The King's Real Speech
One of the perks of working in Hollywood is that, come awards season, you get a lot of screeners. ("Screeners" is industry jargon for DVD copies of movies currently in release, or up for some kind of an award.)
Somewhere, in the giant pile, I have one for The King's Speech, which is slowly building popular momentum -- big awards at the Golden Globes, the SAG awards, BAFTA, etc. -- and will probably do quite well at the Oscars.
It's the story of King George VI, who ascended to the British throne after his brother abdicated, became a wartime monarch, and who struggled mightily with a crippling speech impediment.
I plan to watch it soon, but before I do, I wanted to hear the king's actual speech. Which I found, as usual, on YouTube:
Do people still stammer, or have trouble with their "R's" and "W's" anymore? When I was growing up, there were always kids around with speech impediments. Has the problem been stamped out, to be replaced with ADHD and peanut allergies?
Perhaps wartime Britain needed a more powerful-sounding monarch than, say, Elmer Fudd VI. On the other hand, he sounds real -- though that's probably not the goal of a man tasked with leading a country into a world war. He was meant to project power and confidence. It's amazing how important a voice is.
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Nov '10
Re: The King's Real Speech
One had to be a very loyal subject to make it through that. I guess they just had to go with the King they had.
May '10
Re: The King's Real Speech
After reading your intro, I was expecting, "People of Jewusalem, Wome is youh Fwend!"
Jun '10
Re: The King's Real Speech
Well, the movie version of the King had me and all my girlfriends swooning.
Re: The King's Real Speech
That, or "Kiwl the Wabbit."
Jul '10
Re: The King's Real Speech
Mawwiage is what bwings us togethew, today. A dweam, within a dweam.
The movie is very good for a movie on the royal family, and by Hollywood's current standards, but it is no Bringing Up Baby. Happily, they now have to compete against their own back catalog thanks to home theaters.
Edited on Jan 31, 2011 at 10:20amMay '10
Re: The King's Real Speech
Say what you will about him, he married well. Her Majesty's best line came after Buckingham Palace got hit by a bomb: "Finally I can look the East End in the face."
Jul '10
Re: The King's Real Speech
"Do people still stammer?" Yes, they do. I count myself one of them. I'm a little long in the tooth, but on a local call-in show they have a regular caller who has a pronounced stammer, and I believe the gent's younger than me. It's only been over shadowed by the cause du jour. It has not been eliminated.
I saw "the King's Speech" in a pre-release screening, and it is quite good. Watching the YouTube video Rob has embedded, you can see one of the techniques depicted in the movie: rocking back and forth from heel to toe. It's at the very beginning of the video.
Churchill also had a stammer. I've been active in speech and drama, and am a reader in my church. It can be overcome. "The King's Speech" is an excellent depiction of the courage and strength that are, sometimes, required.
Jun '10
Re: The King's Real Speech
Good for you, Tripedis. I can't imagine the guts it must take facing the congregation, or going on stage, when you have a stammer to overcome!
Dec '10
Re: The King's Real Speech
Way better than his brother. There is a back story that Edward was forced to abdicate because he was a Nazi sympathizer. Marrying the American girl was just a good excuse to push him out.
Aug '10
Re: The King's Real Speech
Question: Which speech is that in the YouTube clip? Is that before or after he went through speech therapy?
If that's the actual version of one of the speeches that were portrayed in the movie, then the movie was VERY dishonest about his public speaking abilities. In the movie, in his first speech (to a full soccer stadium) his stagefright was so bad he could barely get any words out at all.
It's a good movie, but nothing ground-breaking. Of course, I'm a Royal-loving Canuckistani Tory, so I'll devour any movie that makes the House of Windsor look good.
Edit: Oops. Clearly the clip is after his speech therapy, since he refers to himself as King. The speech in the movie was long before he became king. Never mind!
Edited on Jan 31, 2011 at 10:25amJul '10
Re: The King's Real Speech
Better a King with a stammer than a Vice President with Tourettes.
May '10
Re: The King's Real Speech
Bless his heart. You can tell how hard he's struggling, but he got through it.
As the mom of young children, I occasionally come across little kids with speech impediments, but anymore most kids are referred to speech therapists once they start school (if not before).
