William Tell ★★★

Released: 10 January 2025

Director: Nick Hamm

Starring: Claers Bang, Connor Swindells, Golshifteh Farahani, Jonathan Pryce

William Tell is a name most of us are probably familiar with. Whether it’s because of the character’s influence in popular culture as his legend is still passed on in modern times or because of Gioachino Rossini’s opera of the same name, the name itself is bound to ring a bell for a big part of the audience even before they start watching Nick Hamm’s epic historical drama.

Set in Switzerland in 1307, William Tell follows its titular character, played by Claes Bang, as he embarks on a journey to defend his family and homeland from the attack of King Albert (Ben Kingsley), the tyrannical Austrian King ruling over the territory. When the people he loves are threatened by the larger political context of the fall of the Holy Roman Empire, William’s life is entirely upended as he finds himself leading his people in the rebellion as they fight for justice and freedom.

One of the biggest strengths in William Tell is in its cinematography. With beautiful shots and fascinating lighting, the movie puts a lot of attention on its locations as the narrative unfolds, with most of the pivotal scenes filmed outside and thus showcasing the place where the story is set. Most of the film was shot in South Tyrol in June 2023. Despite being filmed in an autonomous region of Northern Italy, the film perfectly encapsulates the real life place the film is set in by using the beauty of its location to tell a story. As William and his people embark on a dangerous war with a much stronger enemy, we slowly understand what exactly they are fighting for as we too experience the reality of the Swiss mountains and green pastures.

The film also follows the legend of William Tell fairly closely. Despite the flashback device used at the beginning of the film, the rest of the story is virtually the same, with the most important moments from the myth preserved in its screen adaptation. The character himself is also very true to the hero the legend takes its name after. Even in the original tale, William was associated with his weapon, the crossbow he is so excellent at using. In later years, this visually became his symbol in various art and paintings of the character. Similarly, it is good to see how William Tell stays true to this aspect of the story by maintaining the crossbow, and William’s legendary ability with it, as a key plot point.

“There is no justice in war,” the audience hears during Nick Hamm’s William Tell. Despite the film being set in the 14^th century, these words still ring very true to today. Perhaps this is the true strength of this film: its setting is very much rooted in the Late Middle Ages, and yet some of its reflections on war remain very relevant to today, despite the very different political context and circumstances. In this sense, the movie could have drawn out this comparison a little more. While I appreciate that it is not spelled out too much for the viewers, there were certainly moments when the parallelism with today’s wars – and possibly even anti-war and anti-tyranny sentiments – could have been further emphasized.

Ben Kingsley is a very unlikeable but very successful antagonist, so much so that I wished his scenes were longer but even with a rather limited screen time, his presence immediately appears threatening and villainous enough to incite the rebellion we see for much of the film’s runtime. Claes Bang is able to hold his own in most scenes, aided by a screenplay who sets William up to be the unlikely hero that does not want to save everyone around him, but ultimately has to. However, the rather lengthy exposition don’t exactly do him any favours. The dialogue occasionally fails, focusing too much on creating the 14^th century atmosphere rather than on being realistic at all.

From the very beginning of the film, William Tell makes us care for the protagonist by introducing his family and portraying some elements of his backstory through flashback. All of this helps the film’s depiction of the main character, who becomes three-dimensional, well-rounded and inevitably someone the audience cares and roots for, allowing the film to deliver its stakes well and keep the tension until the very final scene. However, the antagonist figures fall a little flat in comparison, with the motives behind their actions never being fully explored.

From a soundtrack point of view, William Tell is also not impressive at all, which is particularly disappointing for a film that sets out to be an epic story. This becomes even more noticeable as many people in the audience may associate the very title of the movie with the opera of the same name and yet there is no reference to the latter in the movie. As many of the musical motifs of Rossini’s operas are very famous and often used in film soundtracks – for example, the “Overture” is featured prominently in A Clockwork Orange – it would have been very fitting to also include it in the film that retells the same story.

Overall, William Tell is a perfectly decent film. With its compelling story and well-built tension, it is bound to catch the audience’s interest and never let it go until its very last frame, despite its rather lengthy runtime. However the faults predominantly in its script and soundtrack, prevent it from quite reaching the epic and monumental status it may be aiming towards.