TORONTO – The more you consider Nick Hamm’s “William Tell,” a gala world premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, the more you realize how utterly wild it is. Set in 1307, it centers on a legendary archer, the title character (Claes Bang), and chronicles how this humble farmer in the Swiss Alps became a symbol of resistance against an evil Austrian kingdom. Like Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière’s Cannes premiere “The Count of Monte Cristo,” which was a crowd-pleaser in French cinemas this summer, it’s also a throwback to a style of big studio filmmaking that audiences haven’t experienced consistently since the ’90s. It’s a melodrama with big action set pieces, slow-motion montages, a sweeping score (in this case from Steven Price), and as close to a mustache-twisting villain as you can get. It’s all sort of silly, but at least it knows what it is, and, in many ways, that’s liberating for everyone involved.
The legend of William Tell was first put to paper in a play by Friedrich Schiller in 1804. Of course, the German playwright had never even visited Switzerland, but no version of this folklore (including this movie) is attempting to be that historically accurate. The play begins with the bailiff Gessler, an Austrian-appointed governor of what is now modern-day Switzerland, and how he ruled the land with a tyrannical fist. When Tell defies Gessler’s edict that all citizens must bow to a pole with his cap on it, he’s taken into custody. Gessler discovers the arrest and insists that Tell, who has a reputation as an expert marksman, uses his bow to knock an apple off his son’s head. The truth regarding that anecdote is lost to history, but the event inspired the William Tell Rebellion, and considering Switzerland’s history in the centuries that followed you can sort of figure out the rest. 220 years later, Hamm, who has full screenplay credit, has embellished this tale to inconceivable extremes but knows he can fit a “Braveheart” moment (or two) in there somewhere. Especially with those gorgeous Swiss, er, Italian Alps to pan over
To be fair, some of the changes Hamm has made are genuinely creative. In this incarnation of the story, Tell met his wife and adopted son in Jerusalem as a knight in the Crusades. Setting these two characters in Switzerland opens up all sorts of opportunities to reflect on immigration that Hamm skims over, but at least there is enough exposition for the audience to consider it. Always a reluctant hero, Hamm provides Tell with a traumatic justification for his neutrality to the Austrians’ occupation of his land and a reason to break that promise when the invaders cross the line. That being said, many of the plot points Hamm includes to reach the climatic battle you know is coming 10 minutes into the film are generic and cliché. Even for the sort of broad, epic tale that Hamm is attempting to fashion.
In so doing, the filmmaker has also recruited some great actors hoping they can uplift the story when necessary. As the film’s hero, Bang portrays our hero in a more subdued manner than audiences (or the financiers, for that matter) might expect. He’s a talented enough actor to keep your attention, but he might be taking this all a bit too seriously. As his friend and fellow Crusader Stauffacher, Rafe Spall is a welcome blast of needed charisma. (You want to know what kind of movie “William Tell” is in a nutshell? We are first introduced to Stauffacher in a scene where he is framed shirtless – almost with a spotlight – for no other reason than for Spall to show off his ripped body and six-pack abs. Not that we’re complaining.) Notably, Ellie Bamber brings an obvious feistiness to the rebellious Princess Bertha (foreshadowing a certain princess in a galaxy far, far away) and Golshifteh Farahani, as Tell’s wife, Suna, delivers perhaps the most grounded performance in the film (she may be the only one trying). Jonathan Pryce and Ben Kingsley appear as dueling monarchs, the King of Attinghausen and the cold-hearted Austrian ruler King Albrecht, respectively. These acting legends are pro’s pros. They know exactly what they signed up for. I mean, Albrecht wears an eye patch. It’s not exactly subtle.
As the villainous Gessler, Connor Swindells is the one actor who completely telegraphs the tone of this endeavor. Light years from his role on Netflix’s “Sex Education.” Swindells is chewing up scenery and chewing out Gessler’s second-in-command twink, Stussi (Jake Dunn), with a sly smile and a wink in his eye. In some screening room, Pryce and Kingsley watched this film for the first time and no doubt raised a glass to a young actor who knows how to push a scene right up to the verge of camp. Most of the ensemble, however, appear to be acting in different films, but at least they seem to be having a good time doing so. Hamm is super-lucky that energy comes across on screen as it often uplifts “William Tell” when it needs it the most.
The result, as hinted earlier, is a high-end B-movie that would have been in heavy rotation on cable television’s TNT or USA Network as a wallpaper movie in the ’00s. And there is something genuinely fun about filmmakers wanting to dip their toes back into those waters. But, for that genre to work, it needs to be less bloated than this and, more importantly, not end by teasing a sequel. Don’t make promises you can’t keep! [C]
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