The King’s Speech was awarded four Oscar awards. Besides winning the best picture, Colin Firth won the best actor award, Tom Hooper won the award for best director and David Seidler won the award for the original screenplay.
The awards were a deserved success for a film about the stuttering difficulties of King George VI, father of Queen Elizabeth II, the King who awarded Malta the cross that we still carry on our national flag.
Sometimes we may be led to think that members of royal families, apart from the nuisance of having journalists and photographers following each and every step, have no difficulties at all. They appear in all their glamour and sophistication, and seem aloof of the problems that afflict the common man and woman.
This is not so.
The King’s Speech highlights the humanity of one of the most loved monarchs in British history, and his frustration because of his speech defect. It focuses on the way he was not given that much attention in his younger days because he was not the eldest of his family, and therefore not the first in line to the throne. It speaks about the way he was forced to write with his right hand although he was naturally left-handed, and his addiction to smoking, which ultimately caused his premature death at the age of 56.
The film brings out King George as a human being with all the frustrations, fears and uncertainties of someone who needs to fulfil a role and yet does not feel up to it because of a speech defect. In part of it humorous, in others touching, The King’s Speech has made stuttering more understandable to the public at large.
Many times, one can have strong campaigns to make people more aware of some condition or other. Yet, on other occasions films such as The King’s Speech can have an even greater impact on people. The fact that people with power, such as King George VI was, had to work hard to overcome their difficulties should serve as an example to many others who might share the same problem – or be afflicted with others – and give them the courage to jump over a hurdle they might think is insurmountable.