, and Battersea Power Station, which doubled as a BBC wireless control room. Elstree Studios provided sound-stages for some interior filming. The final cut of the film was completed on 31 August 2010.
Hooper employs a number of cinematic techniques to evoke the King's feelings of constriction. Manohla Dargis thought the feeling of entrapment inside the King's head was rendered overly literal with a fisheye lens, though Hooper denied this, saying he had simply used wider than normal lenses photographing the film. Roger Ebert noted that the majority of the film is shot inside, where oblong sets, corridors and small spaces manifest constriction and tightness, in contrast to the usual emphasis on sweep and majesty in historical dramas. Hooper used wide shots to capture the actors' body language, particularly Geoffrey Rush who trained at the L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris and "is consequently brilliant in the way he carries his body". Hooper widened his scope first to capture Rush's gestures, then full body movements and silhouettes. The approach carried over to Firth as well. In the first consultation scene, the Duke is framed against a large wall squeezed against the end of a long couch, "if to use the arm of the sofa as a kind of friend, as a security blanket?". Martin Filler praised the "low-wattage" cinematography of Danny Cohen, as making everything look like it has been "steeped in strong tea".
The film's score was composed by Alexandre Desplat. In a film about a man struggling to articulate himself, Desplat was wary of overshadowing the dramaturgy. He characterised the challenge: “This is a film about the sound of the voice. Music has to deal with that. Music has to deal with silence. Music has to deal with time.” The score is a sparse arrangement of strings and piano, intended to convey the sadness of the King's muteness, and then growing warmth of friendship between him and Logue. The minimalist approach emphasises the protagonist’s struggle for control in the story. Desplat used the repetition of a single note to represent the stickiness of the King's speech. As the film progresses growing banks of warm strings swaddle the deepening friendship between the two leads, to a climax in the coronation scene. Hooper originally wanted to film the scene without music, though Desplat argued that it was the real climax of the story, the point when the friendship was ratified by their decision to trust each other. "That is really rare", said Desplat, "Mostly you have love stories". To create a period sound the score was recorded on microphones which had been specially made for the royal family, extracted from the EMI archives. The score was nominated for several awards including "Best Original Score" at the Oscars, Golden Globes and BAFTAs.
According to screenwriter David Seidler, director Tom Hooper insisted on being as historically accurate as possible, the two of them working together for four months to get the best from the script, and ensure its authenticity. According to a BBC interview with Lionel Logue's grandson, the film team became aware of a diary containing Logue's original notes on his treatment of the duke only some nine weeks prior to shooting. They then went back and re-worked the script to reflect what was in the notes. Hooper said that some of the film's most memorable lines were direct quotes from Logue's notes.
However certain changes were made for artistic or dramatic reasons. Professor Cathy Schultz pointed out that the film-makers tightened the chronology of the events to just a few years. The Duke of York in fact began to work with Lionel Logue in October 1926, ten years before the abdication crisis. The improvement in speech was apparent in months rather than years as suggested by the film. In a 1952 newspaper interview with John Gordon, Logue said that "Resonantly and without stuttering, he opened the Australian Parliament in Canberra in 1927"; i.e. just seven months after the Duke began to work with Logue. Hugo Vickers, a royal adviser, agreed that altering historical details to preserve the essence of the dramatic story was sometimes necessary. The high ranking officials, for instance, would not have been present when the King made his speech, nor would Churchill have even been involved at any level, "but the average viewer knows who Churchill is; he doesn't know who Lord Halifax and Lord Hoare [sc. Sir Samuel Hoare] are."
Robert Logue, a grandson of Lionel, doubted the film's depiction of the speech therapist, stating "I don't think he ever swore in front of the king and he certainly never called him 'Bertie". Historian Andrew Roberts claims that the severity of the King's stammer was exaggerated and the characters of Edward VIII, Wallis Simpson and George V made more antagonistic than they really were, in order to increase dramatic effect. This contradicts reports by the BBC that many of the King's speeches were edited to reduce his stammer, before the public got to hear them.
