The whole crowd waited for him. He arrived with his spouse in elegance. The mic is set,he stood in the center of the stadium. He then unfolded his speech paper from his pocket. Paused….
Upon the first word, the second, the third, he said. After that, he “bloody” stuttered.
The King’s Speech is one of the kind movies that I consider brilliant. In camera works, lighting, cinematography and the nature of its story. Most importantly, it is a story that everyone of us that can relate to. Nonetheless, it’s sad not many people enjoy such movies. I’ve came across people saying that such movie is not appealing to them. Well, that’s the cruelty of cinema, they screen movies that are primarily profit-centered and therefore, such usual movies are catered to arouse what audience wants to watch: Excitement, explosions, horror and etc. Such “commercial” movies transition in cinemas are so fast that people tend to forget movies that they’ve seen weeks back when arrival of new blockbuster hits the theater. And sadly, The King’s Speech was not screened initially in local market but rolled into the cinema later because of its acclaimed reviews.
Colin Firth played the late King George VI who wouldhad difficulty talking to large audiences due to his stutter. Alongside came Lionel Logue(played by Geoffrey Rush), a speech therapist to overcome his condition.
I’ve heard a comment from someone that after watching the movie, saying “(The movie) speaks of it’s better being an ordinary person rather than to be a person in position.” On the other hand, I find the film’s structure was quite the opposite. It’s ordinary people overcoming the extraordinary!
“I bloody well stammer!”- King George VI, The King’s Speech
Stuttering is caused by many factors, primarily psychological. It can be triggered by fear in the past that we’ve long forgotten: embarrassment caused by friends, hurt by people we love and the list goes on. In this context, stuttering is referred to things that have been paralyzing us. Overcoming a long rooted paralysis is not as simple for some of us. For people who have living in such conditions, certain fear has been their comfort zone. Fear of leading, fear of failure, fear of people… It’s hard sometimes to get away and breakthrough. For we fear long enough, and forgot how was it like to be courageous once more.
It takes more than determination, faith, focus and persistence to overcome such conditions.
“Do the things you fear and the death of fear is certain”
Besides that, he was called to be a leader for his nation. Do you have moments like that? A call to lead.A call to be an example.A call to be a light for others.A call to move the world around you. What happened to those callings? Do you have times to run away from them?
As in the movie, King George VI did have his moments of wanting to withdraw, back off and give up. Don’t we have moments like that? Yes we gave up. We find it hard to gain back the strength and hope to continue the journey… That’s not the end of it. The beauty of it in life, just like King George VI did, when he started to give up, along the way, he gave up for giving up! When we reach a point of stopping, we will not take it anymore, and we want to break it through!
As you are reading this, if you feel tired, rest. If you don’t know where you’re heading, hang in there. If you found your hope, share it with the ones around you. I pray that you will help others to find strength along with their journey.
“The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” (Psalm 118:6)
Great movies are movies that can impact us with their values. Therefore, I consider the movie, a pure classical film!
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About author:
Paul Gan studied broadcasting in UTAR and now he has being hired by an Event company to host and emcee events. Movies has been his passion since young. He said, 'Been directing a videos... One of my videos was listed finalist in the Tony Blair Faith Short Competition." He is a funny man, cheerleader and I personally known his as a man who have a teachable heart.
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