The King is a 2019 epic historical drama film directed by David Michôd, based on several plays from William Shakespeare's Henriad. The screenplay was written by Michôd and Joel Edgerton, who both produced the film with Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, and Liz Watts. The King includes an ensemble cast led by Timothée Chalamet as the Prince of Wales and later King Henry V of England, alongside Edgerton, Sean Harris, Lily-Rose Depp, Robert Pattinson, and Ben Mendelsohn.
PLOT
King Henry IV of England has several sons, including the eldest, Henry, Prince of Wales ("Hal"), and Thomas. Hal, uninterested in succeeding his father, spends his days drinking, whoring, and jesting with his companion Falstaff in Eastcheap.
King Henry IV grows tired of Hal's debauchery and announces that Thomas will inherit the throne. King Henry IV sends Thomas to subdue Hotspur's rebellion. However, Hal arrives and upstages Thomas by challenging Hotspur to single combat. Hal kills Hotspur, ending the battle without further conflict. Thomas, feeling cheated of his glory, complains to King Henry IV.
Shortly thereafter, Thomas dies while campaigning against the rebels in Wales. King Henry IV dies in his bed with Hal present. Hal is anointed as King Henry V and opts for peace and conciliation with his father's many adversaries, despite his actions being seen as weakness.
At King Henry V's coronation feast, envoys from the Dauphin of France present Hal with a tennis ball as an insulting coronation gift. However, King Henry V chooses to frame this as a positive reflection of his boyhood. His sister Philippa, now the Queen of Denmark, cautions her brother that nobles in any royal court have their own interests in mind and will never fully reveal their true intentions.
King Henry V interrogates a captured assassin who claims to have been sent to kill him by King Charles VI of France. French agents approach the English nobles Cambridge and Grey. The traitors plot against Hal and unsuccessfully attempt to win over the Chief Justice, Gascoigne. Gascoigne advises Hal that a show of strength is necessary to unite England, so Hal declares war on France and has Cambridge and Grey beheaded.
He approaches Falstaff and appoints him as his chief military strategist, saying that Falstaff is the only man he truly trusts. The English army sets sail for France. After completing the Siege of Harfleur, they receive taunting messages from the Dauphin.
The English advance parties stumble upon a vast French army gathering to face them. Dorset advises Hal to retreat, but Falstaff proposes a false advance to induce the French into rushing forward into the muddy battlefield, where they will be weighed down by their heavy armour and horses. They will then be attacked by the English longbowmen and surrounded by a large, lightly armoured flanking force hidden in the nearby woods.
Unable to dissuade Falstaff from leading the advance personally, Hal proposes to the Dauphin that they meet in single combat to decide the battle and minimise bloodshed. The Dauphin, seeing this as weakness, refuses. The Battle of Agincourt commences. Falstaff's plan works – the bulk of the French army charges to engage Falstaff's force and is soon mired in the mud. Hal leads the flanking attack, and the outnumbered but far more mobile English army overpowers the immobilised French, though Falstaff is killed.
The Dauphin, seeing his men being driven back, reinvokes Hal's challenge but repeatedly slips and falls in the mud until Hal permits his soldiers to kill him. Hal orders all French prisoners executed for fear that they might regroup, despite Falstaff having previously warned him that such an action would be unchivalrous and unworthy of a king.
Hal reaches King Charles VI, who agrees to adopt him as his heir and offers him the hand of his daughter Catherine of Valois. Hal returns to England with his new wife for a celebratory triumph. In private, she challenges his reasons for invading France and denies the supposed French actions against Hal, suggesting the assassin was a plot from within his own court.
Suspicious, Hal confronts Gascoigne, who confesses that he had staged the insult and acts of aggression, believing that his sole duty is to protect the king even if it means deceiving him. In a cold fury, Hal stabs the Chief Justice to death, and returns to Catherine, asking that she promise to always speak the truth to him, as clearly as possible.
Rating: 10 Stars
