As promised. I wrote these notes without seeing the movie. They're based solely on the script. I have shortened them as much as possible to make them readable on a blog. I'm really looking forward to seeing the Oscar winning film now (not that I wasn't before) and also hearing
Alexandre Desplat's score - as the screenplay reads very musically.
The King’s SpeechBy
David SeidlerStory Notes:
Susan MarxDraft Date: January 20, 2010
LOGLINE: How the unlikely second son of King George V became King and overcame his profound stuttering with the help of an unconventional therapist.
INTRODUCTORY NOTES:
Seidler used to stutter himself so this is a labor of love that stems from personal experience. Seidler confided in a taped interview that he based Logue’s method for dealing with this type of stuttering on “the talking cure” (Freudian psychology). This form of treatment was not in vogue at the time and Seidler pays homage to this fact by all but excluding the mechanical approach that featured so prominently in George Bernard Shaw's
Pygmalion. All the buzz about this film will also likely give David Cronenberg's film 'The Talking Cure' (aka
A Dangerous Method) a boost when it comes out next year.
This is written with noticeably sparse description. There is never more than a brief paragraph introducing a new scene set-up and who is in it. All the detail about camera moves, lighting and effects are left up to the director. This type of clean draft is one of the hallmarks of a pro. Unless the writer is also the director or the story absolutely demands it, the script shouldn't contain camera direction.
STORY:
On the surface,
The King's Speech is about a man who finds his voice but at its heart, it's a story about the forging of a friendship. Part of the reason Seidler succeeds as well as he does is owing to the keen focus on the teacher/student relationship. He sidesteps the larger-than-life characters as well as the political maelstrom brewing in Europe. This is a pretty neat trick, all by itself.
The writer manages the world stage in which the story is set by having secondary characters comment on Germany's rearmament and Wallis Simpson's questionable character. This creates awareness without diverting attention from the central relationship. In addition, Seidler places excerpts of archival radio broadcasts of Hitler's mesmerizing speaking ability in strategic spots. These set the stage for the impending war and turn up the heat for Bertie to stop stuttering. The contrast is very loud.
The central conceit is that Bertie stutters because he has been and continues to be emotionally abused by his birth family. This is never overtly stated - nor is it necessarily true. This is not an authorized biography after all, even if it is triumphantly satisfying and convincing. Seidler communicates this idea through the juxtaposition of scenes where Bertie stutters with dad and sibling but not with wife and family. He's also fine when he can't hear himself talk but falls to ribbons when he's speaking into a microphone and amplified in a stadium. It sounds, to my ear, almost like musical counterpoint. Later on, Lionel confronts Bertie with his bullying brother and by his explosive reaction we know Lionel is right on the money.
Repetition, juxtaposition and mirror images are used throughout to draw parallels, point up differences and knit themes together. For example, one scene introduces a motif (if you will) which is picked up later in another scene by another character – this creates a sense of momentum and inevitability. Also, by juxtaposing Bertie and Lionel in their private domestic settings, the writer establishes their common ground as family men. These sequences are mirror images as well which strengthens the impression of the men as equals.
When Bertie and Lionel have a falling out – they are no longer seen in parallel circumstances. Lionel hears of Bertie’s imminent coronation via radio at home while Bertie sits ensconced in meetings at the palace. This abrupt shift underscores the gulf that has opened up between them. Lionel is now perceived as a mere commoner and Bertie, a larger-than-life king. Lionel is later turned away at the door as a stranger and the next time we see him he is all but lost in the crowd as Bertie rides by in a Rolls. They share a glance but at this point in time they are only similar in their alienation.
After Bertie accepts the role of king and reconciles with Lionel, Lionel literally moves into quarters at the palace. They are seen in royal apartments from this point on. This places them firmly on an equal footing in terms of on-screen perception. They have an exclusive, professional relationship not even Cosmo Lang can put asunder and from here, their relationship climbs to the pinnacle of enduring friendship. Lionel, we're told at the end, died not long after the king.
STRUCTURE:
Linear (no flashbacks or non-chronological scenes). This is arguably a script written in five acts but for the sake of simplicity I'm looking at it in three. The writer brackets the main story (which takes place in 1935-9) with a blend of archival footage and staged period scenes to establish historical context. These scenes are set apart from the main story by several years on both ends. Archival broadcasts and newsreels are sprinkled into the body of the script to create a consistent look and to impart expository information.
