The King (2006)
Average Rating: 6/10
Reviews Counted: 78
Fresh: 44 | Rotten: 34
This disturbing film about the past coming back demanding its due evokes classical tragedy, but is ultimately too heavy-handed.
Average Rating: 5.9/10
Critic Reviews: 28
Fresh: 14 | Rotten: 14
This disturbing film about the past coming back demanding its due evokes classical tragedy, but is ultimately too heavy-handed.
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Average Rating: 3/5
User Ratings: 39,696
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Movie Info
This family-oriented animated special travels into the Old Testament to recreate the events that befell King David and King Saul. When Saul grows insanely jealous of David's popularity, he unleashes his vengeance against David to drive him from the royal throne. But God has other plans in mind, as foretold in a prophecy by Samuel - plans that foretell David leading an army of men against Saul and winning back his title as King of Israel. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
Cast
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Gael García Bernal
Elvis Sandow -
William Hurt
Pastor David Sandow -
Paul Dano
Paul Sandow -
Pell James
Malerie Sandow -
Laura Harring
Twyla Sandow -
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All Critics (85) | Top Critics (29) | Fresh (45) | Rotten (35) | DVD (8)
A showcase for big ideas that winds up feeling empty.
Top CriticThe King suffers from an overbearing sense of its own self-importance.
It really is reprehensible and disgusting, not only because we've seen far too many sociopaths in movies over the past 20 years, but because it deals with horrid clichés and presents them as something indie-hip and morally provocative.
Chilling and compelling.
It is an intelligent, disturbing thriller.
A deeply involving film where intentions are as cryptic as the title, and the reckoning of past sins opens fresh wounds.
The degree to which this film is unsettling is testimony to the strength of the acting and direction.
Red States' worst nightmare rules on screen.
Good work that, with a little more effort, could have been so much better.
This movie creeped me out big time.
An undemanding morality tale set in the Bible Belt.
The filmmakers' stoicism finally proves insurmountable and indefatigable
I'm all in favor of warts-and-all depictions of Christians, but the closer you look, the more you realize that warts are all this film has to offer.
A Southwestern American pastoral of dormant menace, The King is a film of triple-dipped mood that turns on an act of shocking violence, but still seems to substitute willful indistinctness for insight.
"The King" actually moves you, particularly because it has outstanding actors like William Hurt and Gael Garcia Bernal giving haunting, complex performances.
This film wastes the talents of the entire cast.
Programmed by the fatalistic filmmakers toward a cruel outcome, but the actors make it convincing...
Both Hurt and Bernal drift through their performances, leaving the audience as unfulfilled as an empty collection plate.
The many possible ways to read the film might be more fruitful if Marsh's direction was more assured.
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Foreign Titles
- The King (2006) (DE)
- The King (2006) (CA)
One of Marsh's biggest strenghts as a director is his ability to create images with haunting beauty and a eerie atmosphere that would be suitable for any horror film. The King is not an easy film to sit through. This is not a film with clear answers or a storyline that takes easy route out. It does not have a single character to really root or like to, and the themes it handles are often disturbing and unpleasant. Still director Marsh manages to keep his film always interesting with his unique approach to his material.
Where this film most notably stumbles is it's characterisation. There are too many moments when these characters does not act like humans at all. Of course that can be intention here considering that there are themes of incest, murder and religion thrown into a one big messy mix. Result is often hypnotic if dramatically uneven film about one family and their twisted story.
Marsh is clearly interested in his characters psyche and at times he manages to get inside their head, but too often we in the audience are kept in distance. As a whole The King is very interesting if a bit flawed film. Ultimately it cannot reach the heights it is trying to reach for.