In the months following 9/11 I listened to a lot of C-SPAN, and I remember hearing folks with mild speech impediments during hearings and such. I specifically remember that Gen. Myers (former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs) had a distinct lisp. I wonder if a disability like that doesn't motivate one to excel in other areas to compensate.
Aug '10
Re: The King's Real Speech
This YouTube clip might illustrate why there's so much Oscar buzz over Colin Firth's portrayal of King George VI.
The video plays the real wartime speech simultaneously with Colin Firth's version. They are so close, they are almost synchronized. It's fairly astounding how close Firth got to the real thing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vh1iohLPEEg
EDIT: Oops! I should have watched the entire clip before posting. Apparently the guy edited it to ensure the speeches would be in sync. The unedited version is not in sync. My bad.
In the real speech, the King's pauses aren't nearly as long as in Firth's version, so it's clear he didn't have nearly as tough a time as is portrayed in the movie.
Edited on Jan 31, 2011 at 10:35amJul '10
Re: The King's Real Speech
Misthiocracy: Question: Which speech is that in the YouTube clip? Is that before or after he went through speech therapy?
If that's the actual version of one of the speeches that were portrayed in the movie, then the movie was VERY dishonest about his public speaking abilities.
I don't want to spoil the movie for those who haven't seen it, but if you do a little Googling on The King's Speech, you'll find the writers take considerable artistic license.
For those who haven't seen the movie yet, do not research the actual history before you see the film.
Jan '11
Re: The King's Real Speech
Years ago, I was dragooned into being a judge for the high school forensic debate team. At one tournament, the banner in the lobby proclaimed "Leadership Through Speech." I've never been comfortable with that claim. When I hear soaring rhetoric that says, "we are the ones we've been waiting for," I feel a nauseous distrust of the claim. I'd rather see the banner say "Leadership Through Coherent Thinking."
Speaking skills are like sugar. They help the medicine go down.
May '10
Re: The King's Real Speech
I'm imagining His Majesty looking down at his notes, taking a big breath, noticing for the first time the opening paragraph:
"Righteous residents of the realm, I rejoice in respect and reverence you reveal. You reject the rancid rancor of remonstrance and reprehensible rebellion. The rash of regicide recedes. Our royal reign is restful."
. . .and then he thinks, "There's going to be one less gainfully employed speech writer when this is over!"
Edited on Jan 31, 2011 at 10:53amRe: The King's Real Speech
As Misthiocracy points out above, This is NOT the speech that opens the movie. In that speech he is still the Duke and the clip above he is already the King.
I would also recommend Christopher Hitchen's piece on how the movie whitewashed some of the events and historical figures portrayed, most notably Winston Churchill .
Edited on Jan 31, 2011 at 10:53amJul '10
Re: The King's Real Speech
I did forensics in high school. My discipline was original oratory - a ten-minute prepared speech. My first year, I got clobbered by the girls. Realizing that the key to success is to know one's audience, and observing that the only judges kindly enough to sit through our performances were elderly ladies, I wrote a heavily-embellished tear-jerker about the horrors of child abuse. Quite frankly, being lazy and lacking in ethical fiber, I just made a lot of the stuff up.
Not a dry eye in the house. I swept all the way to the state championships, where I was taken down by a tiny Asian girl who chronicled her sister's struggle to overcome polio. I doubt she was any less cynical than I. But she was cuter.
Jan '11
Re: The King's Real Speech
Kenneth
Realizing that the key to success is to know one's audience, and observing that the only judges kindly enough to sit through our performances were elderly ladies, I wrote a heavily-embellished tear-jerker about the horrors of child abuse.
LOL! This confirms my memory. Although, I still have a Three Stooges reaction (slowly I turn) whenever I hear, "So let's GO America!"
Jul '10
Re: The King's Real Speech
Blue Yeti: As Misthiocracy points out above, This is NOT the speech that opens the movie. In that speech he is still the Duke and the clip above he is already the King.
I would also recommend Christopher Hitchen's piece on how the movie whitewashed some of the events and historical figures portrayed, most notably Winston Churchill . · Jan 31 at 10:52am
Edited on Jan 31 at 10:53 am
Better read Stuttaford's take on Hitchen's piece.