PROVOKR PICK: THE KING

BY: Amanda Jane Stern

This may come as little surprise to anyone, but I love Shakespeare, I always have. His plays are bawdy and hilarious, and I’m a real sucker for double entendre. Although Netflix’s upcoming new film The King is not a direct adaptation of one of the Bard’s pun-tastic plays, it is a loose adaptation/amalgamation of Shakespeare’s history plays Henry IV Part 1, Henry IV Part II, and Henry V.

The King follows Prince Hal (Timothée Chalamet), the wayward prince of the tyrannical King Henry IV, who must ascend to the English throne and become King Henry V after his father dies. From the trailer it seems the film will follow Henry as he navigates a political landscape left behind by his father and has to leave behind his hard-partying ways. That includes having to reevaluate his relationship with his friend and mentor, the debaucherous John Falstaff.

I have to talk a little bit about Falstaff right now, because this is a character who has always made me laugh. Though the Henry plays are part of Shakespeare’s work of history plays that follow real people, Falstaff was a fictional character who was characterized by his Dionysian ways –– and gout, lots of gout, and lots of brothels, too. Seriously, this man is dripping in orgiastic excess, and I’m really curious to see how far The King goes with this character, even his name conjures up phallic imagery, and with Shakespeare you know that was intentional.

The King was directed by David Michôd from a script he co-wrote with Joel Edgerton, who also stars as Falstaff. In addition to Chalamet and Edgerton, the film stars Robert Pattinson, Ben Mendelsohn, Sean Harris, and Lily-Rose Depp.

The King comes out in theaters on October 11, 2020 before it starts streaming on Netflix on November 1, 2019.