"The King's Man" on HBO Max
The third movie in the Kingsmen franchise is a prequel to the other two and an origin story, detailing the events that led to the secret agency's founding and as much as I enjoyed the others it far surpasses them in cleverness and emotional depth. With the aid of his highly competent servants (Gemma Aterton, Djimon Hounsou), the pacifist Duke of Oxford (Ralph Fiennes) deploys his worldwide network of household servant spies to prevent a European war and, failing that, to encourage Russian and U.S. involvement before Britain is defeated by the forces of the Kaiser. Unbeknownst to him, a secret society run by an embittered Scottish nationalist from atop a goat-populated mesa is actually pulling the strings of international politics, with henchmen including Lenin (August Diehl), Erik Jan Hanussen (Daniel Brühl), Mata Hari (Valerie Pachner), and Rasputin (Rhys Ifans).
The movie features some cleverly imagined action scenes spectacularly choreographed and without as much over-the-top exploding stuff as one would expect from this franchise. There is a lot of dialogue about heroism and duty, and the heartbreak of war, scenes of trench warfare in World War I, and unflattering depictions of some world leaders, with cousins George V, Czar Nicholas II, and Kaiser Wilhelm played by the same actor, Tom Hollander. I was happy to see the Kaiser portrayed as the childish, over-privileged monster that he was, esconced in Neuschwanstein like it was some Teutonic predecessor of Mar-a-Lago. (The historical parallels do not end there. I wish they did.)
This is a well-plotted, well-acted and rip-roaring action movie, and if you're like me you'll enjoy running to Wikipedia to check out the historical references. I had already known about the Mexican involvement in the war as my grandfather fought there, and about Wilhelm's madness as one of my great-uncles was a German spy that defected.
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