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I saw this movie -- and I have to say that all the musical excerpts of Beethoven, Mozart, etc. were quite exquisitely played by the London Philharmonic. I think the music stuck in my head more than the actual movie =P

In the absence of anything remotely correct regarding history (maybe one needs to be a Tory or a Republican) perhaps we have to indeed fall back on the music.

'Amadeus' was good clean fun, and WOW! what great music, it was almost easy to overlook the idiocies (no one will be harmed), but 'The King's Speech' falls into a hysterically sentimental 'pulling of the heart strings'. Why not glamorize Nazi Germany?

fuzzy, was there original music by the film composer (Alexandre Desplat)???

There must have been; Desplat was nominated for a Golden Globe for "Best Original Score" for "The King's Speech."

Regards,

I know, which is why I am asking.But nobody seems to have noticed or commented on his music. I haven't seen the movie.

it's now time to invoke godwin's law on this thread.

There's a few historical liberties taken (like the crowds outside the palace in one scene) but nothing much that distorts the general picture I think? What did you find? Are you just reacting to the IDEA of a monarchy? There have been films about Nazi Germany that go beyond a strictly documentary approach. Do you reject them too? But for sheer glamourisation you can't top Mel Brooks' "Springtime for Hitler" :-)

On the contrary, the liberties regarding history were modest and were essentially artistic licence to serve the drama.

Your last sentence is bizarre and in bad taste.

Well no, I shouldn't think so.

I love it! Now there's truth if you're looking for it.

"The Producers" Brook's only comedy.

"don't be stupid, be a smarty
come and join the Nazi party"

Exactly. Great poetry too!

I like the bit in the official trailer for the film where George and daughter are watching a News Reel of Hitler speaking and she say's "What's he saying" and he replies:

"I don't know, but he seems to be saying it rather well".

Funny, I thought his mother Mary (May) of Tech spoke German to all her children. This seems to continue the usual propoganda.

EJR, can you quote any references for that?

I am not sure that it makes much difference to anything. Some of my family spoke German when I was a child. But I would be interested to know. Thanks.

As you wish. Pulling heart strings always wins the day, damn those misunderstood Germans, nice to see a film make a fool of itself.

I've never seen a more dangerous rewriting of history.

Try Gone with the Wind.

We have really gone astray from the original post of this thread. That is- the frequent use of Beethoven's music in the film.

Out of curiosity, I tried to find what the movie critics thought of the film. Afterall, they're the experts. Right?

Surprisingly (or maybe not so), the combined score was an 88 out of a possible 100, based on 41 critics from all over the country. The well-respected Roger Ebert gave it a 100. Stephanie Zacharek from "Movieline" had this to say:

We know this is a true story that has been folded, trimmed and wedged into a piece of dramatic fiction. But strict veracity aside, it’s such a relief, and a pleasure, to care about people and things we see in a movie. The real strength of The King’s Speech is that it allows us to care deeply about those little princesses and their parents in movie terms, rather than in real-life ones. And that’s our job when we go to the movies.


I guess those "mollycoddling boots" I wear, according to btb, are a fairly popular line of footwear.

Kathleen

No, Kathleen, they are not the experts on many of the issues that we have been talking about as this thread wandered away from "Beethoven as Background Music." People like Roger Ebert may think they are capable of writing historical commentary as they relax in their proverbial armchair, but that would be hubris at best. His opinions on the "true story" nature of this film carry no more weight than, say, ..... mine.

What a slog that one was. Too much epic melodrama for me, and the US Civil War is not my historical area of expertise.

But... Max Steiner's soundtrack is glorious!

Except that nobody considers it a serious account of the civil war. Besides, it has Vivien Leigh at her most fetching.