All the King's Men

This is a richly textured story, filmed with the attention to detail that caused so many of us to plan our Sundays around "Masterpiece Theatre" starting with "Upstairs, Downstairs" and "Poldark", (Not to mention "I, Claudius", "The Duchess of Duke Street",...)

In a film where the casting is uniformly superb, it is impossible to do everyone justice. As another commenter mentioned, David Jason and the always magnificent Maggie Smith remind us of a time when noble master and faithful servant were not cliches, but real people with pride, honor, and yes nobility on *both* sides. Additional shining performances from Ian McDiarmid as the vicar who stays home and Patrick Mallahide as the doctor who goes to war.

I thought that "Johnny Got His Gun" (A+ book, B- movie) had given us the last word on WWI (or the 14-18 war as some call it.) I was wrong, and this film proves it.

As the grandchildren of Queen Victoria all squared up against each other at the start of the Great War, and as the once powerful Ottoman Empire finally shut up shop, the staff at King George V's Norfolk Residence at Sandringham formed their own regiment determined to train and do their part for the war effort. They are led by the fastidious estate manager "Beck" (David Jason) and with the blessing of their royal patron, Queen Alexandra (a rather unremarkable performance from Dame Maggie Smith) set off to the Turkish sphere of operations where incomplete history tells us they were in involved in the perilous and somewhat disastrous Gallipoli campaign. This story is told from a perspective of a search, instigated by the Queen, into just what did happen and there is a familiar collection of faces used to deliver a story of courage and of, frankly, enthusiastic ineptitude at just about every level. David Jason is what we in Britain call a "National Treasure" but mainly as a comedy actor. Here, he seemed rather miscast and for me he failed to really ignite this formidable character as he becomes more of a parody of the stiff upper lip mentality than an exponent of it. It was made by the BBC and though they have clearly thrown considerable resource at this, it still looks and feels like a television movie with little by way of grand-scale illustrative photography of the battle scenes or the scale of the operations, and it's grasp of the horrors of war is just a little too tepid to deliver poignantly enough. That said, it's still a good looking drama that tells an interesting story that could also probably be applied to so many towns and villages across the land who cobbled together their own troops of the ill-prepared, the frightened and the patriotic to go and fight a war about which they knew virtually nothing for officers who had quite possibly all but inherited their commands, and who didn't know a great deal more.

World War 1 (or "The Great War") is never an easy subject to cover on film without leaning towards the extremes of patriotism or cynicism. "All the Kings Men" somehow manages to balance between the two ends, depicting the fighting at Gallipoli in the realistic terms that it deserves. This slips at the ending, however, into a controversial depiction of the fate of the battalion that drew criticism not only from the Turkish ambassador to London but one of Captain Beck's grandsons.

Despite this shortcoming, "All the Kings Men" is still a powerful - and humane - depiction of the awful tragedy that was Gallipoli, from the British side.

Aloha 🙏🏼🤙🏼

8/10.

"All the King's Men" is a richly textured piece of television drama, sensitively directed by Julian Jarrold. Its carefully nuanced script explores the horrors of the Gallipoli campaign in Turkey in World War One and the myth surrounding the mysterious "disappearance" of the Sandringham Regiment, who were drawn from King George the Fifth's estate.The men are led by Captain Frank Beck,the agent on the estate, who with the support of the Queen Mother defies the King and, despite his age, leaves Sandringham to lead the men who he has trained and whose lives he has been intimately involved with on the estate. Through the excellent performance of David Jason we see a man of some nobility of spirit,used to respecting his superiors all his life,trying to do his best in a situation where his superiors got it completely wrong.His idealism is nicely contrasted with the humane pragmatism of the regimental doctor who has no such illusions. The truth of a body of men ineptly led and totally unprepared for fighting in an unknown and hostile terrain with appalling logistical support is graphically portrayed and echoes the much better known Australian film, "Gallipoli." The deliberate burying of the truth of what happened(which involved large numbers of men being shot in the head rather than taken prisoner)in order to protect social sensitivities and preserve morale is nicely dealt with through the superbly restrained performance of Maggie Smith as the Queen Mother who is clearly not fooled but never betrays the fact. The film also sympathetically explores the social values of the English class system and particularly the close knit generation of Sandringham workers who made up the regiment. Their naive and in some cases romantic confidence in the right of King and Country fighting with God on their side(despite the fact that they were invading another country)is believably portrayed. The performances of the cast are without exception of a very high class with some excellent cameos. This is the BBC at its very best and I thoroughly recommend it to you!

Director Julian Jarrold (Emmy-nominated "Great Expectations") makes another richly textured film. Beautifully filmed with high production values, it takes us on an emotional journey through the blunderous battle at Gallipoli. Like the more famous movie starring Mel Gibson and Mark Lee, "All the Kings Men" introduces us to the brave soldiers who enthusiastically volunteered to fight for King and Country in World War I. The cast is excellent (if you enjoyed "Great Expectations," you will see many familiar faces here); the story is heart-wrenching.