The King (2019) on Netflix
In 15th-century England, Prince Hal drinks and jests in Eastcheap with his companion Falstaff. King Henry IV tires of his son's ways and names Hal's younger brother Thomas his heir.
- Netflix3.6/5
- IMDb7.3/10182,947 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes71%
Trailer
Plot summary
King Henry IV of England has grown tired of his eldest son. Prince Hal spends his days in Eastcheap, drinking and joking with his companion Falstaff, and keeps away from his father's court. The king announces that the throne will pass instead to Hal's younger brother, Prince Thomas. After a campaign against the Scots, the king meets the men who fought for him, among them Hotspur, whose anger toward the king turns into rebellion. Thomas is sent with an army to put it down. Hal rides to the field as well and challenges Hotspur to single combat, hoping to settle the matter without a full battle.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The King (2019)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Composer Nicholas Britell scored The King from a 21st-century angle rather than a medieval one, calling the 1400s "a foreign planet" and building the music from bass clarinets run through tape filters and metal sounds.
- Coronation scenes were shot at Lincoln Cathedral, which stood in for Westminster Abbey, while many other scenes were filmed on location at Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire.
- The film's John Falstaff is a fictional character created by Shakespeare, and historians have suggested the English knight Sir John Fastolf was the real-life inspiration for him.
- Unlike the film's reluctant Henry V, who is persuaded to invade France by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the real Henry V was keen to go to war, driven by expansionist territorial claims in France.
