‘The Queen’ depicts crisis of Princess Diana

Someone gave me a DVD - whatever that is - recently and, in spite of a detailed manual, I could not put the wires in the right places when trying to attach it to the television set. So, I called in a 13-year-old neighbour, who assembled it without difficulty and proceeded to explain how it worked in bewildering detail.

However, what I want to say is how much I enjoyed the first motion picture - it can no longer be called a film - I played on the DVD. The Queen has already been sifted through favourable reviews and the season’s accolades, resulting in Academy Awards for best picture and, particularly, for Dame Helen Mirren, long admired for her role in the British cop show, Prime Suspect.

I don’t know whether the film was presented as a documentary, but it achieved the purpose of providing fine entertainment while dealing with sensitivity the crisis in the Royal Family caused by the tragic death of the princess, Diana. According to the film, the queen handled the crisis splendidly and it provided a fair interpretation of events in the life and death of the People’s Princess.

In the film, Dame Mirren was the queen. She looked remarkably like her, had her mannerisms and interpreted the queen’s inner feelings as she defended the traditions of the crown that had accumulated since the Battle of Hastings, when the British monarchy began. In the past few decades, the British royal family has suffered a series of family problems, and the recent ones have spilled out of the palace into public scrutiny.

The marriage of Diana and Prince Charles of Wales was a pleasant highlight for the beleaguered royals. When it failed, it seemed as though the Royal Family had itself failed. The queen in the film is depicted as a stubborn matriarch, living out an anachronism which Diana’s death accentuates. The film also depicts the queen as an institution, willing to bend, though reluctantly, for the sake of her people and the crown.

The Royal Family - Prince Phillip, Elizabeth the Queen Mother, Charles, the lot - aren’t that much enamoured by the behaviour of Diana; and, they weren’t prepared to change their stance for the sake of appearances.

For instance, the queen initially refused to lower a flag over Buckingham Palace until Tony Blair, then beginning his career as prime minister, prevailed upon her to placate the British people who mourned the death of the princess en masse. Queen Elizabeth didn’t like the prime minister much either, but she followed his suggestion. He was, in fact, the leader of the people, and doing the right thing was what the film is all about. It won’t hurt the queen’s image at home or abroad.

Crises are not new to the British monarchy. Religious differences precipitated the famous Gunpowder Plot in 1605, when fanatics schemed to murder the “lords, the commons and the Royal Family” by blowing them up. Then, of course, there was Charles I’s beheading and the Oliver Cromwell 11-year republic, until Charles II was invited to retake the throne.

Henry VIII was on thin ice when he quarreled with the pope because he would not grant permission to marry Anne Boleyn. He married her anyway and broke from Rome and the Catholic Church to establish the Protestant Church of England, with himself as head.

Most of the monarchs in the House of Brunswick had a German connection, including Queen Victoria, whose husband, Albert, was born in Germany. This connection was contentious on various occasions until, in 1917, during World War I, the House of Windsor supplanted the House of Brunswick.

British rulers were often at loggerheads with their subjects. King John signed the Magna Carta when faced with losing his throne. Richard III, returning to England after stirring up Ireland, found his kingdom had changed hands. Mary Queen of Scots plotted to murder Queen Elizabeth I and take the throne. She was beheaded for her pains, and Elizabeth went on to rule for 45 years.

Perhaps the most volatile crisis in modern years was the abdication of King Edward to marry Mrs. Wallis Simpson. The British were torn over protocol, but the British always seem to rise above their difficulties.