The King and I (50th Anniversary Edition)
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Movie Reviews of The King and I (50th Anniversary Edition)
Movie Review: Love this Anniversary Edition
Summary: 5 Stars
A wonderful classic musical with exquisite costumes. Can't get enough of the karaoke within the movie and the "songs only" options.Movie Review: The Best!
Summary: 5 Stars
There will never ever be another Yul Brynner or for that matter a Deborah Kerr.
This is a musical at the top of its game.
The cinematography is gorgeous, the music and lyrics unforgettable, the costumes gorgeous and then there is the unforgettable bigger than life actor YUL BRYNNER!!!!!
Movie Review: The King
Summary: 5 Stars
Face it...nostalgic memories aside...few of the old musicals hold up...they do in the glow of our own egos...but ask the kids after they've seen them...and you know the movies I mean...but there is one glittering exception to the rule...and I wouldn't have bet on this dark horse in a million years...yet Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr are sublime. This musical enthralls youngsters...why, I don't know...it enthralls me...but it can't be the same reason...I've shown them South Pacific, Dancing in the Rain, The Sound Of Music, Oklahoma, Guys And Dolls, Sweet Charity and a few other jewells and they just ho-hummed. But! The King And I kept them on the edge of their seats from beginning to end. I was amazed.
This is a great musical, probably Rogers and Hammersteins greatest! (I hear those heckles) So let the rest of us keep our memories of the great screen musicals intact, but for the kids and the sake of passing them along to the next generation, let's start with The King And I!!!!!!
Movie Review: Brynner is irresistible and seductive, a towering figure as the king...
Summary: 5 Stars
In the Golden Age of musical movies, Rodgers and Hammerstein took three looks at the clashes of Eastern and Western cultures: Joshua Logan's "South Pacific," Henry Koster's "Flower Drum Song" and "The King and I."
'The King and I' derived from Margaret Landon's fascinating novel 'Anna and the King of Siam.' The film concerns a genteel British governess who, with a son of her own, journeys from England to 19th century Siam (now Thailand) to instruct the king's many children, in the ways of the West...
Upon her arrival in 1862, the uptight widow immediately clashes with the powerful ruler over his refusal to give her 'a brick residence' of her own outside the walls of the palace as had been promised...
As the film progresses, and in a world where women had basically no rights, the 'very difficult' governess learns to temper her outrage at the Siamese court and its treatment of women.. And while she was admiring the king's personality and brilliant mind, she quickly discovered that the major challenge facing her is much more in the education of the volatile king than of his cute family...
Despite his open-mindedness about other cultures, the proud bald king was besieged by both colonial powers and Siamese traditionalists... At least in private, he consults Anna on how to handle the threats against Siam from England, Burma, and France... He turns a deaf ear to her complaints about having to live in the royal palace, and fascinated by science and geography.. he gives 'a puzzlement,' the proper mixture of arrogance, wonder, and confusion...
In this historical account of conflicting cultures and sexual mores, we watch two people of very different backgrounds drawing apart and then together, culminating in that most moving and triumphant of moments, when they dance together for the first time... The image of Anna is swept 'high up' by the king as they whirl across the palace floor... His bare feet seductively touching lightly the edge of her satin gown...
When the king tells Anna that something is not correct with the way they are dancing, and extends his right hand to place it around her waist, it's the climax of a romantic love that never ignites...
This good-hearted story, enriched by some of Rodgers and Hammerstein's most enduring tunes, permits the meeting of two polar cultures explored with wit and humor... It permits us also to enter into the complex mind of a stubborn king, stern and imperious, whose words and whims become the law of Siam..). But the king is graceful, comic and virile... And into the feelings of an intelligent woman equally-stubborn, intrigued, and deeply irritated by a man, that quickly found she was also instructing him in the niceties of dancing and dining...
Brynner is irresistible and seductive, a towering figure as the king... He is blessed with a resonant baritone voice, both for speaking and singing... His stance, fierce, and magnetic eyes (denoting a royal leader who cannot be questioned or denied) have an optimum vision and an inquisitiveness that reflect an agile mind as well as a vulnerable heart... He is humorous without imagining it, particularly when receiving the bows of his adorable children...
Like Yul Brynner, Kerr radiates charisma, and the two work well together... From their first meeting to their last tearful parting, the give and take of their relationship provides the performance its emotional spark...
