Synopsis
The Madness of King George (1994) is a British historical drama you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Nicholas Hytner from Alan Bennett's celebrated stage play. Nigel Hawthorne plays George III — a king who has held the throne for thirty years and now, in 1788, is unravelling in ways no one around him can explain or control.
He talks at a gallop, rages at nothing, insults the Queen and demands obedience from people who are quietly measuring him for a straitjacket. The doctors apply the remedies available to them, which are mostly humiliating and entirely ineffective. Meanwhile the political machinery accelerates: the Prince of Wales (Rupert Everett) makes no secret of his ambitions, and Prime Minister William Pitt and Queen Charlotte (Helen Mirren) race to block a regency before the king's opponents can force one through.
What saves the film from being a costume-drama procedural is Hawthorne's performance: you see a mind going — and occasionally coming back, with flashes of the sharp, stubborn man underneath — and it's more affecting than a straightforward tragedy would be. Hawthorne took home the BAFTA for Best Actor; the film received four Academy Award nominations. Stream The Madness of King George (1994) online on iFILM.
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