Customer Reviews

National Geographic: The Last Royals

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This documentary features one of my smug countrymen who sneers his way through the segments about Queen Elizabeth II, continually asking snide rhetorical questions like "why on earth would a nation still have a royal family" and similar comments. National Geographic chose to contrast the British monarchy with a set of third world monarchies (Uganda, Nepal and Tonga I think) in what seems to be a deliberate attempt to further belittle Queen Elizabeth, the British people who like the monarchy, and building up an idea that republicanism is rampant in the UK when in fact it hovers in the 20% range for years. Its too bad and doesn't reflect well on National Geographic.

This DVD is a bit misleading. I love learning about all the royal families around the world but of course like many royal watchers my favorites are the Windsors of Great Britain. This DVD has Prince William and Prince Harry on the cover but it actually talks more about an african royal family that I knew nothing about. I watched it for the educational value but it was a bit disappointing simply because I didnt get what i thought i was getting. It was just ok as far as I was concerned.

This documentary asks compelling questions: monarchies have shrunk to 29, do countries still need them? Will they continue beyond the next few decades? Prince William is mentioned here briefly. They just used his image on the cover because of his pulchritude.

"Family Feud" would ask for the top responses in a survey. However, this documentary did not focus on Sweden, Japan, Monaco, and the other famous monarchies of which many Americans would know. It speaks heavily of Queen Elizabeth, but then it moves to Uganda, Tonga, and Nepal. It is multiracial and it crosses continents. National Geographic looked at a cross-section of the world without being cheesy like that series Leonard Nimoy narrates. I did notice that the smaller the nation, the more likely monarchs themselves were willing to sit for interviews. The King of Greece sat for an interview yet they did not include a segment on his nation.

The narrator's voice sounded soooooo familiar. Then I found out it was Keith David from "Dead Presidents" and "Pitch Black" (not to be confused with David Keith, the actor with the chin dimple). I hope this work really opens doors for him and allows him to compete with fellow African-American thespian Morgan Freeman.

Perhaps the moral of this documentary is "Live and let live." If countries want to have royalty, then let them. However, it's repeated by the narrator and other Americans that they are happy not to have a family in that role. So much for Morrissey's saying "The Queen is dead."