Christopher Hitchens and Isaac Chotiner challenged the film's portrayal of Winston Churchill's role in the abdication crisis. It is historically well-established that Churchill encouraged Edward VIII to resist pressure to abdicate, whereas he is portrayed in the film as strongly supportive of Prince Albert and not opposed to the abdication. Hitchens and Chotiner have also taken issue with George VI's implied attitudes towards the appeasement of Hitler. While the film never directly mentions the issue, Hitchens and Chotiner argue that it implies that George VI was against appeasement, especially in the final scene portraying "Churchill and the King at Buckingham Palace and a speech of unity and resistance being readied for delivery". Hitchens states that George VI was very pro-appeasement in the "private letters and diaries of the Royal Family". The Guardian corrected the portrayal of Stanley Baldwin as having resigned due to his refusal to order Britain's re-armament, when he in fact stepped down as "a national hero, exhausted by more than a decade at the top".
Martin Filler agreed that smaller liberties were mostly justified artistic licence, indeed, the probably imagined scene when George V lectures his son on the importance of broadcasting makes a valid point. George VI would never have tolerated Logue addressing casually, nor swearing, he probably understood German and in reality was lukewarm towards Churchill until later in the war because of the latter's support for his brother during the abdication crisis.
The official US poster was released on 2 December 2010, and the film had its world première on 4 September 2010 at the Telluride Film Festival in the United States. At its première at the Toronto Film Festival, the film was applauded with a standing ovation. The screening fell on Firth's 50th birthday and was called the "best 50th birthday gift". The film won the People's Choice Award at the festival.
The film was initially given a 15 rating by the British Board of Film Classification for its release in the United Kingdom, due to scenes where Logue encourages the King to shout profanities to relieve stress. At the London Film Festival, Hooper criticised the decision, questioning how the body could certify the film "15" for bad language but allow films such as Salt (2010) and Casino Royale (2006) to have 12A ratings despite their graphic torture scenes. Following Hooper's criticism, the board lowered the rating to "12A", allowing children under 12 years of age to see the film if they are accompanied by an adult. Hooper levelled the same criticism at the Motion Picture Association of America, which gave the film an R rating, preventing anyone under the age of 17 from seeing the film without an adult. This rating was not appealed. In his review, Roger Ebert criticised the R rating, calling it "utterly inexplicable", and said "This is an excellent film for teenagers". In January 2011, Harvey Weinstein, the producer, said he was considering having the film re-edited to remove some profanity, so that it would receive a lower classification and reach a larger audience. Helena Bonham Carter also defended the film, saying "[The film] is not violent. It’s full of humanity and wit. [It's] for people not with just a speech impediment, but who have got confidence [doubts]."
The film is distributed by Transmission in Australia and by Momentum Pictures in the United Kingdom. The Weinstein Company is the distributor in North America, Germany, Benelux, Scandinavia, China, Hong Kong and Latin America. The film was released in France on 2 February 2011, under the title "Le discours d'un roi". It was distributed by Wild Bunch Distribution.
In the UK and Ireland, the film was the highest earning film on its opening weekend, it took in £3,510,000 from 395 cinemas. The Guardian said that it was one of the biggest takes in recent memory, compared to Slumdog Millionaire (2008), which, for example, two years earlier earned £1.5 million less. It continued a "stunning three weeks" atop the UK Box office, and earned over £3 million for four consecutive weekends, the first film to do so since Toy Story 3 (2010).
In the United States The King's Speech opened with £206,851 in four theatres, averaging £51,713 per theatre. It holds the record for the highest per theatre gross of 2010. It was widened to 700 screens on Christmas Day, and 1,543 screens on 14 January 2011. It made £4.81 million in North America during the New Year's Day weekend, and £7 million during the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day weekend.
