Movie: "The King's Speech"

The movie is a masterpiece of personal depth. It is a dramatic presentation of the failure to achieve identity because of non-affirmation in youth. This failure of identity outs in the personality of the Prince of Wales - about to be king - as stuttering and stammering in the most conspicuous situation possible: as King of England on the brink of war with Germany, and the need, as king, to rally the country and the entire Empire to the cause. The Duke of Windsor-to-be-king could not read a continuous sentence without halting and stammering.

A non-credentialed master of speech therapy - an Australian - who learned the trade rehabilitating shell-schocked soldiers rattled to the bottom of their psyche by battle fatigue, is discovered by the wife, the Duchess of Windsor. The therapist, as professional and man, is the real thing, establishes an authentic relationship of person to person, and leads him out of himself - to find himself. The therapy consists in liberating the self from self-absorption. The screen play and acting here are of the highest quality. The critical moment consists in the speech that the Duke-now-king must make to rally all of England and the entire British Empire to war with Germany. The speech is delivered to the therapist - now friend - standing before the king and the microphone. It is a speech given person to person, not person to empire and world. It is the relationship of friendship at its best and the building of a man to do what he must do by becoming the man that he must be. He is drawn out of himself having been frightened into himself as a child.

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The movie may be panned for children because there are snippits of vulgarity. However, they contribute to the depth of the plot which is the relationship of the two men and the release of the interior psyche of the king to become himself.