Facing Floods or Kings, Aussies Don't Bend: The King's Speech & Queensland Floods

Mal Fletcher

Posted on: Saturday 15 January 2011

Few movies of late have moved me like ‘The King’s Speech’. Already tipped to run away with several of the major Oscar’s this year, the film tells the tale of a most unusual relationship.

A future king forms a bond of friendship with a commoner, in an era before such things were commonplace.

Next year will see the marriage of an heir to the English throne to a commoner, so such a friendship may not seem so far fetched today. In the days leading up to the Second World War, though, royals had little to do with their subjects aside from the never ending round of hospital openings, ship-launches and the like.

Hands might be shaken, vacuous questions asked (‘Have you come far? And what do you do?’), but beyond that contact was almost non-existent.

‘The King’s Speech’ is based on a true story. In it, the Duke of York – eventually to become king – is helped with his speech impediment by Lionel Logue.

Logue is an immigrant would-be actor with no professional qualifications, yet he possesses an uncanny ability to help people overcome stammers, stutters and the like.

The very word ‘movie’ might suggest that what we see on screen moves us on some level. This film certainly does. I left the cinema feeling simultaneously proud to be both an Australian and a British citizen.

Though the Oscar plaudits will probably go to Colin Firth playing King George, it was the character Lionel Logue, played by Geoffrey Rush, that most caught my eye. He embodied the resilient, down-to-earth and largely unflappable quality that has often marked Australians apart, especially in times of crisis.

Though dealing with his future monarch, Logue from the very start refuses to cow-tow to a man he knows he must befriend if he is to be of help. There is respect, but it is not stained by sycophancy.

At one Logue is rebuffed by his erstwhile ‘patient’, but he refuses to give up hope the he can be of help. When the Duke, now King, decides to apologise and move forward, Logue is ready to move forward without missing a beat – still with his ‘my-house-my-rules’ approach.  

I watched ‘The King’s Speech’ against the backdrop of a national tragedy in my homeland.

In the days following my visit to the cinema, I’ve been in contact with friends in Australia and particularly Queensland, as the state faces its worst flooding since 1974. Some meteorologists have gone so far as to describe the weather system causing all the problems as a once-in-a-century event.

As of two days ago, seventy-five percent of the state – which is twice the size of Texas – was still under water. British and European TV has concentrated its coverage on the havoc wreaked on the capital, Brisbane, where entire neighbourhoods are under water and families have literally been swept away.

I came away from the cinema feeling very grateful that Providence, or circumstance, or both, had provided my countrymen and women with qualities that allow them to stand toe-to-toe with situations that should dwarf them.

Australians have, for the most part, always respected the enormous power of their harsh landscape. The nation is mostly desert and people live for the most part huddled along the eastern coast. Even in sheltered cities, though, they are well aware that the power of a harsh natural environment is never far away.

Along with that respect, they are once again showing an unflappability. Watching the TV coverage, one is impressed by the lack of panic people are showing. It’s not simply that they’re all in shock. Many are just pragmatically trying to make the best of a bad situation. Generations of pioneer struggle against fierce elements like bushfires and floods, have bred into the Australian psyche a sense of, ‘There’s nothing we could have done to stop this, so let’s move on from here.’

No doubt, in the midst of the trauma, there’s more than a trace of the famed Aussie laconic wit floating around.

All of these qualities are, I think, reasons why Australians have often punched above their weight in the world of sport – and in warfare.

Whether in their approach to royalty or natural crises, Australians have a unique ability to show respect without pointless deference, courage without foolhardiness and creativity when resources are few.

I hope, and pray, that these qualities will come to the fore more than ever in the months ahead.