The King

Netflix has stepped up to the plate and made a grim, dirty and very believable period piece that can stand up to the best in the genre. Although we don't see any lavish battles with Zimmer's thunderous music, nor any camera games with a digital Collosseum, there is still a little bit of action and the filmmakers have not done themselves any shame in this aspect. But The King goes in a different direction and it's obvious from the beginning. It's a quiet, creeping drama about politics, scheming and the dirty Middle Ages, where there are only subjects or enemies. The King stands and falls primarily on the realistic presentation of the material it deals with and on Chalamet, who matures like wine. And when he walks out in front of the soldiers with his speech, it’s brilliant. (26/10/2021)

The King makes you acutely aware of how extremely mentally demanding the role of the ruler must have been in the Middle Ages. Paranoia, loneliness, responsibility, deciding between bad choices and worse ones, intrigue. It's all here, plus, you get a properly messy and brutal battle as a bonus. No vulnerable spot in the armor where the enemy could be stabbed is missed and when there are no swords or knives at hand, the rival simply gets beaten to death in a fist fight. By the way, in addition to the great visuals, it is necessary to highlight Chalamet’s performance, which is excellent here and takes the movie to a whole new level. (06/11/2019)

A bigger budget and a more effectively rendered battle would have elevated The King, but even without those things, this is an outstanding film. The slow-paced, psychologically meticulous narrative follows the transformation of a bohemian pacifist’s way of thinking and attitude into that of a cruel warrior who wants to uphold his honor. Friendship, ambition, intrigue and the loss of something held dear in exchange for something less valuable but predestined by fate. At the same time, the English and French “political nature” is nicely depicted in historical terms. All four of the key roles are played by great actors. As co-writer and co-producer, Edgerton is the father of this work. Excellent. (18/09/2020)

The solitude, burden and uncompromising nature of being a ruler. On top of that, the father-son relationships on both sides of the channel torn apart. Undoubtedly, you will recognize Shakespeare's themes, dialogue, characters and speeches in many places. However, this is not a direct adaptation of his Henriad, though the movie was inspired by it. You won’t fail to notice it and that is intentional. In any case, The King is a fine historical film impressively shot in the mud and with excellent acting (especially the Edgerton-Harris-Chalamet trio). The more intimate, the better. And it is more than intimate. (02/11/2019)

It seems that Netflix decided to try its hand at European historical epics. During the last two years, it produced the best two films of this genre in quite some time – Outlaw King and The King. These films have similar titles, topics and quality, but the latter seemed more professional to me. Maybe it’s because of the Shakespeare references, great dialogues and actors, intimacy of its story or perhaps the action scenes, with an epic finale and postscript that made me melt in pure bliss. For an intimate historical film full of politics there are quite a lot action scenes and witty lines, which is definitely good. It reminds me of the 1980s and 90s, the era of classic historical epics. By the way, did you also do a double-take over the fact that Timothée Chalamet, an actor with obvious French roots, plays the English king and the indisputable Englishman Robert Pattison plays a bitchy Frenchman? Their performances were very entertaining. (18/12/2019)