The Queen

Tonight when we got home from shopping we watched The Queen with Helen Mirren. It was excellent. I have wanted to see it sent it came out, but especially since Helen Mirren won the best actress Oscar for her portrayal of H.R.H. Queen Elizabeth II. The movie is set in 1997, before and after the death of Princess Diana. The widespread grief over her death, and the lack of response from the Queen and her family led to an all-time-low approval rating for the Queen, with one poll stating that 1 in 4 British citizens favored abolishing the English Monarchy. Of course, that hasn't happened yet, and in the end of the movie the queen, played to perfection by Hellen Mirren, was redeemed. The movie also features Tony Blair, the British prime minister, in his first few months in office, fighting against his own cynicism towards the queen and the antagonism and disrespect she earned from his colleagues and advisers, including his wife.

In the end, the movie seemed to portray the battle between the present age and the monarchy, itself a relic of history stretching back more than a thousand years. As the Postmodern age has succeeded the Modern, so the monarchy has been surpassed by democracy. The monarchy is not of the Postmodern Age, the Modern, the Enlightenment, or even of the Renaissance. The monarchy is a relic of the feudal system, grandly rotting away; slowly but steadily, into the history books.


Tomorrow I will cover John McCain.