To Kill a King

To Kill a King (2003) — watch online on iFILM. Mike Barker's historical drama opens in England in 1645, the Civil War nearly over and King Charles I under guard. Two generals who won it together — Oliver Cromwell (Tim Roth) and Thomas Fairfax (Dougray Scott) — now need to agree on what comes next, and they can't.

Cromwell wants the king tried and executed. Fairfax would rather negotiate; his Royalist wife (Olivia Williams) pulls one way, his loyalty to Cromwell pulls another. Rupert Everett has a few scenes as the future Charles II. Barker keeps the production chamber-sized — mostly arguments, not armies — and that restraint is what makes the film work: two men with genuine respect for each other discovering that respect doesn't survive incompatible ideas about what justice requires. Stream To Kill a King online on iFILM.