Reviews

William Tell (15)  |Close-Up Film Review

Dir: Nick Hamm, UK/Switzerland/Italy, 2024, 133 mins

Cast: Claes Bang, Connor Swindells

Review by .Carol Allen

William Tell is a legendary figure, a skilled archer who fought against the Austrian occupation of his native Switzerland and yes, who at one point was forced by the invaders to shoot an apple placed on his son’s head.  And that legendary episode is the opening shot of this film.

Writer/director Nick Hamm claims this costume drama is  based on and uses dialogue from a play of the same name by 18th century writer Friedrich Schiller, who wrote it in German and in blank verse – a  German bard indeed.  The basic plot of the Swiss hero fighting the Austrian oppressor is there but I doubt Schiller’s original had as much derring do as this version, which is largely a handsome, violent and very action filled historical drama with some surprisingly strong female characters.

Danish actor Claes Bang looks handsome, has good presence and fighting skills in the title role and English actor Connor Swindells  is strong and suitably dislikeable and hissable as the villain Gessler, the intruder governor of Switzerland. Schiller’s tales has been appropriately modernised and diversified for the modern audience with some powerful female characters – Tell’s courageous Muslim wife Suna (Golshifteh Farahani) and his adopted son (Tobias Jowett) who is the apple target.  Relationships formed we’re told when he rescued the two of them during his exploits  in the Crusades.  And then there’s the Austrian king’s rebellious niece, Bertha (Ellie Bamber), who sides with the rebels. 

Also on hand is a villainous looking Ben Kingsley, leering from behind an eye patch as that same evil Austrian king and Jonathan Pryce as the much nicer Swiss monarch.

The battle scenes are very well executed and the scenery is a bit ravishing.  

But despite the cultural influence of Herr Schiller, the film comes over as a rather standard costume drama, reminiscent in some ways of those old 50s epics such as Ivanhoe or Robin Hood.   It’s all jolly good fun though, albeit a bit on the bloodthirsty side.