The Queen – 2006
I liked this movie. I’ve never been a huge follower of the British Royal Family, but I know who most of them are. And I know that Helen Mirren’s portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II was sheer perfection. She was perfectly cast and absolutely did the role justice. I’m not in the least surprised that she took home the Oscar for Best Actress for her performance. She was just phenomenal.
The movie was not about the life of the Queen, but about how she and the Royal Family reacted to the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, or to put it more accurately, the death of Diana Spencer. You see, the film made a good point in that Diana and Prince Charles were divorced when she died. She was no longer a member of the Royal Family. According to people who know the Queen, the film was pretty accurate. When Diana died, Queen Elizabeth did not think it was appropriate to give her a royal funeral. And therein lay the drama of the film.
The problem was that the Queen was old fashioned in her way of thinking. She thought she knew the hearts of the British people. She thought that a private funeral handled by the Spencer family would be more appropriate than a public funeral. But she grossly underestimated Diana’s popularity, not just with the British people, but with the world. But in steps newly elected Prime Minister, Tony Blair, played by Michael Sheen. He understands that the monarchy will be severely damaged if Queen Elizabeth refuses to acknowledge Diana as royalty. Blair tries to to convince Elizabeth to address the people and give them the funeral they wanted.
And Elizabeth received no support from either her husband, Prince Philip, played by James Cromwell, or the Queen Mother, played by Sylvia Syms. They continually advised her to ignore the grieving crowds, never understanding that even though the Royal Family didn’t particularly like Diana for all her wild behavior, the people loved her all the more for it. The Queen’s personal secretary, Robin Janvrin, played by Roger Allam, did his best to remain a loyal servant of the Monarchy, but even he began to side with Blair. And then there was Prince Charles, played by Alex Jennings. He seemed to be portrayed as self-serving and slightly paranoid, making him an almost unlikeable character.
In all, the movie had some good, if slow, drama. And it had a very satisfying ending. Eventually, after seeing notes from her subjects that seemed to shame her for not publicly praising the brazen Diana, she began to understand that Blair was right when he called Diana a Princess of the People. She began to see just how popular she had been and how much the British citizenry loved her. And she gave in. She did everything that Blair advised her to do. It hurt her pride, but she did her duty. In the end, she lets Blair know that bowing to his advice helped his popularity and damaged hers, but that it was the right thing to do. She knows that the role of the British Monarchy is no longer what it used to be, and that she and her family needed to be able to change with the times.
I also have to give special notice to Michael Sheen as Tony Blair. He seemed to have an eagerness about him that was infectious, an enthusiasm that made him very likeable. He portrayed the youth and earnest nature of the politician perfectly. I liked him from the start, and when everyone around him, including his top aid, Alistair Campbell, played by Mark Bazeley, and his wife, Cherie Blair, played by Helen McCrory, had nothing be negative things to say about the Queen, I loved how he righteously defended her, her unpopular attitudes, and the Monarchy as a whole.
This movie was a bit of an education for me as well. I was unaware of the controversy surrounding the Royal Family and Diana’s death. And I was given a little bit of insight into the daily lives of the British Royal Family. Because the Queen is, after all, just a woman. She had duties and responsibilities, but she also has days where she is free from those demands. She drives by herself, she watches television, she goes for walks, she argues with her husband, and she takes care of her family. But she is also a very private woman who does, doing her best to remain out of the spotlight unless it is necessary.
And as a final thought, I have to mention the film’s innate emotional content. Yes, the movie was about Queen Elizabeth II, but watching the scene which depicted Diana’s death tugged at my heart. Many people who lived through 1963 can answer the question, where were you when you learned that JFK had been shot? For my generation, I can answer the similar question, where were you when you learned that Diana had died? I was in shock. It was almost surreal. And now I wonder, how much more surreal must it all have been for the British people, the Royal Family, and the Queen?