The opening sequence of The King's Speech establishes the historical context of the film by showing King George VI preparing to give a speech in 1925 at Wembley. Through camera shots, music, and costumes, the sequence portrays King George as a weak and nervous public speaker who struggles with a stammer. It aims to make the audience feel sympathetic towards the King as he works to overcome his stammer with the help of his speech therapist. Overall, the opening sequence effectively orients the viewer to the time period and genre of the film as a historical drama about King George VI's personal struggles.

1. Analysis

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!