The King
Directed by James Marsh
Written by Milo Addica
In The King, British director James Marsh and American screenwriter Milo Addica tell the troubling tale of Elvis Valderez (Gael Garcia Bernal) who, discharged from the Navy, travels to a Texas town to encounter his father, Pastor Davis Sandow (William Hurt), and become part of a family.
Set against the background of small-town life, the relationship-driven plot twists and turns down dark alleys of disturbed psyches, leading to a stunning climax that challenges audiences to contemplate their own notions of morality, religion and personal responsibility.
Dark, compelling storytelling isn't new to these filmmakers. In BAFTA-winning documentaries, Marsh has delved into Marvin Gaye's murder and Elvis Presley's bizarre eating habits. Addica weighs in with the scripts for Birth (2004) and the Oscar-awarded Monster's Ball.
"We wrote the script together rather than parceling out scenes, as is often done in collaborations," says Marsh. "And Milo was on set, watching through the monitor, pulling me back into focus whenever anything was unclear. It's unusual for a writer to be on set, but we were each other's best allies; we both knew what we were trying to accomplish and have huge respect and trust for each other."
MERIN: What brought you together?
MARSH: I'd read Monster's Ball. Actually, I'd read many scripts, and found American film culture to be predictable-written by rote and the Robert McKee approach-with third-act reversal and that shit. When I got to Monster's Ball, here was a script that was clear, spare, lean, brutal, about something important. I loved it. I thought, Here's a writer I can work with. So, I approached Milo with a germ of an idea-an intimate murder between two guys who were close friends, based on a true incident that intrigued me. Milo improved the idea by suggesting we make them brothers. The King developed from there.
When you disagreed about plot, relationships, how was that resolved?
MARSH: Fisticuffs.
Literally?
MARSH: Well, we were two guys with strong opinions, sitting in a room day after day? And Milo's?
ADDICA: I'm a volatile guy?
MARSH: Which is something I like about him, but he has some fucked up ideas-not all of them work. The process was brutal, but our disagreements always focused on work. That's what a good collaboration is: You improve each other's ideas. There's bound to be conflict.
Yes, but how was it resolved?
MARSH: How was it resolved? That's a good question?
ADDICA: By compromise-James and I had this filtration system. We were in small hotel rooms across the country or in his East Village apartment, where we did the bulk of the work. I'd get mad-and bang the wall, physically. We'd reach a point where James would say, "I have to think about that." It drove me up the wall because I want answers now: fast, fast, fast. But that combination's good because, often, I'd not make the right choice, and James would pull me back.
The way you'd pull him back while shooting, but in reverse?
MARSH: Yes-but I hadn't thought of it that way. Our relationship's been a collaboration from start to finish. Milo was in the cutting room. Not many directors want a writer in the cutting room, but that's silly; you'd be discarding one of your best assets. Milo knew the project; he produced it, sweat blood for it.
ADDICA: Well, we both sacrificed a lot for this film. I was in the cutting room with James-even worked on the music-so he could turn to me and ask, "What were we thinking of?" A director's in the eye of the hurricane, and his closest ally is the person who was in the room when the film was germinated. So, I'd tell him, "That's where Elvis finds out?"
MARSH: Yeah?I remember that.
James, in docs you shoot for truth. How does that prepare you to handle a fiction feature's contrivances?
MARSH: You're always trying to tell Truth: Whether it's the descriptive truth of a documentary or, in something you've written, the truth of people's behavior. In both, you're going for what feels true and right to you, what's believable and enlightening.
Did doc-making influence the way you shot The King?
MARSH: Yes. I follow actors on set, the way I follow subjects in documentaries. Because we had such a short time to shoot, I had to keep it fairly loose. I used the cameraman [Eigil Bryld, who] I've worked with for years on documentaries. When he's shooting, he's one of the film's dramatists-making choices about exposure, about where he's going with his handheld camera. He's expressing story clearly and is very in synch with me: He often knows better than I do what I want in a shot.
ADDICA: Eigil wonderfully underscored the spirit of the film, much the way The Godfather was shot in shadow. Also, he was able to move at the quick pace our budget required.
MARSH: That's a documentary thing, too: There's no fucking around. Let's just shoot the next scene.
ADDICA: We were lucky James brought Eigil because we made a low budget film, but it looks like it cost a lot more.
The cinematography's brilliant, especially that super-long, suspense-filled take towards the end. Did other directors inspire this style?
MARSH: Antonioni, although he's not a filmmaker I'm obsessed with, because he's the paradigm of long takes. And Von Trier, because he jumps into scenes the way we were forced to on The King. I'd rather have set scenes up but didn't have that luxury, and Milo jumps into scenes, so it was in the writing, too.
The film's ending requires interpretation. Why'd you end it equivocally?
ADDICA: Life doesn't come gift-wrapped. We want audiences to think about the ending and what it means-and remember it.
And the title? Did you agree on it?
MARSH: Milo thought of it, and I hated it at first. We had a huge fight.
ADDICA: Yeah. I even drew it for James, showing how it would look on the poster.
MARSH: It was definitely a "Let me think about it" moment. But the more I thought about it, the more I liked it-because it can be taken different ways.
Milo, did you write the tag line: "The devil made me do it?"
ADDICA: Yeah. What do you think of it?
I think it's beneath you.
ADDICA: Yeah. I'm really not happy with it. I thought of it in a rush-as an alternative to the studio's version, which I disliked intensely. Working with studios is hard. That's why I'd like to work entirely independently: writing, directing, producing and even marketing my own films.
Do you two plan to collaborate again?
MARSH: We'd like to, depending on the project.
ADDICA: Yeah, we'd like that, but we don't have anything planned yet. And we want to see how The King does, too-especially opening opposite The DaVinci Code.