Torture to get confessions, executions for no good reason other than the whim of the government - in this case, a psychotic King Henry VIII - these are the things that Thomas Jefferson and our Founding Fathers tried to make sure would never happen in America, by insisting on a Bill of Rights for our Constitution.
And the torture and the beheadings were searingly portrayed on The Tudors. The execution of Anne was more harrowing and indelible than any I've seen in any movie.
How could reasonable people allow this to happen? The answer, clearly, was that in the 1500s we were less removed from sheer barbarism that we might assume or suppose.
George Boleyn beheaded on the strength of a hug or two he gave his sister Anne. Henry Norris executed on no evidence at all. A Jesuit assassin lies to bring Anne down - he says he slept with Anne - and he's beheaded. Mark Smeaton the musician denies any carnal knowledge of Anne - because he had none - until torture makes him falsely confess it. He's beheaded, too.
But nothing compares in sheer power - in acting and rendering for the screen - of the beheading of Anne. Natalie Dormier's performance was as memorable as it gets. I'll certainly never forget it.
And Nick Dunning as Thomas Boleyn, Anne's father, was extraordinary, as well. He's thrilled not go to the grim reaper, even as his son has just gone there, and his daughter soon will. Charles Brandon expresses our outrage at Thomas, who soon proceeds to leave the tower, freed. He looks back up an Anne's window. She smiles at him, still loving her father, happy to see that he, at least, will live. He turns his back on her, and just walks on. He set much of this game in motion, and he walks away when the stakes turn deadly. (I wonder how much of this Thomas Boleyn of The Tudors really lived in the real Thomas Boleyn of history.)
Yes, this is the depravity that America was born as an action against, less than two centuries later. We have done a fair job of keeping to the better road - though torture apparently has not been beyond the tools of the current administration.
But that's a story for another blog post, when I review Recount, on HBO. For now, I'll just say the juxtaposition of The Tudors and our election in American is no coincidence in this cosmos.
Bravo to a great cast and a great second season. My only regret was not seeing more of Peter O'Toole as Pope in the last few episodes - but I hope to see that corrected next season.
See also ...
Tooling Up for The Tudors and The Tudors: Transformations and Assassins ... John Adams Concludes, The Tudors Continues, The First Amendment Abides ... The Tudors and the Printing Press ...
and my reviews of all of last season's episodes, beginning here ...
and more on the printing press and the Protestant Reformation in my book, The Soft Edge ...
and ...
The Plot to Save Socrates
"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News
"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book
more about The Plot to Save Socrates...
Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE!
4 comments:
You realize, of course, that most of us haven't seen the season finale yet, right? Not that we don't know what happens, but just something to keep in mind. But your larger point is well-taken, that this kind of "whim of kings" is exactly that against which the founders of this country were rebelling. It's a shame that too many Americans still seem to crave this kind of authoritarian figure, not realizing the pitfalls that go with it.
Nick Dunning has been the most chilling Thomas Boleyn ever portrayed in any of the many tellings of this story. What a complete monster, and of course his endless machinations in this series help to humanize Anne more than she's been in other series. This is a more vulnerable Anne, and we really see here just how much she was at the mercy of the men in her family, and then of the king to whom they pimped her out in a very real sense.
For all its historical inaccuracies, this series is perhaps the first one to bring an emotional immediacy to this story and really turn these people into PEOPLE -- people hamstrung by birth and ambition and the limitations of their time into this series of tragic events. Perhaps its best contribution is to get young people actually talking about this time and discussing the limitations women were under and comparing this world to the one in which we live today.
I can't help but wonder what Anne would think of all the people finding her so compelling a half-millennium later.
Yes, indeed, on all of your points, Jill.
I know the finale hasn't yet been shown anywhere other than On Demand. I was considering using examples from just the next-to-last episode. But since the points are essentially the same, and, as you say, we all know the history, I figured it made sense to strengthen the analysis with a few scenes from the finale.
I like to think Anne would have been pleased with her portrayal in this Tudors..
OK, now I've seen the finale. Wow...Best. Beheading. Ever. Tasteful but heartbreaking. By that point none of us wanted to see Anne headless or blood, and we were spared that. Anne is so often portrayed as utterly defiant and strong; this Anne seems to be bewildered at how she could have arrived at this point. And every time an actress yet again repeats Anne's real words, it's as if she lives again through those who portray her.
The actress who plays Jane is all wrong. I like that she's not the innocent cow that we've seen in other portrayals, but where Natalie Dormer FEELS her character and inhabits the costumes, Jane Seymour's portrayal is that of a contemporary girl playing dressup.
And the scene in which little Elizabeth goes from being princess to bastard to be disciplined -- heartbreaking. I would love it if this meant that we were going to get a series extension dealing with Elizabeth's early years -- the years before Mary becomes queen, the years that aren't usually covered.
One more thing -- for anyone who doesn't think that Jonathan Rhys Meyers can possibly play the Henry we always associate with the character, how about that last shot? It was eerie how this fey Irish boy with cheekbones you could grate cheese on managed to channel the gross figure of Henry's later life. It's just a few seconds of film, but it's perhaps the best piece of acting this year so far. Spectacular.
Great point about that last shot of Henry, Jill - I thought the same thing, and I'm glad you mentioned it. Jonathan Rhys Meyers has been giving a tour-de-force performance all along.
And I also agree with you about the portrayal of Jane Seymour - it seems almost comic-bookish, or maybe Illustrated Classic-ish.
And, yes, the heartbreak for both Anne and Elizabeth was palpable. You could feel it right through the screen.
Next year should be extraordinary.
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