The King and I 1956 by AverageMansReviews

The King and I 1956 by AverageMansReviews

Review Time

Warning: there is flashing effects/colourful effects/slavery/animal cruelty/references to racism

In 1862, Bangkok, Siam: briefly; this teacher Anna Leonowens/Ms. Anna [Deborah Kerr:] she is a widow and English that has agreed to come to Siam to teach the King's children [the ones that are in favour with him,] she brings with her obviously belongs and her son; Louis Leonowens [Rex Thompson:] he is a young boy that is a young boy that is scared to be here and rightly so as this is the dominion of King Mongkut [Yul Brynner:] he is King Mongkut of Siam that made the contract with Miss Anna, he is well-educated and has an interest in gaining knowledge, but doesn't appreciate getting challenged, he does have a streak of being a dictator within him.

Generally speaking: the script, framework and pacing; I know, I know this film is a musical [I was thinking I would say that before continuing,] so having said that it shouldn't be any surprise to anyone that this project has been presented and moves like a stage production; with the storyline and musical numbers being built in to the scene or/and has a smooth rotation between the script and musical numbers; so the pacing of this 133 minutes film is good.

Art: well there is so much of it in one way or another from the scenery, to the wardrobe and/or the musical numbers themselves; there is always something to see or hear or experience with this film; even for the late 1950s; you can see that nothing was cheap [even though the budget was for the timeframe quite noticeable standing at $4.55 million to get $21.3 million back; which I would call a massive success;] so no expense was spared to bring the world to live and my favourite musical number is "A Puzzlement " performed by Yul Brynner as King Mongkut of Siam: he broadly similar bound how things are changing starting from when he was a little boy until now and having to get his head around that and I have just discovered that some of these singing voices were dubbed over and just for the record it wasn't the case with this musical number here.

Character developments, comedy and performances; the character developments are good, but also well-defined, with now and again the usage of comedy as a vessel: being when the King asks Ms Anna these series of questions to find out her actual age; I am paraphrasing here; even when she first declines so he turns it into maths questions or/and when he learns a new word; you will hear it a lot after he has learned it, I think between this lead partnership it shows that the King enjoyed mentally/verbally sparring with Ms. Anna, because no one else would dare speak to the King this way and Ms. Anna/Kerr enjoys the competition as long if only a bit frustrating for her now and again. The cast performances are very good everyone just slots in to their roles and builds/creates this fluent chemistry but let's be honest here the lead partnership of Brynner and Kerr is magical: in particular Brynner as he becomes this larger-than-life character/King that wants to on and embrace knowledge and consequently the new world, but also has echoes of the past within him: Brynner makes this character is very own subsequently an iconic performance from Brynner is what we have here.

This film receives: 10/10, this film is top-notch entertainment; this film definitely needs to be seen once in your lifetime for its entire spectacle. This film also has 11 winners that include but not limited to Academy Awards, USA 1957 Oscar Best Actor in a Leading Role Yul Brynner, Best Costume Design, Color Irene Sharaff [it won 5 Oscars in total.] 13 Nominees from the same award ceremony/event Best Picture Charles Brackett, Best Actress in a Leading Role Deborah Kerr [it got nominated for 4 in total.]