ACT ONE: Opens in 1925 with archival footage of Bertie blowing it badly in front of the world when he gives a stuttering speech at Wembley Stadium. Bertie dies a thousand deaths right there. His monumental failure makes him instantly sympathetic. His father (King George V) orders him to master his problem.
About a decade later, Bertie is at the end of his wits with the last in a long line of traditional (as in "mechanical") speech therapists. Bertie literally spits the marbles out of his mouth - making it clear that he's finished. Elizabeth sneaks out to meet Lionel and strikes a deal. The set-up is complete at the end of page 10.
Next we see Lionel at home with his family and a parallel sequence mirrors domestic bliss with Bertie and his. The two men finally meet and lock horns. Lionel insists on equality AND that means sharing personal stuff. Bertie is aghast. This establishes the tone of their working relationship. Bertie has a temper and that unspools in fits and starts as the story continues. Bertie exits with a record of his own voice convinced he and Lionel are both failures but after an intimidating meeting with his father, Bertie listens to the record and is surprised that he speaks eloquently. Lionel’s method might work.
ACT TWO: Speech therapy begins with vocalizing. What follows is a veritable symphony of two & 5-7 page sequences that move almost in lock-step tempo. Bertie takes his unconventional speech lessons in secret - both balking at and cooperating with the use of ditties and dances to distract him from what makes him stammer. Meanwhile the palace intrigue develops until King George V dies and Bertie's brother takes the throne. King Edward’s affair with married socialite Wallis Simpson is a scandal. Even Scotland Yard is against her.
These background tensions come to a climax on Pp. 56-60 when Bertie shares his frustration with Lionel and curses a blue streak without a single stutter. This gives birth to the even more outrageous therapy of having Bertie curse when he's blocked. But this is all too close to the truth and Bertie fires Lionel upon mention of his being the next king. Facing pressure from all sides about taking up with an adulterous woman who is already once divorced and cheating on her second spouse, Edward abdicates the throne and act two comes to a close as Bertie agrees to become the next king only to butcher his acceptance speech before the Accession Council.
ACT THREE: Bertie arrives at Lionel’s door with hat in hand (at least figuratively). Lionel, by this time, is also sorry and the two are back together as a team in earnest. They need to work on the coronation speech but feathers are ruffled and that takes precedence. The longest sequence, is the one that follows in which Cosmo Lang defrocks Lionel as an actor without credentials. Bertie is incredulous but Lionel stands his ground and Bertie has a breakthrough. The coronation follows but is only two pages long and is, in fact, archival footage watched from the royal apartments! All’s well that ends well.
Story moves forward to 1939. Lionel and Bertie are now at ease in each other’s company and rehearse with the full compliment of unconventional methods including, cursing, singing ditties and waltzing about like lunatics. The moment of truth is a long walk down a seemingly endless narrow corridor that mirrors the tunnel to Wembley Stadium in the opening. Bertie hesitates long enough for us to fear he's not going to make it but he gives a rousing speech to the world on the eve of Hitler’s invasion of Poland. Bertie pulls Lionel into a bear hug and the final wall comes down between them.
The closing bracket involves a montage of archival war footage with staged period scenes sprinkled into the mix. Elizabeth surveys damage to the palace. In the end, we see the funeral of King George VI with Churchill placing a victory wreath on the coffin. Superimpose the words that King George VI was known as the good king.
CHARACTERIZATION: As convincing as they are, as written the secondary cast lacks much in the way of shading or depth. What you see on the screen is what the actors bring to it. The one-dimensional treatment of everyone except Lionel, Bertie and Elizabeth was obviously a conscious decision on Seidler’s part because developing any of them would draw attention away from the main theme.
King George V embodies the brusque, commanding naval officer who rules by intimidation. He does not pity Bertie, he expects more of him. In one back-handed comment he tells Bertie that he's more fit to be king than his brother. That's all the emotional tenderness the old man can muster. It paralyzes Bertie.
Prince David/King Edward VIII is depicted as dashing, totally self-involved and consumed by his appetites. He is cruel in the intentional way he ignores Bertie. He's more-or-less vilified in the script. We’re led to believe England would fall to ruin under his reign. Seidler does not waffle on this point and severely limits Edward's screen time, in spite of his pivotal role, drawing him in hard but shallow silhouette.
