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From Amazon.co.uk
A special reissue, tying into the Diamond Jubilee celebrations of Queen Elizabeth II in 2012, The Queen remains perhaps notable for the Academy Award recognition it brought Helen Mirren, who took a Best Actress Oscar prize home for the movie. Clearly, Mirren's turn as the title character is an astonishing one, but there's nonetheless more to The Queen than just one actress, no matter how impressive she may be.
Telling the story of how the British Royal Family dealt with the aftermath of the tragic, premature death of Diana, Princess Of Wales, The Queen is a carefully put together piece of work. There are moments where, in hindsight, it feels like a comfortable Sunday afternoon drama. Yet what lifts it are the performances, the wise direction of Stephen Frears, and the feeling that it's just lifting back the curtain a little on what must have been a devastatingly tricky period of time.
It's to the disc's benefit that the extra features package digs into that a little, too. Alongside an interesting making of documentary, what's particularly of note is the commentary track, where Frears and screenwriter Peter Morgan talk us through the film. It's insightful and intriguing, and comfortably one of the highlights of the disc.
It's the film, inevitably, that's the real star, though. A well told version of a well known series of events, how accurate it all remains is open for debate. What's more certain is just how good a film The Queen remains. --Jon Foster
Product Description
Following the death of Diana "the People’s Princess", the Queen (Helen Mirren) and her family remain hidden behind tradition and the closed doors of Balmoral Castle. Whilst the heartbroken public becomes disillusioned with their Queen’s absence, an increasingly popular Prime Minister, Tony Blair, must battle to convince the monarchy that its desire for privacy could lead to its ultimate downfall. With an outstanding performance from Helen Mirren, The Queen is director Stephen Frears’ engrossing, intimate and intelligently witty portrait of our monarchy’s darkest days in the week following one of the nation’s greatest tragedies.
Special Features:
Special Features:
- Making Of documentary
- Feature commentary by director Stephen Frears and writer Peter Morgan
- Production photography gallery
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
47 of 50 people found the following review helpful
By Mr. Ian A. Macfarlane
TOP 100 REVIEWER
Format:DVD
This is a very interesting film, portraying as it does the mismatch between the Royal Family's immediate response to the death of Princess Diana and what a large section of the British public wanted of them. In the week after the accident, public hysteria ran high and, in failing to respond to that, the Family suffered a severe public relations knock. No-one knows more about public relations than spin-crazy Tony Blair and his media manipulator-in-chief, Alistair Campbell, and in the film they are shown to have a far surer grasp of what would 'work' with the public than does the Queen, whose wishes are essentially family-based, centring on an old-fashioned emphasis on privacy and the protection of her bereaved grandsons. But she comes across as a far more sympathetic character than Blair and Campbell. This is partly because of an excellent screenplay and partly because of Helen Mirren's outstanding and uncannily 'right' performance ; partly also because, at this distance, we can see that there is something awful about the disproportionate wildness of the public grief - tons and tons of flowers, hysterical weeping in the streets and so on - which the Queen, a woman from another age whose whole training is based on reserve and control, would find alien and unsettling, particularly as the relationship with Diana had become very strained, for whatever reasons. All of this comes across entirely convincingly in the film. In addition, it tells a very good story and is, in places, unexpectedly funny. So, an unusual film, a one-off, very well done
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
By smeng
Format:DVD
I didn't know what to expect from this film at all. But since the film had a strong showing at the Oscars... at least Helen Mirren did, I thought I'd give it a go. Was expecting serious drama but it was actually a very witty take on the royal family during a rather tragic event. It showed a whole different side to the royals and rather realistically too so much so that it could be true. Brilliant lines from the Queen Mother by the way, watch out for those scenes.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Hype as ever follows any film expected and/or actually winning Oscars, Baftas and other awards. Often the critically acclaimed are not as popular with the public, but this film truly deserves all the praise and awards it received.
