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Queen (The)
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Buena Vista Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak (1st May 2007). |
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The Film
 The Queen is now out on DVD...right where it should have started. This film stank of "made for TV" and with good reason: it was. It should have been a mini series your parents watched over the course of 2 Sunday evenings, then told you about while you pretended to listen the following Friday. Then it premiered at film festivals and people started squealing about it, next thing know it has a worldwide theatrical release and I'm duped out of $15. That said, as it is out on DVD, it is worth seeing if only for Helen Mirren's well deserved Oscar winning portrayal of Elizabeth II. She was charged with giving a human touch to one of the most honor, duty and protocol bound people in the Western world and she did it respectfully and convincingly. Subtly adding depth and complexity to someone most of us usually know simply as "heads". This balancing act made the film: too much warmth and we forget who it is, too little and she becomes a caricature. The film is set in the immediate aftermath of the Diana's death, looking at how the Royal family, and in particular the Queen, reacted to news of Dodi's passing. Essentially it's a film about PR versus protocol. On the one hand was the evil Prince Philip (James Cromwell), insisting that all concerned stick with tradition - not lower any of the flags, donate Diana's body to a laboratory for ethically challenged med students, and listen to the Queen Mum (Sylvia Syms) reminiscing about the [i>last[/i> time England had a civil war. And on the other hand was public opinion, which suddenly and violently swayed against the Windsor's, and in particular the Queen herself. In the middle was the new Prime Minister, Tony Blair (Michael Sheen), advising the Queen every 5 minutes on how best to proceed while his wife, Cherie (Helen McCrory) made rude gestures in the background. In the end PR won the day: the Queen went on live television to convey her sadness over Di's death, everyone was invited round for cake and Philip went back to philandering and making inappropriate comments on lower profile events. It was a little unnerving, almost unsettling to see Mirren in a role where she [i>didn't[/i> get naked, but if you're prepared for this going in you should be fine - a surprising lack of nakedness is always better than the other way round:...thank you Geoffrey Rush in "Quills" (2000). Apparently she lobbied pretty hard for a shower scene (just kidding). The crew was given access to a great deal of royal private property, but I couldn't help but wonder how much of the story was conjecture and how much was actually lifted out of the royal diary. Either way, this wasn't actually the most explosive piece of English monarchical history they could have told a story about. If I were making a film with this title and subject, I'd make an epic about the Queen's whole life. Hopefully one day somebody will. Nevertheless it's an interesting, well made and very well acted piece of theatre. Worth a watch.
Video
Presented in the film's original theatrical ratio of 1.85:1 this high-definition transfer is presented in 1080p 24/fps encoded using VC-1 compression. The standard DVD release suffered from heavy grain and noise amid the blacks, this transfer also has this problem, however not to the same degree as the standard DVD release. Sharpness is much better here, especially the footage shot in 35mm, the 16mm footage still appear a tad soft but detail is better represented here and flatness is not an issue anymore. The archival footage fares worse however, it looks murky and fuzzy on DVD but here is looks about the same only much brighter. As mentioned before detail is much better rendered here, backgrounds appear clearer and subtle production design and costume touches become apparent. Wide shots are beautiful with colors appearing vivid and bold with skin tones natural. Black levels aren't as consistent and noise levels differ between the 35mm footage and the 16mm footage, but otherwise this transfer is a decent effort.
Audio
Three audio tracks are included on this disc they include an English uncompressed PCM 5.1 surround track encoded at 48 kHz / 16bit as well as tracks in English Dolby Digital 5.1 and Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround. For the purposes of this review I chose to view the film with its PCM track. As far as PCM tracks go this isn't going to be something you show off Blu-ray audio to, this is a much more subtle and rich soundtrack than an aggressive and dynamic. The focal points are the dialogue and the score with minor attention paid to ambient surrounds. And as far as that goes this is a terrific effort. The subdued track features clear and distortion free dialogue and the score is allowed to breath throughout the sound space allowing the viewer to be immersed into the film. Directional effects and environmental sounds place you in certain surroundings and overall the track does the trick. Optional subtitles are also included in English for the hearing impaired, French and Spanish.
Extras
Buena Vista has released this film with a selection of extras that include two audio commentaries and a featurette. Below is a closer look at these supplements. First up is a feature-length audio commentary with the film's director Stephen Frears and screenwriter Peter Morgan. If you ever bit into a dry English muffin you'd know it's not the most pleasant thing in the world, and this commentary is about the same, dry, tasteless and occasionally bitter. Director Frears is quite possibly the most uninteresting man to listen to, he offers up very little on the making of the film instead choosing to blabber on about the film's small budget and the things he didn't get to do. It's interesting to hear about the different film stocks used in the film as well as working with the actors but on a whole there isn't a lot to be gained from this track, even screenwriter Morgan adds little to the mix instead of going into too much detail about the writing process he occasionally spurs Frears on into conversation amid the occasional silent gaps. A second audio commentary is included with British Historian and Royal Expert Robert Lacey, Lacey is the author of "Majesty: Elizabeth II and the House of Windsor". I'm pleased that this track wasn't nearly as boring and dry as the previous, Lacey certainly appears to have an excellent knowledge of the monarchy and the Windsor household providing a plethora of information corroborating what the filmmaker's have put on screen in terms of protocols and attitudes. He also provides his thoughts on the Queen and her duties as well as being bound by certain things which clearly worked to the negative during the death of Diana days. He also shed slight on things that appear to have been filmmaker's creative license and does provide for the listener a general idea of the mindset, traditions and duties of English monarchy. Following that is "The Making of The Queen" a featurette which runs for 19 minutes 30 seconds. This is another in a line of EPK clips that cover the basics and interviews the key cast and crew about the product, what the film is about and also a little bit about how everyone involved is just marvelous...a little of behind-the-scenes material makes it the only reason to watch this clip. Also included is "Movie Showcase" which jumps to three key reference scenes that show off the high-definition quality.
Overall
This film has been reviewed by Alex Hawley. The DVD specifications and extras have been reviewed by Noor Razzak.
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