Sunday, February 27, 2011

"The King's Speech" and Colin Firth

A few facts first: 1) I love biographies and historical movies; 2) I don't see movies in the theater very often, preferring to wait until they have come out on DVD; 3) I often make it a point to see anything that features Colin Firth.

The King's Speech fulfilled (1), (3), and made me do (2). And for those reasons, I will be doing something tonight I've not done for years ... watching the Oscars to see how The King's Speech fares. It's been nominated for 12 Oscars including best picture, best actor, best supporting actor, best supporting actress, and best director.

The controversy that surrounded American divorcee Mrs. Wallis Simpson and King Edward VIII who abdicated the British throne to marry her was worldwide news at the time. I've read biographies and history of that episode, and I'm intrigued reading about the reluctant king, King George VI, who was not raised to be king but found himself in a situation where his services were called upon to lead his country into World War II. By his side along the way was the man who became his lifelong friend and speech therapist, Lionel Logue. All these years later the story of the King and the speech therapist hit the big screen to fantastic reviews and the world has learned a bit of history that had been tucked away for decades....

Update: Oscars went to The King's Speech for best picture, best actor (Colin Firth), and best director as well as best original screenplay. 

2 comments:

Isophorone said...

This was a great movie. The film does gloss over the fact that David (Edward VIII) was a Nazi sympathizer and that may have been the REAL reason he was forced to abdicate.

I looked up Lionel Logue on Wikipedia. Pretty interesting bio.

Oh, and Helena Bonham Carter provided some good comic relief.

Lynn R. Mitchell said...

Don't think I realized David was a Nazi sympathizer but they had real concerns about Wallis and her socializing with them.

Lionel Logue was a fascinating man, and the fact that he and the King remained friends until the King's death is commendable ... speaks well of both of them. The reluctant king did not forget who helped him. I love loyalty ... it says so much about a person's character.