We all know the story; Dianna dies in a car crash and the public grief the entire country showed while the royals stayed largely out of the way. Are the events shown in the film accurate? I don't know but they certainly could be. Well acted by everyone even down to an uncany impression of Tony Blair, cheesy grin and all, this is a powerful film for most ages. My wife and I took our two children to see this, they were 5 and 8 years and both loved it which I did not expect. My daughter wanted to know more and this started a lot of reading and asking/answering of questions. We've now watched this some three or four times and every time found something new. Its full of emotion as you would expect but it takes you from tears of sadness to tears of joy. A gammut of emotions and truly rewarding.
We all know the story; Dianna dies in a car crash and the public grief the entire country showed while the royals stayed largely out of the way. Are the events shown in the film accurate? I don't know but they certainly could be. Well acted by everyone even down to an uncany impression of Tony Blair, cheesy grin and all, this is a powerful film for most ages. My wife and I took our two children to see this, they were 5 and 8 years and both loved it which I did not expect. My daughter wanted to know more and this started a lot of reading and asking/answering of questions. We've now watched this some three or four times and every time found something new. Its full of emotion as you would expect but it takes you from tears of sadness to tears of joy. A gammut of emotions and truly rewarding.
49 of 53 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Having lived outside the UK for most of the time that has passed since Princess Diana's death, it's interesting to revisit that moment in history from a foreign context, almost as an outsider. Sitting in the cinema this evening, I was struck by the notion that perhaps only Brits can truly appreciate the significance of the British monarchy, and thereby also fully understand what it is that makes this film such a towering piece of cinema.
As another reviewer has pointed out, Elizabeth II is omnipresent, permeating every facet of British society, and it is in its very attention to detail that "The Queen" triumphs. At first I was taken aback by the striking similarity between the actors and their real-life counterparts: Helen Mirren (who deserves the Oscar for this, perhaps her greatest performance) is frighteningly like the Queen in every respect, right down to pronouncing "Diana" with the stress on the first syllable - something only the Queen does. Michael Sheen's Blair was spot on too: that nervous chuckle, the grin, the walk. James Cromwell is uncannily like the Duke of Edinburgh...
I'd forgotten that these events took place almost immediately after New Labour's accession to power, and thinking of things in these terms sheds new light on the significance of the public reaction. The Tories had finally been kicked out of Westminster, there was a great sense of expectation, of change, and the questioning of the monarchy's relevance seems to go hand in hand with that new-found optimism. The film reminds us that Blair at least set out to be a "moderniser", and the Queen even asks whether he is "planning to modernise us".... Read more ›
As another reviewer has pointed out, Elizabeth II is omnipresent, permeating every facet of British society, and it is in its very attention to detail that "The Queen" triumphs. At first I was taken aback by the striking similarity between the actors and their real-life counterparts: Helen Mirren (who deserves the Oscar for this, perhaps her greatest performance) is frighteningly like the Queen in every respect, right down to pronouncing "Diana" with the stress on the first syllable - something only the Queen does. Michael Sheen's Blair was spot on too: that nervous chuckle, the grin, the walk. James Cromwell is uncannily like the Duke of Edinburgh...
I'd forgotten that these events took place almost immediately after New Labour's accession to power, and thinking of things in these terms sheds new light on the significance of the public reaction. The Tories had finally been kicked out of Westminster, there was a great sense of expectation, of change, and the questioning of the monarchy's relevance seems to go hand in hand with that new-found optimism. The film reminds us that Blair at least set out to be a "moderniser", and the Queen even asks whether he is "planning to modernise us".... Read more ›
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
There are several themes to this excellent and most original and interesting film; but what it is about more than anything else is how political regimes and whole dynasties can be undone on account of a single error of judgment. It is only near the end that Her Majesty warns her prime minister that this will happen to him, and happen suddenly and without warning. It had nearly happened to her, he had been the saving of her on this occasion, and her dire prediction for him probably holds an uneasy message for herself too.
