DVDs and Films You Have Watched Recently 3 - The Final Insult

[HarmonicGenerator]

MANY PICTURES AHEAD.

 

I've been watching the adaptation of Ken Follett's World Without End over the past couple of days (thoughts: not quite on the level of Pillars of the Earth, but then again, the book had the same problem, it's all pretty well done in any case). One of the main characters is King Edward III, and as I was watching, I thought that I couldn't think of any other time I've seen Ed-3 on screen. Which then got me thinking, how many of the English monarchs have had substantial on-screen portrayals? Either on TV or film...

 

So I did a list. Which I'm posting here. With pictures. Sorry. I don't know what it achieves other than thinking it's quite interesting, but I do think it's quite interesting. I'm kicking off with William the Conqueror up to the present day, and I've tried to use a different actor each time.

 

Some, like Henry V or Elizabeth I have been done loads of times. I haven't seen every film but just the choice of actors in each case shows how differently the same historical figure can be portrayed - that's quite interesting in itself. The variety you can get from a thousand years of history is really cool too.

 

Alternatively, if you're casting a king in a film, you might as well get Michael Gambon. He's been William the Conqueror, Edward VII and George V just for starters. The Dench has done pretty well for herself in the royal stakes as well.

 

Look, I've just had a long car drive. I think about these things.

 

William I

(Michael Gambon - Blood Royal - this is the only picture I could find of him!)

 

William II - Peter Firth from Spooks (who's also in World Without End, nice tie-in) played him in Blood Royal, but he's the biggest name I could find.

 

Henry I

(Clive Wood - Pillars of the Earth - nothing big, since his death kicks off most of the action, but it'll do)

 

Stephen

(Tony Curran - Pillars Of The Earth - if you want to include Matilda, then Alison Pill played her in Pillars too)

 

Henry II

(Patrick Stewart - The Lion In Winter - Peter O'Toole played him in a version of this too, so Henry II's not done too badly!)

 

Richard I

(Iain Glen - Kingdom Of Heaven)

 

John - really strangely, there's a massive lack of portrayals of John when he's king; at least, that I can come across. Loads and loads of him as Prince John - in Robin Hoods, mainly - but once he's King, there isn't a lot, aside from Leonard Rossiter. This surprised me, actually!

 

Henry III - you can go for that Rossiter adap of King John, but aside from that, it's slim pickings for Henry 3.

 

Edward I

(Patrick McGoohan - Braveheart)

 

Edward II - Steven Waddington (of Last of the Mohicans possible fame) played him in 'Edward II', but looking at pictures, it doesn't appear to have been spectacularly accurate considering the upper half of his costume consists of a vest. Waddington has also played Richard the Lionheart, though, so he's doing well king-wise. And he was the Duke of Buckingham in The Tudors. You do get Ed-2 briefly in World Without End, but it's nothing major.

 

Edward III

(Blake Ritson - World Without End)

 

Richard II

(Ben Whishaw - The Hollow Crown)

 

Henry IV

(Jeremy Irons - The Hollow Crown)

 

Henry V

(Sir Kenneth Branagh - Henry V - but there have been loads for him)

 

Henry VI - he's an interesting one. You mostly see him in adaptations of Shakespeare's Richard III, which he is in for a bit, but considering how long his reign was / reigns were (since he was crowned twice), there's been very little of him on-screen.

 

Edward IV - a fair few minor portrayals, but it surprises me there hasn't been a proper go at the Wars of the Roses for decades now. Okay, it's a stupidly complicated bit of history, but Game of Thrones' success should have sparked at least one TV person to go, hang on, House York and House Lancaster, we could do something with that...

 

Edward V - oddly, the Princes in the Tower don't get too much of a look in...

 

Richard III

Peter Cook - The Black Adder)

 

Henry VII - lots of little portrayals, couldn't find any decent pictures, but Joss Ackland played him in Henry VIII - the one with Ray Winstone in. Speaking of which...

