I watched part 1 of the “Henry VIII” DVD, because now that I have a cold, I finally have the time. I didn’t like Helena Bonham Carter’s Anne Boleyn. Or maybe I just didn’t like the writing. I thought she was too sympathetic. Everything she did was for a good reason, except making Henry choose between her and Wolsey. There was nothing about Anne threatening to poison Katherine of Aragon or Mary, nothing about defacing Katherine’s seal out of spite, nothing about being two-faced. (It also didn’t show her donating to causes, obtaining leniency for religious “heretics”, or other positive things, for that matter, but that is not my tirade today.) I know there is not time in a 3-hour epic for such things, but all we saw was her rise to power and fall from it. And that was the movie. If we have time in a 75 minute show to display Anne’s personality, then surely they could have. I know they had to throw in all that religious intrigue and stuff in there, too, but come on.
They also cut Katherine of Aragon’s court speech. That REALLY bugged me.
-Amy, coincidentally Katherine of Aragon in our production.
Just to note, the DVD Amy refered to was the Ray Winstone version: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0382737/ and was designed as a mini-series for TV. Sort of pre- "The Tudors" if you will.
ReplyDeleteI thought this was a very interesting DVD as it highlighted Henry as more of a playboy-"gansta", as Ray Winstone usually plays thugs. (Very fitting for Henry, I thought...)
As for Boleyn being sympathetic, obviously something had to happen for Henry to establish his own church, divorcing his wife and thus changing the face of history forever...
While I by no means think that The Tudors is the be-all-end-all of adapted history, they characterize Henry's wives [and most of the women] so much better than any other Henry VIII story that I've seen. All of them can be sympathetic and repulsive, charming and annoying. In short, REALISTIC.
ReplyDeleteThat show also does a really good job of showing how the political is inextricably tied to the personal and vice versa. GO TUDORS!