William Tell

William Tell is a new action adventure film directed and written by Nick Hamm, director of Driven and The Journey.

In the 14th century, the world is in a mess after the fall of the Roman Empire. Tyrannical rulers try to take as much land as possible and keep it under their control. The Austrian ruler also tries to keep Switzerland under his leadership.

The Swiss farmer William Tell (Claes Bang) helps a fleeing man from the corrupt Austrian power and thus starts a rebellious resistance against this tyranny. In the hope of getting enough support from others, they try to end this situation, in order to start a more fair rule.

Nick Hamm has experience as a director, but for this film adaptation of the Swiss legend of William Tell, he chose to write the story of the film independently for the first time. Unfortunately, he misses the mark, because he ended up with a messy film. Where he does not always seem to have been very clear about where exactly he wanted to go with the story. As a result, the story can sometimes be difficult to follow.

This is also because the film starts at a hurried pace, but then later slows down to a long-winded pace. In the smooth introduction, too many different problems and characters are introduced, most of which have their own storylines. Most of these storylines are more separate from each other and sometimes only overlap briefly, but these overlaps do not always have the same amount of use or real meaning.

You also do not get to know the many characters well enough to really care about most of them during the final battle. When people die during this battle, you do not always know exactly who has died and you also care little about most of the lost fighters.

Most of the fights are also a bit on the hurried, simple side, because William Tell quickly manages to eliminate most of his opponents. This sometimes happens with just an arrow, despite the armor that his opponents wear.

Due to the many, smooth introductions of characters, most actors do not really get a chance to make the characters their own. Some then deliver somewhat weak or exaggerated acting.

An adaptation of Friedrich Schiller's 1804 play of "Wilhelm Tell" and story of the Swiss struggle for independence. Where an act of oppression, followed by unnecessary wrongdoing sparks a response that sets off a chain of events that lead to rebellion. Wilhelm Tell, master of the crossbow, involved in a conflict he would have rather not be a part of..

Visually, the film delivers beautiful landscape shots and a believable period piece, with a nicely-colored and dynamic cinematography and an excellent production! Not to mention a rather large cast of actors that present the material with strong performances.

I've read questioning of the "dialogue", but as a foreigner, I found it was easy to follow at all times and no line particularly annoying or useless.

But.. despite this strong execution, the script lacks surprises, intrigue and excitement. Making the predictable plot an expected retelling of this known story.

Don't get me wrong, it is quite solid and engaging enough.. but for 2-hour film that feels a tad long, I expected something more. It's not what I wanted it to be, but I would recommend it still to those interested and those not familiar with the famous character.

I watched the world premiere of William Tell at the Toronto International Film Festival (2024).

The presenter of the festival had said before the movie, "they don't make movies like this anymore". I assumed that was a positive thing.

Unfortunately, it really wasn't. The biggest issue of the movie was the language used.

This is a 14th-century period piece that involved the Swiss and Austrians. But for whatever reason the dialogue was written in something that sounded like a high-schooler's approximation of Victorian English.

According to the director, he wrote the dialogue to have language unique to the film. Maybe to assist in some sense of believability within this world. Instead the film was often hard to follow. Character motivations were lost in the flowery, disjointed language.

That being said - the cast did their absolute best with the film. Golshifteh Farahani, Connor Swindells, Rafe Spall, and Ellie Bamber were standouts.

Don't go to see the film for Ben Kingsley - he was barely in it and his performance felt completely phoned in.

If you're okay with 2-hours of mindlessness as you watch beautiful scenery and cool fight scenes - I think there is enough to enjoy.

The movie set up a sequel. I do hope it can be made, and some changes to how dialogue and character interactions are done will be made.

The movie is pretty poor, overall. But that's not what I'm here to flag... by far the most jarring aspect is they've lifted Al Pacino's Peach With Inches speech from Any Given Sunday, in parts practically verbatim, for Tell's rousing the troops before battle. WTF is that all about??

Not even a little bit, a nod to it, huge chunks.

"In any fight, it's the man whose willing to die..."

"You gotta look at the person sitting next to you, look in the eye and ask that person are you willing to die for me..." but delivered in the least inspiring, spine chilling way that it should make Pacino cry himself to sleep.

I knew nothing about this film going in but sometimes taking a gamble and going in blind can pay off when you find yourself watching a hidden gem. "William Tell" however is just an average watch.

I found the film quite hard to follow because (like in alot of historical dramas) most of the strapping, bearded, heavily armoured warriors look the same, and there's way too many off them to keep up with. This might just be me. But it did have quite a slow pace overall.

There is some decent bloody action (especially toward the end) and alot of breathtaking scenery in the movie. But there are some questionable decisions too. Especially when it comes to some of the cast. With a promising ending for one of the characters not happening. While the ending overall isn't even an ending really.