Despite the ever-present strife and squalor in The King, Nicholas Britell’s score brings a sense of majesty to Hal’s transition from prince into King Henry V. The clearest example of this is during Prince Hal’s coronation. As grandiose images of a nation honoring their new king roll past, all other sound fades away. Britell fills the void with a soundscape so sweeping and overwhelming that it makes the viewer believe, if only for a few minutes, in the legitimacy of the divine right of kings. These are the score’s strongest moments: when it alone acts in harmony with the film’s slow moving, beautiful cinematography.
Other scenes in which score and cinematography work in symbiosis include when the English army lands on the shores of France (in which Britell makes deft use of Phillip Glass-like layered choral vocals) and marches across the French countryside. The massive scope of the score shines in these scenes, with their immense and awing scale, adding to the weight of King Henry V’s history-defining actions.
Unfortunately, though, these moments are rare. During the majority of the film the score gets buried in the sound design, relegated to the background underneath a multitude of other, less deserving sounds. While the moments when the score comes to the foreground are among the most beautiful and powerful in recent memory, these moments don’t come nearly enough; the film largely squanders its greatest asset.
