The King and I (1956)

Once again I’ve subjected myself to watching an overly long and monotonous musical in an attempt to understand why this genre is so popular.

I’m baffled that “The King and I” is as beloved as it is, the performances range from average to hilariously cartoonish, the story isn’t interesting enough to warrant its 2 hour and 13 minute runtime and the songs fail to bring anything new to the table. If you love musicals, you’ll probably enjoy “The King and I”, but as someone who has pretty mixed feelings about this genre, I thoroughly disliked this movie.

None of the cast in “The King and I” left much of an impression on me. Deborah Kerr is serviceable as the protagonist, whilst the child actors are either annoying or totally forgettable.

However, there was one actor in this movie that continually made me roar with laughter due to his awfully over-the-top and laughably bad performance. That one actor was Yul Brynner as the titular King of Siam. It astounds me that Brynner won an Academy Award for his work in this film, when his entire performance consists of him puffing out his chest, striking a pose like a grumpy toddler and yelling “Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera!” over and over again! I understand that cinema has changed a lot since 1956, causing aspects of older movies to be viewed differently over time, but it’s hard to deny that Yul Brynner’s performance in “The King and I” has aged particularly poorly.

Funnily enough, music is a key aspect of a musical film; sadly the songs in “The King and I” didn’t add anything unique or fresh to the film. In fact, after listening to the first couple of generic and sappy musical numbers, I fast-forwarded all of the following songs in the movie, so I can safely say that they don’t affect the rest of the plot in any way. The songs in “The King and I” aren’t necessarily bad, but as they don’t drive the character’s arcs forward or have any impact on the rest of the movie, they can’t help but feel completely and utterly pointless.

If I had to praise one element of “The King and I”, it would be that the film looks great; the lighting is bright, the cinematography is vibrant and the direction is clear. Visuals obviously mean very little when the viewer is indifferent to a film’s story and characters, but it’s still worth mentioning that there is some merit to "The King and I."

To summarise, “The King and I” is a relic of a by-gone era of Hollywood. Its dull musical moments, unintentionally hysterical scenes and old-fashioned depiction of Eastern culture add up to make this a tedious and unenjoyable experience.

“Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera!”