- The scene where the King gives his first Wartime speech, is accompanied by Beethoven's 7th in a Crowning Music of Awesome... that is until the viewer realizes that Beethoven was held as a paradigm of German culture by Hitler, and was most certainly used to represent the German war machine. Then the viewer realizes that this only serves to mark the further awesomeness of the speech. The music represents the impending German attack. The speech was not only for the British people, but an announcement of defiance to Germany. The King was speaking in defiance, and is heard over, Beethoven!
- There is a certain irony here, in the Nazi veneration of Beethoven. His Symphony #3 Eroica was originally dedicated to Napoleon. When Napoleon declared himself Emperor of France and touched off a decade of warfare, Beethoven tore up the dedication page, declaring "Now, too, he will tread under foot all the rights of man, indulge only his ambition; now he will think himself superior to all men, become a tyrant!" It's pretty obvious what he would have thought of Hitler and Nazism.
- It's also worth remembering that Beethoven wasn't just Music to Invade Poland to. The Allies used the opening bars of Beethoven's 5th Symphony as shorthand for "V for Victory": The Morse Code for "V" is the opening rhythm of the symphony, "dot dot dot dash".
- Beethoven's 9th Symphony was briefly used as West Germany's national anthem after World War II and was a serious contender to replace the Deutschlandlied afterwards. It is also the anthem of the European Union. Of all the German composers, Beethoven is not especially associated with the Nazis, unlike, say, Wagner.
- On a whole different note it makes perfect sense to accompany Bertie's speech with music written by a man who famously had to overcome a crippling handicap to succeed.
- When Bertie and his family is watching the newsreel of Hitler giving a speech, Elizabeth asks her father what he is saying and Bertie replies "I don't know ... but he seems to be saying it rather well." This has been criticized as Bertie in Real Life was fluent in German. However, Hitler isn't really saying anything of substance in the clip we hear, he's merely spouting empty nationalistic platitudes, so Bertie is right: the point isn't what he is saying, but how he is saying it. He also might be lying about not knowing what is being said because he doesn't want to repeat a bunch of nationalistic fascist propaganda to his daughter.
- David's breakdown over his father's death should come across as sympathetic...but it reveals how self-centered and inadequate he truly is: he's less upset over his father's passing than he is upset over the responsibility he feels stuck with. Considering how much value the British place on the Stiff Upper Lip, his inability to steel himself to the task of ruling the British Empire, and his inability to hide it from government ministers, underscores how terrible of a king David would be. Bertie breaks down at one point, but he does so in private, in the presence of his wife, and not in public. Bertie may feel sorrow, but unlike David, he doesn't let it consume him and only lets it all out in the appropriate situation, demonstrating his fitness to be the monarch Britain deserves.
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