Wallis Simpson is only seen at Balmoral after Edward ascends to the throne. The camera films only her bare back for much of this sequence before she fouls the air with her Harpie mouth. That’s all he wrote for her here but it’s quite effective in tandem with the many disparaging things that are said about Simpson in her absence.
Sir Winston Churchill makes a few characteristic remarks and appearances but that’s about all for him.
Archbishop Cosmo Lang receives the darkest treatment as a politically motivated figurehead who likes to throw his weight around in secret. We have the sense you tangle with him at your peril. His character is covertly hostile. Lang takes liberties with the media that embarrass Bertie and tries to dispose of Lionel altogether but it comes to nothing. In this way he functions as Bertie's foil.
Elizabeth – is an extension of Bertie. As such, she has a lot of screen time. Almost every time we see him, there she is too. Elizabeth will do anything to help her husband even if it means hiring a commoner and pulling the rug out from under Wallis Simpson. There is a past here that has been deleted from the shooting draft. Nevertheless, seeing Wallis dictating to Edward makes Elizabeth nearly come unhinged. She is a lady but a force to be reckoned with and when her claws come out we want to cheer. Elizabeth, like her ancestor Lady Macbeth will rule as monarch after her husband’s death.
Lionel Logue – An Australian (hence his impertinence), an actor and a family man who ekes out a living treating veterans with PTSD with rather eccentric methods. He has a “feel” for it. Lionel is a man with the strength of his convictions and we sense he has a better grasp of the situation than anyone thanks to his repeated use of Shakespeare. It's unclear how much the audience will absorb these nuances but three well chosen excerpts foreshadow events and establish Logue as a man of great insight. These include
Richard III, which draws an inverted parallel with Bertie's situation. Logue also gives Bertie Hamlet's famous lines to read into the record. “To be or not to be” - truly sums up Bertie’s dilemma. Lastly, Lionel playfully quotes Caliban from
The Tempest, which mirrors Bertie’s public perception as a defective monster that proves himself otherwise.
Bertie – Seidler draws him as a good and gentle man trapped in a classic double bind conflict. On the one hand he’s cowed by his bullying father and cruel older brother. He wants to react but feels locked into his sense of duty and royal protocol. He tells Lionel that royals don’t laugh or tell jokes but we know this is hogwash because his dad and brother do both when no-one is looking. What this amounts to is that Bertie doesn’t allow himself to be human. This is the crux of his speech “defect”. Bertie detests his stammering and yet cannot bring himself to speak out. He is a man divided against himself. Beneath his meek demeanor, however, is rage. This is the energy that saves him. Bertie’s character thus traces an arc from coward to king, which he takes in explosive bursts that catapult him forward as he rises to the challenges Lionel continually lays at this feet. Eventually Bertie gains enough ground to surmount the steepest test put before him (even greater than the opening) and triumphs.
Dialogue:
You can tell Seidler has a long history in television. His dialogue is crisp and economical. He establishes character through the manner of speech as much as the content and furthers the story while managing to be brief and sound realistic all at the same time. If only people actually talked this way – right to the point by way of something else - life would be so much simpler! For example, in speaking to Winston Churchill about Wallis Simpson, Elizabeth reminds him that she’s related to Lady Macbeth. By this remark we understand Elizabeth is not a woman to toy with.
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The Weinstein Company has to be jumping up and down with joy. Not only did this win the
Academy Awards for Best picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay the production budget was only 15 million and the R-rated version has already hauled in more than $373 million worldwide since December. That in itself sets some kind of record. However, today,
The King's Speech was re-released in a PG-13 version in the U.S. in 1,011 theatres.
It has also been lauded as being
an accurate depiction of how to overcome this type of stutter and thus sets an example for people (the majority of whom are children) who suffer with this problem. Can you say "cash cow"?
One should never try to second-guess oneself. Here I am again, already, with a quick note. I didn't get up at 3 am to watch the royal wedding from Central Texas but have seen some of the highlights. Who could not love Kate's dress (an Alexander McQueen by Sarah Burton) ? Wow. That's just how I pictured her - elegantly understated. All cream silk and English lace. It's the "unfairytale" fairytale. The dress also seems to suggest a renaissance in the British Monarchy . That resonates with me, anyway, for Kate & Will's long lasting true love and happiness. May it not JUST be a fairytale. I especially adore Kate's dress because it looks so much like my mother's. 
