Nigel Hawthorne garnered all the laurels for his Oscar-nominated performance, but don't overlook Rupert Everett's deliciously camp Regent-in-waiting.
The Madness of King George (1995)
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Reviews Counted:41
Fresh:38
Rotten:3
Average Rating:7.8/10
Runtime: 1 hr 50 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: King George III does some very odd things, but then who is to argue with the king? Well, his ambitious son, for one. He's not getting any younger, and all he does is sit around waiting for his... King George III does some very odd things, but then who is to argue with the king? Well, his ambitious son, for one. He's not getting any younger, and all he does is sit around waiting for his father to die. So when the king starts behaving like a real madman, the Prince of Wales lobbies Parliament to assign him the power of prince regent. What ensues is a political struggle between the prime minister, a royalist, and the opposition party. In the meantime, the king is slowly being tortured by the strange practices of 18th-century medicine: He is bled regularly, and his feces are analyzed by all manner of doctors. To rectify this atrocity, the king's distressed entourage solicits the aid of a country doctor who's as unsuccessful as his predecessors but a little more humane. When it seems as if he will be forced to abdicate his throne, George III regains his sanity just in time to assure the Parliament that he's able to rule. Directed by Nicholas Hytner and featuring an Oscar-nominated tour-de-force performance from Nigel Hawthorne, THE MADNESS OF KING GEORGE is an unforgettable romp through a crucial period in English history. [More]
Starring: Nigel Hawthorne, Helen Mirren, Ian Holm, Amanda Donohoe
Starring: Nigel Hawthorne, Helen Mirren, Ian Holm, Amanda Donohoe, Rupert Graves, Rupert Everett, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Julian Wadham, Jim Carter, Geoffrey Palmer
Director: Nicholas Hytner
Director: Nicholas Hytner
Producer: Stephen Evans, David Parfitt
Screenwriter: Alan Bennett
Reviews for The Madness of King George
We emotionally invest in the king, who is not simply a big joke but a vulnerable and somehow loveable fool.
The battle of wills between these two strong men [George and Willis] is the centerpiece of the movie, and hugely entertaining.
Funny, witty and with plenty of modern-day resonance, this is top-of-the-line British filmmaking.
Thankfully, most of the humor here works, but on the whole, the film falls to mediocrity.
Hawthorne is by turn outrageous and pathetic and imperious and poignant and very funny.
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