“This world ain’t never had no respect for Richard Williams. But they going to respect y’all,” titular character Richard Williams, portrayed by Will Smith, says in an early pivotal moment of King Richard. “Y’all” in this instance is Williams’s daughters in the movie. The line was said about 11 minutes into the 2 and 1/2-hour film. Yet it’s a symbolic message that is echoed throughout the film.
King Richard is a biopic about the patriarch of the Williams family of tennis superstars Venus and Serena Williams. It tells the tale of how the family overcame humble beginnings to achieve unfathomable success. In many ways, it is your typical rags-to-riches story in which the protagonists start poor, train with some of the worst equipment in the worst conditions, only to break through. But throughout this journey, and every obstacle, hurdle, barrier, and adversity, Richard emphasizes the importance of individual responsibility, perseverance, hard work, and core family values. These symbolic overtures make it one of the most conservative Republican values movies in recent memory.
Richard runs the family like a well-oiled machine. Early on, he says he constructed a plan for his daughters’ careers before they were even born. Richard’s ethos is based on old school values: hard work, individual responsibility, and respect — everything conservative Republicans preach as the core tenets of success in the United States. The film emphasizes the starting point of the Williams family but foreshadows their inevitable success. The message here is conservative to its core: The pursuit of happiness requires resilience and dedication. Moreover, family is the key that holds it all together and makes the pursuit even possible in the first place.
Smith’s performance is terrific, and he does a fantastic job portraying Richard as a strict father who keeps his family in line. Richard is both strict and demanding but encourages his children to have fun and frequently jokes with them throughout the film. He has them memorize mottos, including: “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” He has them keep journals so they can stay on their track to success. However, Smith’s charisma, and I assume Richard’s as well, separates him from the other stereotypical strict father roles in cinema. The role of the father in raising children is vital in the film — an issue conservative Republicans repeatedly state.
While I am sure the Williams family and Smith did not set out to make a conservative film, it is hard to argue that its messages do not embrace such ideology. Consider a scene in the movie in which local authorities investigate the Williams household due to a neighbor’s concerns that Richard is unfairly tough on his children. The social worker questions his methods, and in response, Richard and his wife point out their daughters are first in their classes at school. “We got future doctors and lawyers plus a couple tennis stars in this house,” he explains, further illustrating the importance of the family. Smith then gives a fantastic monologue explaining his family’s child-raising methods in front of a social worker and police officers:
I don’t mind you saying we’re hard on these kids because you know why? We are. That’s our job. To keep them off these streets. You want to arrest us for that? Fine, but what you not going never do is come knock on this door, talkin’ bout you had to blow they damn brains out in them streets cause they running with hoodlums and doing drugs and things. That’s what you not never gonna say in this house.Venus and Serena Williams are unquestionably unique and magnificent talents. However, it is abundantly clear that a strong nuclear family was paramount to their success stories. While it is evident that not everyone can be tennis phenoms, it does show the significance of these values in everyday lives. At a time when working hard and family values seem less important, King Richard issues a decree on their importance and relevance.
