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"THE KING'S SPEECH"...
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Filmmakers took poetic
license with the facts
of TheColumnists.com
The history buff
I cite in my review of “The King’s Speech,” Al
Negrin, has read widely on world history, including even a book
on George VI and his speech therapist Lionel Logue. Negrin says
he found only two certifiable facts in the film: George VI did
stutter and he had an Australian speech therapist named Lionel
Logue. Nearly every other scene in the movie, says Negrin--who
very much enjoyed the film anyway, as compelling drama--did not
occur as depicted on screen.
According to Negrin:
. George VI and Logue were never friends or called each other “Bertie” and “Lionel.”
. Their first therapy sessions occurred 14 years before the king delivered his big wartime speech that becomes the movie’s climactic moment. After two years of therapy with Lionel Logue, the King (then Duke of York) in 1927 was able to speak successfully in public. This was 12 years before the movie shows him first "overcoming" his stutter.
. Winston Churchill was not in the government when the movie takes place yet he is shown as a key figure advising the king and family about abdication.
. It’s highly unlikely the King ever shouted profanities as part of his therapy.
. The events surrounding the King's relationship with the American mistress of the Duke of Windsor, Wallis Simpson, were censored and the British public knew nothing of them until King Edward VIII delivered his abdication speech.
©2011 by Gerald Nachman. The terms "Oscar" and "Academy Awards" are used courtesy of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. This column first posted Feb. 21, 2011.
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