2. Moving away from the crime thriller genre of
Dirty Harry , I thought I would take a look at the
critically acclaimed The King’s Speech (2010).
The film charts King George VI’s battle with his
stammer and his relationship with Australian
speech therapist Lionel Logue. This presentation
should show how effective it is as an opening
sequence.
3. The opening sequence straight away establishes the
institution behind the film with the use of the
Weinstein company’s logo and the UK film council’s
logo – this tells us that the film is distributed by an
American studio , but it is ultimately a British based
film. Although the audience may already know the
genre of the film through the actual title and trailers
, the use of background information at the
beginning helps to establish the film as a historical
drama. The film could be classed as a biopic of King
George VI’s life and personal struggles .
The historical information also help us realise that the story arc starts in 1925 with the
Duke of York giving a speech in Wembley. The opening sequence then progresses onto
show him preparing with his wife and then eventually outside delivering his speech.
Audiences like structure and will want the narrative to have a beginning, middle and end.
The historical nature to the film allows the narrative to be presented chronologically in a
clear and fluent way. Dirty Harry (1971) depicted a state of dis- equilibrium with the
antagonist set on a killing spree in San Francisco – the dis equilibrium in the King’s Speech
comes from George VI’s struggle with his stammer and possibly the brief mention of the
abdication crisis. The new equilibrium is created when the King becomes a more confident
public speaker and motivates the country through a wartime radio broadcast.
4. Another key factor to the effectiveness of the opening sequence is the variety of
media language used. A range of different camera shots, camera
movements, edits, sound and music are included to give us vital information about
where the film is set, who the main characters are and how we are meant to feel
about what they do.
The close up of the microphone is quite significant as it
links back to the subject of the film and makes it clear
that speech and voice are major themes. There tends to
be lots of extreme close ups of the King’s face and there
are plenty of mid-shots as well. These shots are
purposely there to show his emotion and focus , they
really do express that he feels terror in what he has to
do. The sound in the opening sequence seems to be
non- diegetic with the King’s first speech and the
gargling of water two prominent examples. The use of
non- diegetic sound adds a high level of quality and
authenticity to the film. The score was composed by
Alexandre Desplat and was made to sound dated by
recording through old microphones made for the Royal
Family. The music is quite sombre and conveys the
protagonist’s lack of control and struggle to be heard.
5. The king is represented a very weak man and
doesn’t seem to be possess the qualities of strong
Monarch. He shakes and his lips tremble – this gives
the impression that he is an incredibly nervous man.
He doesn’t smile and his lack of strength goes
against the stereotype of a male protagonist. He just
simply doesn’t have the authority and strength that
Harry Callahan has in Dirty Harry or Bruce Wane has
in the Batman films. His costume and makeup tells
us many things too – his face is quite pale and this
shows that he is sickly timid man when it comes to
public speaking. His smart suit and top hat do show
his status as a royal , but the black casts a shadow of
seriousness and misery over him and his position.
Helena Bonham Carter as the Duchess of York seems to be the stronger character of
the two and this is not usually the case for women in film. She goes against the
stereotype in that sense , but she does perform as a good wife in the opening
sequence and supports her husband throughout. He needs a high level of
reassurance and this only adds to his weakness as a man. Her costume completely
portrays her as a royal due to her sophisticated makeup , hat and luxurious fur
trimmed coat.
6. The representation of the King actually creates an ideology and tries to make the
audience feel sympathetic towards him as he stammers. It is typical of an ideology to
support the protagonist against his battle and it probably wouldn’t be very politically
correct or well liked if the film depicted a previous King in a unreasonable light with an
ideology based against him.
7. Overall The King’s Speech is very effective as an
opening sequence for a historical drama film.
The music and costume stay true to the time
period and the media language enables George
VI to be accurately represented as a weak
nervous man with low confidence. The genre
and narrative are also established early on and
an ideology can be seen if representation is
looked at closely!