At the start the Queen is full of regal self-assurance, neatly putting her boyish and slightly nervous novice of a prime minister in his place by telling him he is sitting where Churchill once sat. In next to no time the positions are reversed, as Blair's acute political antennae tell him that HM is in imminent danger of losing her subjects' allegiance, something that would have been unimaginable only days previously, through trusting her own judgment and listening to the advice of her husband and her mother in respect of how to react to the death of Princess Diana. Throughout the crisis Blair is adroit and sure-footed, the monarch is made to realise bitterly from the newspapers how he has it right and she has been hopelessly at sea, but unlike her family counsellors she has the wit to swallow her pride and retrieve the situation before it slides beyond retrieval. This one incident could have undone a lifetime of unswerving dedication, universally acknowledged, to her country, and put the skids under the House of Windsor itself. Her warning to Blair is really made from a new sense of respect and a shocked realisation of how quickly and brutally the tables can turn. And how right she has been.... Read more ›
At the start the Queen is full of regal self-assurance, neatly putting her boyish and slightly nervous novice of a prime minister in his place by telling him he is sitting where Churchill once sat. In next to no time the positions are reversed, as Blair's acute political antennae tell him that HM is in imminent danger of losing her subjects' allegiance, something that would have been unimaginable only days previously, through trusting her own judgment and listening to the advice of her husband and her mother in respect of how to react to the death of Princess Diana. Throughout the crisis Blair is adroit and sure-footed, the monarch is made to realise bitterly from the newspapers how he has it right and she has been hopelessly at sea, but unlike her family counsellors she has the wit to swallow her pride and retrieve the situation before it slides beyond retrieval. This one incident could have undone a lifetime of unswerving dedication, universally acknowledged, to her country, and put the skids under the House of Windsor itself. Her warning to Blair is really made from a new sense of respect and a shocked realisation of how quickly and brutally the tables can turn. And how right she has been.... Read more ›
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4.4 out of 5 stars
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
The queen
Simply put Helen Mirren is a star in this film. The structure of the film wasn't my favourite thing but it was enjoyable to watch on the whole.
Published 3 days ago by Bethany
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great fun!
Thought I wouldn't like a film about the Queen. But it is interesting, funny and sad and doesn't poke fun at the royal family at all.
Published 26 days ago by IncaEmmy
5.0 out of 5 stars
the best
helen mirren is simply one of our best actors. I love every thing helen acts in. this is remarkable piece of acting so real. recommend it
Published 2 months ago by bookmoviefanatic
5.0 out of 5 stars
awesome
brilliant film well directed i gave this film a 5 star it was good, ace brill.watched it again and again
Published 2 months ago by Rebecca Weldon
5.0 out of 5 stars
Our Queen
I enjoyed watching Stephen Frears' dramatised account of the Diana crisis of 1997. This film portrays accurately the cleave in a country on a spur of vast and radical left-wing... Read more
Published 3 months ago by T. T. Rogers
4.0 out of 5 stars
Writing as a republican ...
This DVD came to me from my mother. She was and remains a staunch Dianaphile, whereas I am a republican who considers the doings of the Windsor family as peripheral to my life at... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Nicholas Casley
3.0 out of 5 stars
Quite amusing!
It's quite a good film ,although some of the family lack resemblance , otherwise well worth watching especially if you have ever wondered what goes on behind closed doors, as one... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Mike Williams
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Queen
What a great movie. This movie reminds us all of the death of Princess Dianna and the disasterous manner in which the Royal Family dealt with this tragedy.
Published 3 months ago by David Weiley
5.0 out of 5 stars
the queen
good flilm enjoyed it helen mirren was the queen most belive able well acted plus the suerport cast all in all a most enjoy able film
Published 4 months ago by chris
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great film.
I'm an English as a foreign language here in Spain so I wanted it to my pupils to practice listening, and I found it cheaper than I can find it in my country.
Published 4 months ago by Santiago Benitez Buitrago
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