Movie Review: The Queen
By John Taylor; 2009 May 17, Azamat 01, 166 BE
Yesterday I wrote an essay about placebos and publicity, and by a coincidence the same day I watched "The Queen," a movie about the effect of the death of Princess Di on Queen Elizabeth II, England's reigning monarch. The whole movie is about her refusal to join in with the general mourning, a sore failure to be in touch with the people that almost ended the monarchy right there.
To my complete surprise, I found myself in tears during the whole time the film was depicting the world mourning a figure, ejected from the royal family, that the prime minister dubbed "the people's princess." I was astonished at my reaction because I had never followed the sordid details of her life. Her every move was displayed in every newspaper for almost two decades before she was killed by a drunk driver and her failure to wear a seat-belt (the film shows the Queen and Philip not wearing seat-belts either). As somebody comments in the film, the worse her foibles became, the more the public loved her. And truly watching this you realize that there has not been a universally loved public figure like Di on the public stage since. And though I am not one to be caught up in personalities, it is clear that we need another Diana, or maybe several.
Diana truly was a phenomenon, though calling her the "people's princess" gets it wrong, I think. Actually, unlike the other royals, she had been promoted to a world princess. To be a princess of the world is a far higher station than a queen of a single nation and this film shows Elizabeth forced to recognize that. I kept wondering why they did not just call the film "Princess Diana" instead of "The Queen." Certainly Elizabeth does not come across well in the film, in spite of the attention it gives to showing her side of the story. Yes, she gives stability and experience to the ever changing governments in a democracy, but you cannot help but ask, "What does she stand for?" I kept asking myself what Elizabeth has accomplished in comparison with Diana's charity work, which significantly was not restricted to England but went to where the need is greatest, Africa.
That is what statesmanship is all about.
Unlike any other royal, Diana seems to have understood that if you are going to spend your life in the public eye you might as well use that attention to do some good in the world. That has got to be why I and so many others could not help but shed a tear at her death. One of the best moments of the film comes during Tony Blair's televised "people's princess" speech in tribute to Diana. A cynical report is watching in the newsroom and comments, "It is a little over the top don't you think?" And he looks over at a hushed room full of people with tears streaming down their faces.
So this movie is about Elizabeth saving her own political skin. She did so by making a fairly difficult sacrifice, one she wanted least in the world to do, acknowledge a debt to an estranged family member whose actions had brought almost as much disgrace to the crown as other members of that fractious family have done. She survived the crisis by eating crow. There is a lesson here. Royalty is not so much about an individual wearing a crown, it is about a united family. The royal family is the exemplar of the nation. If they cannot function harmoniously what hope is there for families lower down the scale?
I awoke this morning thinking about this movie, especially about this question: since the world is in dire straights and global warming threatens us all, what could a royal like Elizabeth II do to help? We surely need all the kings, queens and other public figures we can get to rally us around the cause of saving our own skins. Our present leaders are deathly afraid, even in the face of the most dire crisis ever, to touch the structural, institutional changes that are needed to bring the carbon PPM in the air down something survivable. Doing that demands more courage, faith and inspiration than anybody in authority seem to have at their command. That is where royals can help. That is what they should be paying attention to.
First of all, I thought I would consult the guidance in the Writings about statesmanship. Baha'u'llah made it clear that faith and recognition of God are the grounds of wisdom, and wisdom is the basis of statesmanship.
"The beginning of Wisdom and the origin thereof is to acknowledge whatsoever God hath clearly set forth, for through its potency the foundation of statesmanship, which is a shield for the preservation of the body of mankind, hath been firmly established." (Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah, p. 151)
He also emphasized that statesmanship starts in personal, critical self-assessment. The film shows Elizabeth venturing across the wilds of Scotland, where her truck breaks down and she sees a beautiful, doomed buck. This experience seemed to be her moment of self-realization, where she starts to realize she will have to change her staunch stand against acknowledging the death of Diana. Anyway, Baha'u'llah says that this is sun of the sky of statesmanship:
"It behoveth every ruler to weigh his own being every day in the balance of equity and justice and then to judge between men and counsel them to do that which would direct their steps unto the path of wisdom and understanding. This is the cornerstone of statesmanship and the essence thereof." (Baha'u'llah, Tablets, 166-167)
The mark of the statesmanship shown by a monarch, then, is how well he or she promotes such self-assessment in the world at large. I imagine the next king of England doing that more than Elizabeth did, not by isolating himself in a castle somewhere like a monk, but by getting out into the streets and promoting self-critical activity among leaders and managers everywhere -- and for that matter among followers too, for the best statesmanship skills are useless without good followership shown by many more people.
How nice it would be to see a king following in the footsteps of the people's princess. I can almost see such a leader now. I seem to see him going and living in the worst, poorest apartment complex in England and refusing to leave until the slums are torn down and decent housing is universal. I see him going to the dirtiest, most polluted spot in the land, or maybe in the world, and staying and breathing the fumes until those responsible clean it up. I see this king going into the stodgiest ivory tower and the rankest corporate office and refusing to leave until its denizens drop their useless cogitation and selfish plotting and go with him to a conference where every head is put together and every purse opened for the solution to this crisis. I see him touched, as the Master put it in Paris, by a divine spark.
"If a man become touched with the divine spark, even though he be an outcast and oppressed, he will be happy and his happiness cannot die. Whatever man undertakes he achieves some result, whether through statesmanship, commerce, agriculture, science, etc., he receives a compensation for his efforts. Consider what will be the result of those who work in the universal cause!" (Abdu'l-Baha, Divine Philosophy, p. 57)
Even if such a king or queen or prince or princess meets with nothing but mockery, failure and death, the world would shed many tears for what was attempted, and these tears would water the field thus sown. What more can you hope for from a true statesman?
John Taylor
email: badijet@gmail.com
blog: http://badiblog.blogspot.com/
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