Customer Reviews

The Queen

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Queen E at her best and worst. Wonderfully played by 5 different stars, representing 5 time periods. But 5-stars are awarded for:
* factual documentary
* educational narration
* entertaining dramatization
* fine mix of real archival footage
* period set/costuming plus beautiful footage of the real thing
Both a drama and documentary. Well done in 5 episodes, each 47 min. WITH SUBTITLES. Originally aired Nov/Dec 2009.
Bonus is limited to filmographies of the 5 female leads as "The Queen."

1 SISTERS--Feb.6, 1952 Geo VI dies and Elizabeth, 25 yrs old, becomes "The Queen", reigns yet today. Immediately, younger sister, Margaret, recognized the once equal status between she and Princess Elizabeth was gone. Queen E was embarrassed from Margaret's actions, including a relationship with married/then divorced palace employee, Peter Townsend. Queen (Emilia Fox) & Margaret (Katie McGrath) played convincingly.

2 US AND THEM--Monarchy lives seen on TV in 1969, but popularity dropped to a new low level, royal money was tight, & government leaders question monarchy need. The 1970s appears a time for change. Miners strike as the Queen gets a 100% raise. Princess Anne survives an attempted kidnapping. [I question the dramatization of the Queen & Prime Minister hand-washing dishes together.] Samantha Bond ('Lark Rise to Candleford'-awesome) is Queen; Abby Ford is excellent as Anne.

3 THE RIVALS--The 1986 Commonwealth Games begin a conflict between the Queen and PM Margaret Thatcher (Lesley Manville). South African apartheid becomes a major point of tension as are sanctions. A royal cat fight. Queen is played by Susan Jameson, a wonderful actress also known as the reader for at least 15 audio books of the works of Catherine Cookson. Wonderful stories, every one. Check out C. Cookson book adaptations on DVD, but I digress.

4 THE ENEMY WITHIN--Queen now has 40 yrs experience and her children become problems. Duke/Duchess of York, Andrew & Fergie (Luck Chalkley) make tabloid news, divorce. Not to be outdone, The Prince/Princess of Wales, Charles & Diana (Emily Hamilton), make their own 'news', with Camilla's help. A castle fire and royal separation close a BAD 1992. Barbara Flynn ('Cranford'-get DVD) is The Queen. Now see the "companion-like" DVD of Helen Mirren "The Queen" from 2006.

5 HOW DO YOU SOLVE A PROBLEM LIKE CAMILLA?--Sis Margaret dies weeks prior to the Queen Mother. Should Camilla be allowed to attend the funeral of her lover's grandmother? A civil wedding, April 9, 2005. Did the queen bow to a potential future queen? Joanna Van Gyseghem is Camilla. Diana Quick (Brideshead) the final queen. Is the real Queen E spitting royal nails behind royal draperies over this? Jolly bloody right-on!

FUN 20th/21st century monarch history from the inside looking out. This DVD explains a lot.

I am going through a British phase lately. (We are watching the Inspector Lewis series and contemplating dropping the $300+ for Inspector Morse.) I watched The Queen in its entirety on New Year's Day. The blending of documentary footage and dramatic recreation is quite effective. The actors playing the Royals were, thankfully, chosen for their acting ability rather than a striking resemblance to the real people they portray. All segments were quite compelling and provide great insight on the times and the people. My favorite was the first segment dealing with Princess Margaret's affair and potential marriage to Peter Townsend. The emotion is so raw, in spite of the famed British upper lip. It was clearly so difficult for the young Elizabeth to cope with the pressures of the monarchy at the same time wanting her sister to find happiness. Elizabeth and Margaret were obviously close growing up, even though they had such different personalities. After watching the first installment, there was no question I would sit through the whole thing there and then.

Elizabeth is a remarkable woman and this DVD does her justice. Well conceived, well acted, highly recommended.

This documentary wasn't what I expected. However, it was much more. I did not expect the high levels of personal recollections from people close to the royal family. This wound up being completely mesmerizing for me, and I watched the whole thing in one sitting. I felt like I really learned a lot. I especially enjoyed the piece on her relationship with Margaret Thatcher.

I have never seen a DVD where actual reality and the acting of the performers merged into one movie. Very well done.

