Transnational Shakespeare, feminist Shakespeare: the King

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines the Netflix-produced film The King (David Michôd, 2019) from a transnational perspective. It inscribes the new film within the micro-history of cinema adaptations of William Shakespeare’s Henry V. The two earlier adaptations, Laurence Olivier’s Henry V (1944) and Kenneth Branagh’s Henry V (1989) were representative of the national imagination, a feature which they shared with most productions of Shakespeare’s plays in the 20th century. The King is, like Olivier’s and Branagh’s versions, a film of its time: not only was it released through the most successful of streaming platforms but also, as an early 21st century audiovisual product, it finally takes the play beyond the framework of the national. The film is a transnational film because of its location in Netflix, because of its transnational cast and crew and production history and because it deals with transnational issues that speak directly to millions of potential contemporary spectators. Narratively, this sensibility is intertwined with a feminist ideology that reflects recent changes in gender awareness. The intersection of feminist and transnational aspirations marks the film as an exceptional cultural text of the end of the second decade of the 21st century.