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Queen (The)
R4 - Australia - Warner Home Video Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak and Alex Hawley (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 last 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 didn’t 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 a ratio of 1.78:1 this anamorphic widescreen transfer is very good considering the film was shot using various formats from 16mm to 35mm plsu the use of archival news footage. Some problems are evident such as the overall sharpness of the image. Archival clips are as expected not the best quality but the footage shot for the film also suffers from heavy grain. Black levels were murky at times and shadow detail was especially limited at time. Colours on the other hand appear balanced, I spotted no colour bleed and for the most part they were vivid (archival footage excluded) and skin tones looked natural throughout the transfer.
Audio
Two audio tracks are included in English Dolby Digital 5.1 as well as English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo. For the purposes of this review I chose to view the film with its 5.1 track and just as expected it wasn’t a dynamic track, it appears as through it’s a port of the 5.1 track used on the Region 1 release. Depth felt limited except when the score kicked in. I felt that the majority of the track was front heavy and considering this is a drama with a lot of dialogue I’m not entirely surprised. There was some activity in the surround channels mainly in the form of subtle atmospheric surrounds. Not the best surround effort but certainly far from the worst, it’s exactly as you’d expect it.
Extras
Warner Brothers has released this film with a selection of extras that include an audio commentary, a featurette and a slideshow. 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. 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 on this disc is a photography slideshow which runs for 2 minutes 44 seconds and includes some photos taken during the production of the film.
Overall
This region 4 release drops the second audio commentary by British Historian and Royal Expert, which admittedly was the better of the two tracks, this omission puts the ‘Special Edition’ label on this DVD into question.
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