In Australia, the film opened on Boxing Day 2010 and made more than £4 million in the first two weeks, according to figures collected by the Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia. The executive director of Palace Cinemas, Benjamin Zeccola, said customer feedback on the film was spectacular. "It's our No.1 for all the period, all throughout the country. ... I think this is more successful than Slumdog Millionaire and a more uplifting film. It's a good example of a film that started out in the independent cinemas and then spread to the mainstream cinemas."
As of 9 February 2011, the film has earned over £106,360,000 in picture houses around the world.
The King's Speech has received widespread critical acclaim. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 95% based on reviews from 187 critics, with an average score of 8.6/10. It summarised the critical consensus as: "Colin Firth gives a masterful performance in The King's Speech, a predictable but stylishly produced and rousing period drama." Metacritic gave the film a weighted score of 88/100, based on 41 critiques, which it ranks as "universal acclaim". Empire gave the film five stars out of five, commenting, "You’ll be lost for words." Lisa Kennedy in the Denver Post also gave the film full marks for its humane qualities and craftsmanship, "It is an intelligent, winning drama fit for a king — and the rest of us", she said. Roger Ebert, of the Chicago Sun-Times, also awarded the film a full four stars, commenting that "what we have here is a superior historical drama and a powerful personal one." Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave four stars out of five, stating, "Tom Hooper's richly enjoyable and handsomely produced movie... is a massively confident crowd-pleaser."
Manohla Dargis, in the New York Times, whilst generally ambivalent toward the film, called the lead performances one of its principal attractions. "With their volume turned up, the appealing, impeccably professional Mr. Firth and Mr. Rush rise to the Acting occasion by twinkling and growling as their characters warily circle each other before settling into the therapeutic swing of things and unknowingly preparing for the big speech that partly gives the film its title.", she wrote. The Daily Telegraph called Guy Pearce's performance as Edward VIII "formidable...with glamour, charisma and utter self-absorption". Bradshaw said that Pearce's dispatch of the role "with some style" replaced the memory of Edward Fox playing the part. Empire said he played the role well as "a flash harry flinty enough to shed a nation for a wife." While the New York Times thought he was able to create "a thorny tangle of complications in only a few abbreviated scenes".
Allociné, a French cinema website, gave the film an average of four out of five stars, based on a survey of 21 reviews. Le Monde, who characterised the film as the "latest manifestation of British narcissism" summarised as "We are ugly and boring, but, By Jove!, we are right!", nevertheless admired the performances of Firth, Rush and Bonham Carter. It said that, though the film swept British appeasement under the carpet, it was still enjoyable.
Queen Elizabeth II, the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom, was sent two copies of the film before Christmas 2010. The Sun newspaper reported she had watched the film in a private screening at Sandringham House, A "palace source" described her reaction as "touched by a moving portrayal of her father". Seidler called the reports "the highest honour" the film could receive.
The film won the People's Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2010. The King's Speech received twelve nominations at the 83rd Academy Awards, more than any other film. It received nominations for Best Picture, Director (Tom Hooper), Cinematography (Danny Cohen) and Original Screenplay (Seidler), and three for the principal actors (Firth, Helena Bonham Carter and Rush); as well as two for its mise-en-scene: Art Direction and Costumes. It was nominated for fourteen BAFTAs, more than any other film, and seven Golden Globes; Colin Firth won for Best Actor. He also won the same award from the Screen Actors Guild of America, where the entire cast won "Best Ensemble", meaning Firth went home with two acting awards in one evening.
Hooper won Best Director from the Directors' Guild of America, ahead of, among others, David Fincher, who made The Social Network; making Hooper the favourite for the Academy Award for Best Director. The film won the Daniel F. Zanuck award for Best Theatrical Motion Picture at the Producers Guild of America annual awards, ahead of nine other nominees including Inception, Black Swan and 127 Hours. Ian Canning, Emile Sherman and Gareth Unwin collected the prize on behalf of the crew.
Bertie & Elizabeth (2002), a straight to television feature film which also addresses the stammering of the king (played by James Wilby). It was a co-production of PBS (Masterpiece Theater) and London's Carlton Television.
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