Genre: Historical/Period
Premise/logline: How the events of 1066 were driven by the love triangle between Harold of Wessex, William of Normandy and his wife Matilda.
About: This came bottom of the Brit List 2010(an industry list of the best unproduced screenplays of the year). There are a number of other 1066 scripts/projects floating about, one on Trigger Street from a few years back was funded by the now defunct UK Film Council. I also believe Shine Pictures asked William Nicholson (writer of Gladiator) to pen them a script, and I know of at least 3 other independent 1066 projects, all at varying degrees of development.
Writer: John Hodge (United Agents) has written many great British films including Trainspotting, Shallow Grave, A life Less Ordinary, The Beach
Producers: Cloud Eight Films/Pathe.
Details: 108 Pages (this version came from a link of all the Brit List 2010 scripts. I've now managed to lose that link, so if anyone has it please bung it over. I have no way of telling whether this is the final or an early draft).
I’m writing a script on a similar topic – set a few hundred years earlier, so though I would have a look at this and see what I could learn. I’ve also read the trigger street / film council script, which didn’t really impress me save for the ending, though I did read an early draft, so I imagine there have been subsequent drafts.
On to the script - we open with a voice over giving us the low down – “the destiny to the crown (of England) would be determined by a struggle between two mighty armies”. Telling us what to expect from the get go.
And then into some juicy executions of those rabid Welshmen. They are buried then up to their necks in the ground, with a rope tied around their necks. The other end is attached to a horse, who’s slapped on the rump and gallops off. Bye Bye head.
This horseplay is down to the Godwin brothers – Harold, the leader, Leofwine, the brains, Sweyn, a killer and Tostig the tearaway. They've defeated the Welsh and are trintying to get ther opaths of allegiance. Unsuccessfully. Harold, especially, wants to stop the raping and slaughter, but is unable to in the face of the Welsh’s continued defiance. So he kills them all.
Then it’s off to meet William in Normandy, laying siege to a castle and enrolling the three minstrels the King of France gave him into his army. He’s a heck pecked medieval lord who’s bent on conquering more and more land – but who knows that power equals responsibility (yup, he actually says that).
Harold is sent by his King, Edward the Confessor, on a secret mission – so secret he doesn’t even know its aim or the correct destination - Harold thinks he's going to Denmark. But his boat is wrecked on the Norman coast during a storm and Harold , the sole survivor, is brought before Duke William. A nice back and forth explodes into a fight where William proves his ruthlessness and it’s off to the dungeon for Harold.
William has a look at the letter that Harold's colleague carried. And the true mission is revealed – the letter is from King Edward of Englad, who wants William to kill Harold in order to become heir to the English throne.
William considers this as he sets out to besiege a traitor holed up in a castle, taking Harold and his wife with him.
But Harold proves his worth, suggesting a near-suicidal mission for himself and William to take the impregnable castle. During the attack, William asks Harold for advice on his wife - where’s it all going wrong. Definitely a comedic element creeping in here, which is entertaining, not what I’d expect and fresh, though it may a bit too contemporary for an historical epic.
It’s turning into a bit of a buddy film, with William and Harold fighting together against the world.
But then, while WIlliam celebrates his great victory, the betrayal comes – Harold beds Matilda (William's wife).
William, unaware of this, decides to let Harold return to England, but not before revealing the contents of the letter to Harold. If Harold agrees to uphold William’s claim to the throne, William will let him return to England. Harold agrees.
Harold returns to find his brother Tostig has been causing trouble up in Northumbria – consorting with the Vikings – Hardrada’s men from Norway. Harold goes to sort it out, and in the fracas two of Hardrada’s men are killed. Tostig leaves with the last Viking, abandoning his family.
Then when Edward finally dies (of old age), the Witan (English council of Lords) push Harold into accepting Kingship.
William is furious and declares war. He is all set to invade – but the wind holds him back.
Some ships set sail and land on England’s coast – but it is Tostig, with Hardrada and an army of Vikings that have come to Northumbria. Harold marches north to deal with his younger brother, thinking it’s too late for William to sail this year.
There’s no Stamford Bridge moment, when a Viking Berserker held off the English soldiers for hours on a bridge, allowing the Viking reinforcements to come. Neither is there Hardrada’s famous challenge, the last Viking Flyting (war poem), that marks the end of the Viking era. Still, this script is not about that, it’s about Harold and William...
…who has just set sail for England.
With the vikings defeated and Tostig executed, Harold learns that William has landed at Hastings. He confers with his brother who beg him to wait out the winter and attack in the spring – William will be weaker and Harold stronger. But Harold won’t wait. And the clever thing the writer has done here is to explain Harold’s (real and historical) eagerness to go fight William before winter and against all military sense. Harold wants Matilda, who againa accompanies William. He can’t wait. Love will be the ruin of him.
Just before the final battle William and Harold meet and William guesses that Harold slept with Matilda. The scene is set for the big battle. And when the final duel between the two men happens it’s not arms or weapons that defeat Harold but the realisation that Matilda has chosen William over him. That is what kills him - a broken heart.
And it’s all rapped up nicely with a dream/heaven sequence of all three of them back together when they were friends in Normandy.
What I learned: The author has taken a big story and reduced it to a love triangle. Two men, once friends, now enemies, fight over England but also over a woman. The writer’s introduced a comic element with the William and Matilda relationship and also a buddy feel in the earlier part of the script between William and Harold. While this does focus the story, I can’t help but feel the tone might be a bit too irreverent, contemporary and comedic for a historical epic – especially some of the dialogue. The brave warriors emote and are in touch with their feelings, Harold has a tender relationship with his daughter – all good writing but not apt for this period in my view. However, maybe that’s what the genre needs to bring it to the new generation. It’s certainly a new approach.
The script’s action is underwritten, there rarely being paragraphs longer than one line. I don’t know if this is the new accepted style but I think it makes it harder for the reader to enter the world of the film. This is slightly related to another problem, the scripts’ spectacle and size. From a small story it leaps into an epic final battle, which almost dwarfs the rest of the film. It's a story of two halves - the first half is Harold and Williams relationship and the second half is stae affairs and battles, so it feels like you have emotion in the first half and spectacle in the seconds, though the endiong does heal that division somewhat.
But it was a good read, focussed, with a clear through line and an interesting, modern take on what could normally be a pompous and self-important subject. It was funny and exciting and touching. Maybe this is the way to revive the historical epic. Time will tell.
If you're crazy enough to want to write one of these beasts yourself - check out my blog on Writing Historical Epics
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