 

Henry VIII

(Ray Winstone - Henry VIII - but there's plenty to choose from here)

 

Edward VI - found him quite difficult to track down, if I'm honest. There's bound to have been some - these are the Tudors, so he'll have been played loads of times - but nothing jumped out. If you want to count Lady Jane Grey, then Helena Bonham Carter played her once.

 

Mary I

(Kathy Burke - Elizabeth)

 

Elizabeth I

(Cate Blanchett - Elizabeth: The Golden Age - she's got to be amongst the most-portrayed of the lot)

 

James I - Jonathan Pryce played him in The New World but I can't find a picture. He'll do, though.

 

Charles I

(Peter Capaldi - The Devil's Whore - you can have Dominic West for Oliver Cromwell if you want to include him, but he wasn't technically King, so boo Parliamentarians, boo Protectorate, bring on the Restoration)

 

Charles II

(John Malkovich - The Libertine)

 

James II - a few portrayals, but nothing major that I can see.

 

William III and Mary II - Laurence Olivier played William in 'Peter the Great', and since I counted Blackadder before, then I reckon it's fine to include Victoria Wood as Mary in The League Of Gentlemen's Apocalypse. Olivier and Wood together would have been something.

 

Anne - not very much of speak of here.

 

George I - or here, oddly...

 

George II

(Richard Griffiths - Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides - it's supposed to be George II, anyway)

 

George III

(Nigel Hawthorne - The Madness Of King George)

 

George IV - this is another interesting one. You've got your choice if you want him as Prince Regent, whether you want The Madness... again or Hugh Laurie in Blackadder III... but once he becomes King, it all becomes very scarce!

 

William IV

(Jim Broadbent - The Young Victoria - Peter Ustinov has played him as well)

 

Victoria

(Dame Judi Dench - Mrs Brown - and of course you could also have Emily Blunt)

 

Edward VII - because I can't have Gambon again, I'm struggling. Lots of bit parts, nothing particularly of note. People love their Edwardians, yet aren't so keen on seeing the Edward bit...

 

George V

(Tom Hollander - The Lost Prince - but Michael Gambon did him in The King's Speech as well)

 

Edward VIII

(Guy Pearce - The King's Speech)

 

George VI

(Colin Firth - The King's Speech - it's a good one for monarchs, this film)

 

Elizabeth II

(Helen Mirren - The Queen)

 

 

 

 

So there you go. I realise this was a waste of time and I apologise. Perhaps someone other than me will find some interest in it...

Edited May 9, 2013 by HarmonicGenerator

[gmoney]

No apology required, I thought it was thoroughly interesting. Was The Hollow Crown any good? It passed me by completely.

[HarmonicGenerator]

No apology required, I thought it was thoroughly interesting. Was The Hollow Crown any good? It passed me by completely.

 

Cheers. The Hollow Crown has its moments, I'd say it's worth seeing but not a must-see unless you're in a Shakespearean mood. The casts are phenomenal, certainly.

 

Richard II is a slow-burner, but that's the way Whishaw plays it - the tragedy sneaks up on you. It's a great performance. You also get Patrick Stewart as John of Gaunt, and his 'this... England' speech is sublime. However, I wasn't keen on how they did Bolingbroke.

 

Henry IV plays on the father-son angle with Jeremy Irons and Tom Hiddleston, which works, by and large, but I was really disappointed by part 1 because Hotspur's one of my favourites and they all but cut him out after the opening scenes in favour of interminable tavern pieces with Simon Russell Beale as Falstaff. I get that Beale's a great actor but it was overkill. Part 2 had the same problem - but at least you can fast-forward if you get bored with them - the rest of it is really good (even if they did remove Hotspur's best speech).

 

Henry V was my favourite of the four episodes. Hiddleston does really well with it, and while he's no Branagh, by the end you can buy into him as an action hero, but it's the rom-com bit at the end that he nails. It's absolutely spot on.

 

All the way through, the costumes and attention to detail are fantastic. So... I'd say if you can download or borrow it, give it a whirl, but I wouldn't spend on the DVD unless you watched and loved it.

