The Queen
Posted by MiguelTuesday, January 16th, 2007, 2:36 am
I thought the main theme of The Queen was how Tony Blair sells out his progressive beliefs as soon as he thinks it will make him more powerful. He betrays the principles of everyone who believes in him to support a conservative power figure who doesn’t even respect him. (I assumed the inspiration for the film was in large part based on current events - and that’s why it resonates with viewers who didn’t think they cared about official Britain’s reaction to the death of Princess Di.)
I haven’t noticed any other people who interpreted the movie this way, though - in fact I think I’ve noticed that many think it portrays how dignified the asinine institution of the monarchy is, so I thought maybe the movie was just comforting and reinforces what you already believe (whether it’s that the Queen is truly noble or that Blair is truly a sellout). But I was glad to read on Mark Rabinowitz’s blog that the screenwriter is a peace advocate: so much so that his Golden Globes speech was cut off. Good for you, Peter Morgan. And I think my portrait-of-Tony-Blair-as-a-sellout interpretation of The Queen is the correct one.