William Tell, 2024.
Written and Directed by Nick Hamm.
Starring Claes Bang, Connor Swindells, Golshifteh Farahani, Jonah Hauer-King, Ellie Bamber, Rafe Spall, Emily Beecham, Jonathan Pryce, Ben Kingsley, Solly McLeod, Amar Chadha-Patel, Sam Keeley, Tobias Jowett, Jake Dunn, Billy Postlethwaite, Samuel Edward-Cook, Aron von Andrian, Éanna Hardwicke, and Jess Douglas-Welsh.
SYNOPSIS:
In 14th Century Switzerland, a once peaceful hunter leads his people to rebellion after his family and country are threatened by a tyrannical Austrian King.
Although writer/director Nick Hamm’s William Tell (adapted from Friedrich Schiller’s play) takes a punishingly long time to pick up the pace, mainly introducing an assortment of characters without making them interesting, when it does, there is a centerpiece sequence that not only starts to connect all those dots and flesh out their characterizations and motives, but also single-handedly saves the movie for its suspense.
History buffs might have an idea of what is being referred to, and it is a version of something that has been done countless times in movies. It is the moment where emotion investment registers for the eponymous huntsman (Claes Bang, intense and righteous) slowly being dragged back into a life of savagery warfare he thought he left behind for a family, the psychopathic craziness oozing from Austrian general Gessler (Connor Swindells, believably unhinged and a fresh face deserving of more work) determined to make every village in Switzerland, including William Tell bend the knee.
The burgeoning revolution would likely have all its momentum pulled away if successful. Swedish Rudenz (Jonah Hauer-King) is caught in the middle, under the impression that if he pledges loyalty to the Austrian army, he will be allowed to marry his true love, the king’s niece Princess Bertha (Ellie Bamber, not a helpless human bargaining chip but also resourceful, getting in on the inevitable violence), whom he doesn’t know is being set up with the aforementioned lunatic. Naturally, his casual willingness to abandon his people while deluding himself into a best-case scenario causes a rift between him and his uncle, the baron of Attinghausen (Jonathan Pryce). Ben Kingsley’s golden-eyepatched King Albert gives orders from his castle, delivering the impetuous and heartless performance one would expect from a tyrant ruling through fear.
This might be a given, but even at 133 minutes, there is a lot of movie here. As mentioned, the first 45 minutes or so are rough around the edges, mostly throwing out faces left and right while ever so briefly getting at what thrusts them into the revolution. It is stuffed with characters, with a feeling that some of them could have been excised without losing anything substantial. For William Tell, despite having a family and having left behind a barbaric lifestyle, he finds himself giving aid to a rogue Swede who justifiably murderers a power-abusing tax collector (while he is naked in the bathtub, for ultimate humiliation).
Those with patience will be rewarded, not just for the thrilling middle portion (a sequence that runs almost 30 minutes long in one location) but also for large-scale action taking place from small farms to castle grounds to a ship caught in a thunderstorm, all with a variety of weapons ranging from storage to crossbows. This is also a pleasantly gory film, proudly displaying severed limbs and throats spurting blood.
Coincidentally, the third act is a problem similar to the first, except this time it’s rushing through key beats deserving more time. There is a much more effective version of this film that more economically sets up the characters and premise while allowing the final battle to take off in grandness, given 20 more minutes. Weirdly, some sequel-baiting here is misguided and woefully out of place for a historical epic. Looking past those structural flaws, William Tell is a good old-fashioned, chest-beating tale of fractured forces uniting against tyranny with some exhilarating set pieces.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association, Critics Choice Association, and Online Film Critics Society. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews and follow my BlueSky or Letterboxd
