The Last King - The Power and the Passion of Charles II

Starring:Rufus Sewell, Rupert Graves, Helen McCrory, Christian Coulson, Ian McDiarmid, Shirley Henderson, Martin Freeman (II), Charlie Creed-Miles, Anne-Marie Duff, Shaun Dingwall, Emma Pierson, David Bradley (IV), Diana Rigg, Alice Patten, Garry Cooper, Thierry Perkins-Lyautey, Cyrille Thouvenin, Martin Turner (II), Dorian Lough, Tabitha Wady
Director: Joe Wright (IV)
Studio: A&E Home Video
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

It's not always good to be king in this fascinating BBC/A&E historical drama, featuring a complex performance by Rufus Sewell as the exiled British monarch who returned to a volatile, post-Cromwell England in the 17th century. Pressed to forgive the enemies who killed his father, Charles II takes the throne and finds himself squeezed from all sides by vicious power brokers, his vengeful mother (Diana Rigg), a manipulative mistress (Helen McCrory), dubious advisers, a contrarian best friend (Rupert Graves), and his bewildered Portuguese wife (Shirley Henderson). Problems with the Plague and Charles's own, restless libido further complicate family and political dramas, but beneath the king's operatic tenure are visible strains of progressive government: Charles, after all, ushered in an early era of democracy in England. The Last King's sharp script never slows, but it's the cast's intense performances that bring royal intrigues to life. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews:

Three hours is enough.......2007-01-31

I found myself finding the movie Restoration filling in holes of the story when the great fire and the Plague were shown. There was not enough emphasis given to the great love he had for the Arts. Most of the pieces did connect but as a former review commented, there is something missing not much though. Three hours is quite long enough to get the gist of the main points. I got a real sense of the political pressure from Catholic France, from Parliament to keep a power hungry king at bay with financial ruin, and a moral mob to curb his immoral behavior which had little effect. You can see the relationship and the severe trauma working in him as he recalls his fathers death. He believed that aristocracy was more important than democracy and held firm in that belief until the end. The one scene that keeps itself burned into my memory is Charles handing coins to a panicked and devastated population as the fire rages. He looks up and sees a man in the tower pronouncing judgement of ruin on the king as the fire envelopes him. A deep sense of what the aristocracy is came to mind. Armed with only coin and pomp, he was ignorant and helpless to actually do anything to comfort his people because he was too far removed from them given his lofty station in life. In that regard, I found it a very likable albeit long movie.

One rare visual treat of late 17th century period drama.......2006-08-31

The Last King is not a regular period film where all can sit comfortably and watch from beginning to end without a pause. Stretching over three hours, it is too gorgeous a set to be compartmentalized into a mini-series; yet it is perhaps a little too long for a full-fledged film.

I watched the entire DVD in 3 to 4 sittings. The only flaw I could find after watching the entire production was with the beginning - I was quite uncomfortable with the jerky camera style and the biography took quite a while to gain momentum.

I thought the film started to gain momentum during the second half of Part 1, when there was a marked change in costumes of the English court, influenced by predominant fashion sensibility led by the French court of Louis XIV.

The costumes were first-rate, and they showed the replacement of long tresses with wigs in the European court, of which a variety of colours were in vogue.

The character of Charles II played by Rufus Sewell took time to find rapport with the audience but once it did, the effect was spell-binding, long-lasting and deep. Sewell's charismatic portrayal played an indubitable role in the success of the production.

The relationship with the Queen was an emphatic one, and Charles' lasciviousness and his weakness for women is always given a balanced portrayal against his deep respect for his legal wife, as reflected in history.

Barbara Palmer, Charles' long-time mistress was by far, the most obnoxious character I found - portrayed as an insatiable nymphomaniac that devoured men of all ages. Helen McCrory is hardly the ideal choice for her age and lack of facial resemblance - Palmer was reputed to be the most beautiful woman in court during her prime - her surviving portrait testifies to this. The incongruence in appearance and behaviour of Palmer as played by McCrory hardly endears one to her eventual plight when she was finally ousted from court by Charles, tired of her manipulations. But her performance was nothing short of marvellous and even though one soon tires of her duplicity and sexual appetite, one could not help but feel a tinge of empathy during the scene of her breakdown.

Emma Pierson as Nell Gwynn was a tad too modern and MTV-ish, but perhaps that was the intention of the producer - to make her a prototype feminist of sorts.

Louis XIV made a brief appearance and was portrayed as somewhat effeminate and over-powdered.

The title theme and the soundtrack is regal, binding and largely effective in augmenting the film's dramatic stature. I was particularly moved by the sublimity of the scene when Charles adamantly proclaimed his regal right, dissolved the parliament and walked out of the parliament, non-plussed.

The time-run of the production gives ample development for Charles' character and the viewer is pre-empted to discover the transformation and motivation behind Charles' final and secret conversion to Catholicism at his deathbed, through his disillusionment with the hypocrisy of Protestants in the parliament and the unwavering love of his Catholic wife.

