Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Cinematic Royal

Jordi Molla as King Philip II. Share

6 comments:

tubbs said...

Hollywood has always towed the whig party line, ( Raymond Massey played Philip II back in the Thirties). Anyone who knows anything about Philip can only laugh at the inanity of the casting tradition of Philip as an Osama bin Ladin type. But they'll do it every time!

I guess the casting people don't see the teutonic, blond/blue eyed-little fire plug-wrestler's build type as sinister looking enough. (and this latter type is exactly how Philip was described by his contemporaries).

Thanks for posting this, EM; this subject has always amused yet annoyed me.

Yes, Folks, the "BLACK LEGEND" is still alive and well in the movie industry...and the PC police ignore it.

Oh, I forgot: SPAIN=CATHOLIC=EVIL...so the "Black Legend" is PC after all.

Julygirl said...

Unfortunately, many of the great unread draw their knowledge of history from films. Taking pot-shots at the R.C. Church does not seem to incense modern Catholics as it should. Perhaps they are afraid of drawing some of the fire upon themselves.

tubbs said...

Julygirl,

that's so true.

MadMonarchist said...

True indeed and it is shown in this movie especially as the stand-in for King Philip's palace was Westminster Cathedral. I found it amazing that the English hierarchy would have any part in a film so blatantly anti-Catholic.

Aron said...

I really don't know where to begin with my contempt for this movie: the historian in me bristling at the numerous inaccuracies, the Christian (Protestant) shaking his head at the unfair portrayal of Phillip, or the one dimensional one of Elizabeth...the typical guy in me rolling his eyes at the ridiculous "romantic" plot-part...It just defys words! The only good thing I can say about the movie has to do with the sets...
~Aron <><

Gareth Russell said...

I think the blog made a very good point that it's unfortunate that a production which is pro-Elizabeth felt that to do so it had to be anti-Philip, in this way. In 1971, the BBC's series "Elizabeth R" was very much sympathetic to the great monarch, with an astonishing tour de force performance from Glenda Jackson, showed Philip II in Episodes 1 and 4 (Mary Tudor's reign and the Armada) in a generally positive delight. Incompetent in Episode 4, certainly, but I don't think even the most sympathetic of King Philip's partisans would say the Armada was organised with anything like effective pragmatism, which is what an invasion force needed. However, it by no means showed Philip and the Spaniards to be uncivilised, psychotic, sociopathic or amoral. They were shown as being just like the English, only with different objectives. I can't recommend the series highly enough for fans of accurate historical dramas.