FILMS OF THE MONTH
November 2019 | Sight&Sound | 55
trajectory doesn’t follow the usual Henriad path
from layabout playboy to regal seriousness – from
zero to hero in Hollywood parlance – but rather
from a political idealism inspired by contempt
for his father to in effect becoming his father.
But fathers die and Hal ascends the throne as
Henry V, his locks shorn to a more aggressive
bowl cut and his pale young body anointed.
Initially, the new king succeeds in averting
war, scorning the provocations of the Dauphin,
the advice of his father’s whispery counsellor
William (Sean Harris) and the archbishop’s
expounding on the casus belli that gives
Henry a tenuous claim to the French throne.
But his tipping point comes when a French
assassination plot is revealed, implicating
his boyhood friends. Their execution, with
Henry sitting alone before the beheadings, is
another gruesome step towards him becoming
a little more king and a little less human.
Violence throughout the film is shorn of
glamour. Fights are more blunt-force trauma
than choreographed swordplay, more gouging
than duelling. The siege of the first French town
of Henry’s campaign sees no rousing “Once more
unto the breach!” but rather a bombardment
watched from afar as nobles bicker about strategy.
Henry himself, feeling the weight of kingship,
becomes less heroic, more petulant, more inward,
threatening mass executions and reacting furiously
when Falstaff, whom he has brought along as
military adviser/moral compass, defies him. Henry
finally defines himself via his enemy, the Dauphin,
a punkish blond foe who luxuriates in his own
villainy and sports a French accent that shades
into comic relief. If Falstaff is Henry’s conscience,
then the Dauphin is his untrammelled id.
Of course, the key set piece is the Battle of
Agincourt, and here Michôd maintains his
ambivalence towards heroism and its myths
even as he works towards an epic cinematic
climax. He undermines the dramatic tension
considerably by having Falstaff lay out the
strategy with prescient detail early on. The
speech with which Henry rouses the troops has
already been described as perhaps a beautiful
lie, even before he opens his mouth. The
stirring patriotism of Shakespeare becomes
mere pep-talk propaganda. Far from being a
“band of brothers”, the English army remains
a collective of anonymous if enthusiastic
background artists who are almost certainly
going to their deaths. As imaginatively and
viscerally as Adam Arkapaw’s camera dives
into the mud and clamour of the battle, there’s
never a sense that the outcome – which ought
to be a surprise victory against all odds – is
anything more than a foregone conclusion.
From the criminal family in Animal Kingdom
(2010) and the feral post-apocalyptic violence
of The Rover (2014) to the cynical machinations
of the US military brass in War Machine (2017),
Michôd has explored the bleeding edge of power
relations throughout his career. It is no surprise
then that with The King he refuses to bend the
knee to a national myth and prefers to pull at
the threads in the tapestry of lies. Battles are
muddy scrums, capped by murder; and kingship,
as Princess Catherine (Lily-Rose Depp) points
out late on, is based on violent usurpation.
Chalamet’s performance is daringly understated:
as his hands become bloodier, his eyes become
deader. This is a role ripe for grandstanding (see
Pattinson’s Dauphin), but Chalamet suggests the
quietness of The Godfather’s Michael Corleone
in his murderous calm. It is a daringly downbeat
take on an English national icon, but one that fits.
Olivier’s Henry famously had a role in boosting
World War II morale, and Kenneth Branagh’s
Henry in 1989 felt like a hopeful reset from the
trauma of Thatcher’s Britain. Chalamet’s Henry,
in winning a famous European victory that
ends up feeling like a huge personal defeat, also
in its own way resonates with the times.
Timothée Chalamet’s role is
ripe for grandstanding, but he
suggests the quietness of The
Godfather’s Michael Corleone
in his murderous calm
England, the early 15th century. Following a battle
to secure Henry IV’s reign, Henry ‘Hotspur’ Percy
threatens rebellion. Meanwhile, in Eastcheap,
young Prince Hal lives a dissolute life alongside the
disreputable Falstaff. Summoned to the palace by
his father, Hal is informed that his younger brother
Thomas will replace him as heir to the throne. Thomas
is sent to fight Hotspur. Hal pleads for peace, but to no
avail. When the armies are drawn up, Hal arrives in full
armour and challenges Hotspur to individual combat.
Hotspur is defeated and killed. On his father’s death,
Hal becomes Henry V, Thomas having been killed
in another battle. As king, he sheds his old friends.
He is taunted by the French Dauphin; he ignores
the provocation, but when an assassin is sent in an
attempt on his life, Henry declares war and recruits
Falstaff to act as his adviser alongside his father’s
counsellor William. The English lay siege to a French
town, though disagreements are already evident in
the young king’s camp. The town surrenders but a
large French army now blocks the English advance.
Following a strategy proposed by Falstaff, the English
triumph at Agincourt, though he is killed. The Dauphin
is unceremoniously dispatched. The French king
surrenders and Henry agrees to marry Catherine, his
daughter. Returning to London, Henry learns from
Catherine that there was no French assassin and that
William has manipulated him. He interrogates, then
murders William. He intimates to Catherine that their
marriage will be a true partnership.
Produced by
Joel Edgerton
Dede Gardner
Jeremy Kleiner
David Michôd
Brad Pitt
Liz Watts
Screenplay
Joel Edgerton
David Michôd
Director of
Photography
Adam Arkapaw
Editor
Peter Sciberras
Production Designer
Fiona Crombie
Music
Nicholas Britell
Costume Designer
Jane Petrie
Production
Companies
A Plan B
Entertainment,
Porchlight Films,
Blue-Tongue Films,
Netflix release
Cast
Timothée Chalamet
Prince Henry, ‘Hal’
Robert Pattinson
Dauphin
Joel Edgerton
John Falstaff
Lily-Rose Depp
Catherine
Andrew Havill
Archbishop of
Canterbury
Ben Mendelsohn
King Henry IV
Sean Harris
William
Dean-Charles
Chapman
Thomas of Lancaster
Thomasin Mackenzie
Philippa
Tom Glynn-Carney
Henry Percy, ‘Hotspur’
In Colour
[2.35:1]
Distributor
Netflix
Credits and Synopsis
A RT
PRODUCTION
CLIENT
SUBS
REPRO OP
VERSION
FOTM, 4