The film gives a balanced account of both the politics and passion of Charles II, and should probably be one of the most comprehensive filmic productions on any monarch to have been made.

History comes alive.......2006-08-22

I very much enjoyed this four-episode drama about Charles II life. I think a perfect balance was found between the private and political sphere of the king: both was portrayed excitingly and vividly depicting his personality both as man and king with strengths and weaknesses as well. The Restoration Age, as its king, is shown in detail with its splendour and decadence.

A superb cast is empolyed including Rufus Sewell, Rupert Graves and the excellent Shirley Henderson among others. The music is beautiful. A documentary film about Charles' childhood and adolescence can be found on the dvd as an extra which is also worth watching.

A Jewel in BBC'c Crown.......2006-07-13

Absolutely immaculately filmed and acted 188 minute mini-series that originally aired (in a slightly longer version)in 2003 on BBC. More recently it has aired in America on A&E.

Rufus Sewell as King Charles II is in virtually every scene and though the history books label him the "Merry Monarch", Sewell plays the king as a traumatized and perpetually stressed out monarch trying his best to keep his mother, his brother (James II, Duke of York), his bastard son (James, Duke of Monmouth), his friends (Duke of Buckingham and his cousin Lady Castlemaine), his mistresses (Nell Gwynne...), his Queen, Parliament, the French, the Dutch, and the mob happy. All while trying to recover those rights that Parliament stripped from his executed father.

Charles seems to know that the time of Kings is quickly passing but as a matter of family honor he never stops fighting for the divine right of kings.

The acting is superb even though history buffs might find some of the casting to be a little eccentric. Lady Castlmaine was supposedly the most desired woman of her day but the actress cast to play the role (Helen McCrory) is not exactly a knockout, in fact shes not much of a looker at all and is much too old. Also the Duke of Buckingham is played by Rupert Graves who is not formidable enough to handle the role. However some of the casting is inspired: Emma Pierson as Nell Gwynn is superb.

Some reviewers have stated that this mini series focuses on the kings mistresses and it does do a bit of that but I found there to be plenty of focus elsewhere as well. The question of the king's faith as well as the question of the king's succession seem to be the primary focus of television screenwriter Adrian Hodges script. And theres plenty of political intrigue as a series of advisers to the king rise and fall out of favor. The main lesson of King Charles II tenure seems to have been that the King cannot afford to have principles as Charles sells many of his most trusted advisers down the river whenever Parliament or the mob want someone to blame for the mismanagement of domestic or foreign affairs.

Sewell's star power probably makes us sympathize with the King even though as democrats our sympathies should be with Parliament. The Parliament is just not all that likable in this mini-series, however, and we kind of suspect that during this era England was probably better off with a King than it would have been if it were run by a divided and contentious Parliament who knew they needed a king (even if he was only a figurehead) to unite the people. Everyone in this mini-series is plotting something; it would seem everyone realizes that power is tenuous and no one stays in favor for long so you must take what you can get and run.

The king knows that after he is gone that Parliament will reverse everything that he has done and this and the fact that Hodges/Wright make it seem as though the King never really has any choice and that all of his major decisions are forced upon him makes us even more sympathetic with the king. It would seem even the king is a plotter but somehow since he is king and we suspect that he has Englands best interest at heart we forgive him for his covert dealings with France and his way of playing France against Holland and vice versa.

Charles II is definitely a Machiavellian who believes that whatever the King does is justified, but this is the very arrogance that the Parliamentarians cannot stand. It would seem that filmmaker Joe Wright (who also recently directed Keira Knightly in Pride and Prejudice) wanted to do everything in his power to show the king in a sympathetic light. If that is to be considered a noble deed then this mini-series deserves to be knighted.

I suspect that these mini-series that celebrate and romanticize order are especially attractive during times of political strife and division. Be that as it may Joe Wright definitely makes a mini-series that is exciting even if it is politically suspect. The recreation of London is very impressive. And the interior shots of Whitehall are magnificent. I only wish that there were a few characters that were representative of the common people and that we could have perhaps gleaned something of the common man's political point of view. But that is perhaps a small gripe in an otherwise imressive production.

How Charles II used both of his heads.......2006-06-03

Based on the title, The Last King is supposed to delve into the power and passions of one of Great Britains's more colourful monarchs, Charles II. But this movie really seems to focus more on the passion side of his life, which consisted of a number of mistresses and resulted in the siring of several illegitimate children. Unfortunately for Charles II, his legitimate wife, the devoutly Catholic Catherine of Berganza, could not bear him a successor, and this threatened to once again destabilze Great Britain.

Overall, I found The Last King to be a good and entertaining movie, but as is typical of A&E movies there's just something missing, and so it's not as good as it could have been. There is a certain amount of sexual content in the movie, even a little bit of nudity. Other reviews state that about an hour has been cut from the original for the DVD, but in my opinion it doesn't make all that much of a difference. The DVD version still provides a sound overview of Charles II's reign.

DVD:

DVD

Last King [2003] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

DVD: Night of the Wilding

3 Ninjas