This five-part documdrama miniseries from Britain's Channel 4 had an idea irresistible to any fan of the 2006 Stephen Frears film of the same title with Helen Mirren: as in the Frears film, each installment dramatizes a crucial crisis in the life of Elizabeth II... but each time with a different actress (each fairly well known to British audiences) in the title role. Interviews with former courtiers and palace insiders are juxtaposed with dramatized scenes, with Stephen Mackintosh threading the whole with offscreen narration. The production values are fairly high, and the episodes from the queen's life are well chosen. In the first, "Sisters," the new young queen (Emilia Fox, best known from the 1990s remake of REBECCA) must convince her sister Margaret not to marry the divorced equerry Peter Townshend. In the second, "Us and Them," shows the queen (the wonderful Samantha Bond from LARK RISE TO CANDLEFORD) now with a full family and needing an increase in finances from the state. Susan Jameson takes over in the most fascinating episode, "The Rivals" where Elizabeth II is shown to meet her match in Margaret Thatcher (Lesley Manville), who clashes with the queen over possible sanctions against South Africa in the 1980s. The queen's so-called "annus horribilis" of 1992--the year Windsor Castle suffered a major fire and her two eldest sons' marriages collapsed--is dramatized with Barbara Flynn as the monarch in "The Enemy Within." Finally, Diana Quick (best known to US audiences as Julia from the Granada TV miniseries BRIDESHEAD REVISITED) plays Elizabeth II in old age coping with the problem of "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Camilla?" when the Prince of Wales insists on marrying Mrs. Parker-Bowles, yet again forcing the queen to face her anathema towards divorce, the bane of her family since the 1936 abdication crisis.

The series is perhaps talkier than it should be, with too much explained (oftentimes, especially in the final two episodes, when it's already fairly fresh in the minds of most adult audiences). Even so, it's quite a lot of fun, and the series writers manage to provide a consistent theme with the queen forced again and again to face the specter of divorce, the thing the Establishment she represents could not countenance back in 1936, thus bringing about the chain of events that brought her to the throne. All the actresses work hard and are fairly believable, although none of them quite conveys the intelligence and majesty evoked by Helen Mirren in 2006; of the five, Emilia Fox as the chic young queen torn between her love for her only sibling and her duty as monarch probably fares the best. Though no one convincingly brings off Prince Philip in any of the episodes, Abby Ford beautifully brings off a hilariously indomitable and self-satisfied Princess Anne in "Us and Them," and Emily Hamilton is quite good as a frightened and painfully vulnerable Princess of Wales in "The Enemy Within." The best performance by far, though, is Lesley Manville in the central episode, who portrays Margaret Thatcher as a woman whose ideological certainty and haughty public demeanor masks her private insecurities and nervousness. There's an excellent, slightly sinister score by Miguel d'Oliviera that hints at the deeper intrigues. The dialogue is at times over the top, but there are some fine scenes, particularly at the end of the first, third and fifth episodes: Margaret left all alone even after her renunciation for duty's sake in "Sisters"; the queen and Mrs. Thatcher zinging one another before their husbands at a Balmoral picnic in "The Rivals"; and the queen's amusingly sneaky minor revenge-jab after having to countenance her eldest son's second marriage in "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Camilla?"

I confess that I have always enjoyed watching England's royal family over the years. I know my mom used to enjoy keeping up with what they were doing even when I was a child. She let me stay home from school to watch Queen Elizabeth's coronation.

There was always something there in the background that was curious about the relationship between Queen Elizabeth and her sister, Margaret. It goes back to that old thing about 'the heir and the spare' which must do something to the person who didn't inherit all the perks. The story is there in this 2-disc series which covers all the way through the Camilla problem. There is quite a bit of coverage about Charles and Diana, although none specifically relating to her death. There is very little about William and Harry. Most of the story is truly about the Queen and how she related to her family members, the government, and her advisers.

The series is well done and I recommend it to anyone who is curious about the part of the story that we usually don't get to see.

I think this is a really good DVD, and would recommend others buy it. I watch a lot of Royal Family dvd - and this is one of my favorites. This DVD gave me an new insight/view on the Queen and family -that I did not have before. Since they are usually so private - this kind of fly on the wall view put a new light on the family. Acting was well done and certainly worth watching - I am sharing it with friends!

Perfect transaction with this seller too! Thank you!