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| KING GEORGE VI: THE MAN BEHIND THE KING'S SPEECH |
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| Director: Julie Sawyer |
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Distributor: Revolver Entertainment |
| DVD release: 09 August 2011 |
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Runtime: 80 min. (1 disc) |
| Format: Color, DVD, NTSC |
| DVD Features: Aspect ratio 1.33:1, Audio tracks (Dolby Digital Stereo - English), Subtitles (English), Three deleted scenes w/ philosopher Dr. Takeshi Yoro, Booklet w/ exclusive photos and text by director Jessica Oreck |
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The King's Speech , the engrossing film about King George VI, pulled in 11 Oscar nominations and four wins. Immediately after viewing the film, I had to know more.
In response to this need comes The Man Behind The King's Speech. Using newsreel footage and expert interviews, The Man Behind The King's Speech answers many if not all questions about the king, his queen, his brother Edward VIII, who was king for less than a year, and Lionel Logue, the speech therapist who helped His Majesty to keep his lifelong stutter in check during the time of England's greatest need.
Interviews with historians, relatives, The King's Speech director Tom Hooper and Colin Firth help flesh out the story of this amazing leader. It is heartening and inspiring to see how the King went from reluctant leader to beloved monarch during the time of the Blitz, when he and his family stayed in London. His home was bombed, like many others in the east end of London.
The King's Speech was the perfect vehicle to portray the heartache of His Majesty's impediment and the conundrum of overcoming iit, but that film left some holes as to the historical context of the king's life. There is very little about King George VI in most of the World War II docs I've seen over the years; I honestly wondered if Britain had one at the time. Guess he kind of kept to himself.
The Man Behind The King's Speech is a good source of information, and the 80-minute length keeps things brief enough. My only complaints lie with the repetition of certain portions several time in the course of the short film. More thorough editing could have helped avoid that redundancy. Overall, though, this is not a bad film to watch to help fill in the blanks of The King's Speech.
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