Today I'm wrapping research and starting the first draft of that story. Plenty of time to blog and do Tai Chi Chih . It's a beautiful day. I believe Kate and Will play a dynamic role in global consciousness and the collective imagination. Three cheers to for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Best, best wishes! All is well in the kingdom.
The Legend of the White Hat (an original story which I'm developing for a collection of short stories) is no longer available for viewing on the web. Stay tuned.
About six months ago, I wrote a story about Heroes executive producer Tim Kring's transmedia project CONSPIRACY FOR GOOD (read it here). It seemed like a cool idea but either I came across the project at the end or it bombed. There wasn't any action on the website. Today, while catching up on the Tribeca Film Festival, guess what I bumped into? 
Executive producer Bob Soderstrom shares how he took Tim Kring's excellent idea to use fictional content and cross-platform storytelling to get audience participation (crowd sourcing) to build out the story, raise money (crowd funding) and produce tangible benefits in people's lives (they built and stocked five libraries in Zambia and provided scholarships for 50 girls). 
I don't think Simon's Cat has the same problem (overcoming his famous past as the star of a children's book series). The Simon's Cat franchise was born on the small screen and his only animated sidekicks (that I've seen) are his human father (creator Simon Tofield), a grumbly Porcupine and his obese nemesis, Simon's Sister's Dog. The world is wide open for this little guy - or maybe he could just be HOME ALONE for 70 minutes.
The script was written and produced by Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver . Characterized as a cautionary tale - this prequel to the classic 1968 movie The Planet of the Apes centers around a unique father/son relationship. Caesar is a genetically altered ape (played by Andy Serkis) and his human "father", Will Rodman, is creator of a gene-altering Alzheimer's test drug given to Caesar's mother (played by James Franco). Will rescues the baby ape/man from a tragic incident and raises him in secret. 
Wyatt's newest film promises to be a thought-provoking character study, a socially relevant actioner and a riveting piece of state-of-the-art film making. The Oscar winning Weta Workshop designed the CG effects and motion capture characters. This also marks the first movie executive-produced by former Fox News Corp.CEO Peter Chernin for his new production shingle Chernin Entertainment.
It was great fun visiting the Alamo set on Saturday. As promised, here are a few pictures taken from inside the mission compound. The mock-up city of old San Antonio was outside the gates and, for some reason, none of us thought to take a picture of it. Everyone was focused on the three pages for the day - which were shot right in front of the church itself.
I was going to do a slide show (actually I DID create a small slide show on Flickr) but it won't upload to the blog as such because of a conflict in account IDs. Oh well. If you want to see the slide show, click on the link. I'll be adding a bunch more photos later on today. All the actors looked fantastic. There were several extremely well trained horses there and a dog that literally acted on cue. He seemed to be having more fun than anybody! 
Every time I go to a movie set it reminds me that nobody would be there if somebody hadn't first had the idea, visualized it in detail and written the script. It all starts with the writer. That takes incredible courage. I know from personal experience with this project and others I've had the privilege of working on, that it takes both unflagging courage AND commitment to see it through. Anyone who does this is already a winner, whether they make a splash at the box office or not. BRAVO!
The 18th Annual Austin Film Festival isn't until October 20-27 2011 but they're already gearing up for the deluge of submissions. I'll be one of the people behind the scenes, reading the scripts and contributing to the decision about what wins. AFF isn't Hollywood but it's a pretty big network here and connected with some major production entities. 
This is a great way for new writers (or veterans) to get exposure to the people who can take your project to the next level. You don't have to be from Texas to enter either. There are two basic categories - drama and comedy (which encompass everything from slapstick to horror) but this year is the first time AFF has a teleplay category. The Austin Film Society has the skinny but it doesn't look like they're interested in TV movies or mini-series at this point in time. 
I'm visiting the set of the 2004 movie The Alamo today. It's located near here - in Dripping Springs off Hamilton Pool Road - a famous watering hole in the Texas Hill Country. My brother-in-law is the head honcho because he's the writer/director. This is the final shoot for a documentary he's putting together. More on that later. 
The King’s Speech
