Queen Elizabeth II has sat on the British Throne for 70 years and is celebrating her Platinum Jubilee. It’s a momentous achievement for her majesty, so now seems like a good time to check out the royal biopic The Queen.
1997 sees two massive events that affects the UK. The first was the election of Tony Blair (Michael Sheen) who won on a landslide with promises to change Britain. The second was the death of Princess Diana. Diana’s death had a profound effect on the Royal Family, both personal and social. Queen Elizabeth II (Helen Mirren) must lead the Royal Family and Institution through this challenging time.
The Queen was one of the most critically acclaimed films of 2006. It earned Helen Mirren an Oscar for Best Actress, was nominated for five more Oscars and many critics placed the film in their top ten lists for that year. The screenwriter, Peter Morgan, has gone on to make The Crown for Netflix. It was a film that had an impact on the British film scene.
The Queen focused on the Royal Family at their lowest point since the war. The death of Diana saw the Royal Family become unpopular in the UK. In the film Blair revealed that one in four of respondents to a poll wanted to abolish the monarchy. The Queen had the weight of a personal tragedy, protecting the institution of the monarch and feeling the wrath of the public.
The Queen aimed to show the human side of the monarch. She put on a stoic front because of her sense of duty and tough upper lip attitude she developed during the war. Her reasoning for taking the family to Balmoral was to protect the family from press intrusion and allow the family, especially Princes William and Harry, to deal with their grief in private. Despite the Royal Family isolating themselves in Scotland, they still felt the force of the media. They saw the headlines in the papers and the coverage on the TV.
The most powerful scene in the film was when The Queen’s car broke down in the middle of the royal estate. She was alone, she didn’t need to keep up appearances for her family or the staff, so she broke down in tears. It humanised a figure who’s known for her devotion to her duty. The Queen showed empathy when she saw a deer. The deer played an important role to The Queen’s emotional journey before she left Scotland.
Whilst The Queen’s logic was reasonable, at least within the film, she wasn’t above making mistakes. One of biggest mistakes was not flying a flag at half-mast at Buckingham Palace. It made the royals looked heartless and out-of-touch. The Queen and some members of the Royal Family were set in their way. Prince Philip (James Cromwell) did not want to bend to the public will because he felt that the issue would blow over.
The Royal Family suffered a similar fate as Diana. They were being hounded by the media, just like Diana. The Royals were having to think of the media lens about some of their actions, like how Charles (Alex Jennings) would travel to Paris, and what activities the young princes could do to keep them distracted.
The theme of the film was the clash between the traditional world of the monarchy and the rapid changes in British society. The Queen opened with the election of Tony Blair, Labour’s first Prime Minister for 18 years and he won on a reforming manifesto. Cherie Blair (Helen McCrory) and Alastair Campbell (Mark Bazeley) were hostile to the monarchy. Tony Blair in the film was walking the tightrope of trying to save the monarchy and lead Britain in its grief.
Even within the monarchy there were people trying to reform the institution from the inside. Charles goes behind his mother’s back and communicates with the government about the crisis. Charles says to Blair that they are both modern men and he wanted to see the monarchy adapt.
The monarchy’s place in a British society has been a long running question. It has been around since the Georgian era, at least. Even now there are debates about the role of the monarchy and how it can modernise. It’s speculated that Charles will shrink the Royal Family when he becomes king, and William and Kate have cultivated an image of being modern Royals who are in tune with the British public.
The Queen did share some story and thematic ideas with another royal film, The King’s Speech. Both films were about the idea of duty thrust upon the nation’s sovereign and the monarchy was suffering through a period of crisis. In The King’s Speech which was about the Abdication Crisis and presented in that film the British public saw George VI an illegitimate king. Both films concluded with their title monarchs making speeches to raise the nation’s moral. In The Queen’s case she needed to make a live speech to save the institution.
The Queen was a well-made prestige picture. It was a superbly acted drama as it offers an insight into the Queen’s mindset. It was pro-monarchist, but The Queen doesn’t show the monarch to be flawless as she grabbles with personal issues and her sense of duty.
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