The supporting cast is also strong...
Rita Moreno is Tuptim's ill-fated lover who criticizes the system of slavery and concubinage and voices her desire to be free; Carlos Rivas carries his role comfortably as her Burmese beau, Lun Tha; Terry Saunders arouses Anna's sympathy for Tuptim by explaining that she and Lun Tha are deeply in love; Martin Benson plays Kralahome, the King's right hand man; Patrick Adiarte brings tears to our eyes and pride to our hearts in his far-seeing strength of character necessary to bring the film to a triumphant finish...
Graced with a rich and singularly beautiful score, and skillfully directed by Walter Lang, 'The King and I' was nominated for nine Academy Awards... It received five, including the Best Actor Award to Brynner... The sets and scenery are gorgeous, and Lang did everything to convey its grandeur... You'll certainly love the impressive procession ("March of the Royal Siamese Children") when the king summons his sixty-seven children to meet their delicate schoolteacher...
Under Lang's direction, 'The King and I' proves to be the best of the Rodgers and Hammerstein adaptations, for reasons that involve East-meets-West flirtation, racism and authoritarianism, pageantry and spectacle, female determination coming up against vanity, civilization against barbarism, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera...
Movie Review: Absolutely Enchanting: The Best of the Rogers & Hammerstein Films
Summary: 5 Stars
THE KING AND I has a remarkably convoluted history. Anna Leonowens (1831-1915) was indeed a real person who did indeed teach in the royal court of Siam. She did not allow fact to get in the way of a good story; while her memoirs were extremely popular, they were also fictionalized. They became further so in 1944, when novelist Margaret Langdon retold the story in the novel ANNA AND THE KING; a play and film, the latter with Irene Dunne and Rex Harrison, soon followed and proved popular as well. According to theatre lore, actress Gertrude Lawrence, one of the great talents of her era, encountered the material and recommended it to Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein with the thought that she herself might play Anna in a musical version.
Opening on Broadway in 1951 with Lawrence in the lead, it proved a tremendous success. Sadly, Lawrence did not live to recreate the role for the screen; she died of cancer during the New York run. After much indecision and not a little argument, the role fell to Deborah Kerr--a memorable actress--but one whose singing voice was hardly up to the role. In consequence the songs were voiced by the ubiquitious Marnie Nixon, a performer who specialized in this work throughout the 1950s and 1960s.
As a film, THE KING AND I belongs to a period during which Hollywood tended to approach musicals from a theatrical rather than a cinematic point of view: there is no pretense that we are any where but on a sound stage and the camera itself seldom moves, creating an effect that is very much like that a performance given on a proscenium stage. It is a style which has not aged well--but THE KING AND I is the exception that proves the rule: with outrageously colorful sets, brilliant costuming, memorable music, and remarkable performances it remains as enchanting as it was when it first debuted in 1956.
It is also distinctly of its era in terms of casting. Voice aside, Deborah Kerr was a natural choice for the role of Anna; she too was a cultured Englishwoman. But although minor roles were generally played by people of Asian origin, none of the leads and few of the major supporting roles were. Yul Brennar was of Russian origin; Rita Moreno was Puerto Rican (and, like Kerr, her singing voice would be dubbed); Martin Benson (Kralahome) was English; Carlos Rivera (Lun Thai) was Mexican-American; and so on. Such would be quite unthinkable today, but there is no getting around the fact that all these performers give performances which are not only credible, but often extraordinary--with Brennar and Moreno cases in point.
Regardless of who, what, why, and how, the end result is enchanting from start to finish, the sort of musical that is stamped as "a special event" from start to finish. Everything glitters; the music is among the best created by Rogers and Hammerstein; the larger-than-life performances are spot-on. The story itself is both endearing and touching--and, as is often the case with Rogers and Hammerstein, makes an oblique statement against racial prejudice. While it may not be good history (the story so annoys the Thailand government that it is banned from that nation in all its many incarnations), it is delightful entertainment... and, in my opinion at least, the best of the Rogers and Hammerstein musicals both on the stage and on the screen.
The 50th Anniversary edition offers excellent color and sound and, unlike the previous edition, a noteworthy bonus package as well. As some have noted, it does not include the Overture and Intermission music of the earlier DVD--but while some will find this annoyance, the film as first released had neither; both were added during later re-release. Strongly recommended.
GFT, Amazon Reviewer