[Loki]

Richard 1 had an even greater actor play him:

 

 

So famous is that performance, that there's a wall painting in Acre in Israel of Richard 1, and it's Sean's mug up there.

[John Matrix]

There has been a staggering lack of discussion of The Last Stand round here. Why? Did everyone sleep through Arnie's comeback? Watch it, cunts, before they take it off YouTube:-

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdXVvqcMD6M...player_embedded

 

It's really very good indeed.

 

I think Malbranque, Rockers and I were all over it when it came out. Eagerly awaiting the DVD and any other news on his upcoming stuff.

 

I fucking loved it, my only issue with it was the main bad guy who was billed as the most dangerous drug baron in the world turned out to be about as intimidating as Tamwar off Eastenders.

[Devon Malcolm]

I really like Eduardo Noriega, he's been in some great films and I thought he was really good here. Great to see Luis Guzman get a big role as well.

[John Matrix]

I didnt have a problem with the actor, just the character. For all the "most dangerous, feared" schtick, what did he actually do to make you think "oooooh, what a bastard"

 

Compare him with say, Clarence Boddiker for example, and it's night and day. I was thinking of doing a favourite movie villain thread, but i'm sure it was already done a while back.

[Chest Rockwell]

Guzman was a fantastic surprise as although I knew we'd be getting some comedy sidekick action from Knoxville I had no idea he'd be in the mix as well. Always a welcome addition.

[Dai]

The new Star Trek was very good. Not outstanding, and not as good as the first one, but still very enjoyable. Pegg steals every scene he's in, and both Benedict and Quinto are brilliant. From looking at IMDB just now, the Russian guy was the "Im a magician, youre not a magician" kid from an episode of Curb. Anyway, the rest of the cast are all OK, and the story is fine (if a little predictable and run of the mill).

 

<-- click on 'spoiler' to show/hide the spoiler

Kirks death scene was a waste of time, though, as no-one could possibly believe that he was going to die.

 

[close spoiler]

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[HarmonicGenerator]

Richard 1 had an even greater actor play him:

 

 

So famous is that performance, that there's a wall painting in Acre in Israel of Richard 1, and it's Sean's mug up there.

 

Indeed! There was loads of choice with Richard, but I went with Glen because I wanted to imagine that he was on crusade with Daenerys Targaryen, fighting Saladin with Dothraki and stuff.

 

The worst thing is, I don't know whether to believe you about the wall painting... I want it to be true so much.

Edited May 10, 2013 by HarmonicGenerator

[Devon Malcolm]

Guzman was a fantastic surprise as although I knew we'd be getting some comedy sidekick action from Knoxville I had no idea he'd be in the mix as well. Always a welcome addition.

 

I really hate Johnny Knoxville. He was easily the worst thing in this. It made up for it with fleeting Sonny Landham and Harry Dean Stanton appearances, though.

Edited May 10, 2013 by Devon Malcolm

[Chest Rockwell]

His character was quite OTT, so I can see that you'd hate him if you don't like Knoxville. I like him though, so found him charismatic enough to make me buy into the character.

[Loki]

It made up for it with fleeting Sonny Landham and Harry Dean Stanton appearances, though.

 

This film just got a whole lot more interesting to me. Sonny Landham I hardly ever see any more, and I'm amazed they got Stanton in, as he's very old now and quite hard to get hold of, believe me.

[Devon Malcolm]

That upload on YouTube is HD as well. I'm not normally bothered but we've got fibre optic now so I've started watching things at their highest quality and it really did look pretty great for a YouTube upload.

[Astro Hollywood]

Guzman was a fantastic surprise as although I knew we'd be getting some comedy sidekick action from Knoxville I had no idea he'd be in the mix as well. Always a welcome addition.

 

I really hate Johnny Knoxville. He was easily the worst thing in this. It made up for it with fleeting Sonny Landham and Harry Dean Stanton appearances, though.

 

I didn't spot Sonny Landham, and it seems like his scene(s?) got cut altogether. A lot of wildly confused people think he was the fat guy who gave Arnie the keys to his car, which is mental because that's obviously not him.