Other Views

Here’s what other critics say about “The Madness of King George:”

Bob Strauss/Los Angeles Daily News: … the film has quite noticeably been shorn of nearly 45 minutes’ worth of footage for its American run.

The gaps in the complex and wide-ranging narrative are, well, maddening; so much is going on here, on both personal and political levels, that it would have been nice to get the full impact of everything rather than the Cliff Notes synopses.

Janet Maslin/New York Times: As that suggests, this film eventually sounds grace notes that signal acceptance and understanding, even of facts that were heretofore unbearable.

“We must get used to it,” King George eventually sighs about the nation formed from his American colonies. “I have known stranger things. I once saw a sheep with five legs.”

Glenn Lovell/San Jose Mercury News: It’s a tour-de-force performance (by Nigel Hawthorne) that brings to mind Peter O’Toole’s work in “The Ruling Class” and, on a lesser level, Jeffrey Jones’ addled Emperor Joseph in “Amadeus.”

Eleanor Ringel/Cox News Service: “The Madness of King George” is a royal showcase for Nigel Hawthorne, who gives a tour-de-force performance as the less-than-merry monarch.

His is a very, very uneasy head that wears the crown - he’s humorous and sympathetic one minute, blathering imperiously or lapsing into incoherence the next.

Desmond Ryan/Philadelphia Inquirer: The intimacy of the camera gives us the true measure of Nigel Hawthorne’s dizzying and wrenching plunge into insanity, and the gain more than compensates for the cuts necessary to produce a manageable running time.

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