The Windsors: A Royal Family Movie Review

Four more hours on The Windsors? What is there left to be said about what may be the most chronicled family of all time? A great deal, actually, as can be seen in a 1994 documentary available through MPI Home Video. What distinguishes this historical overview of Britain's royal family is an impending sense of closure. The choice of the narrator, Janet Suzman, is revealing. Suzman won an Oscar nomination for playing the doomed Czarina in Nicholas and Alexandra, and her sober voice is a steady reminder that the Windsors are a dying breed, one of the few dynasties permitted to retain their privileges and titles in a century when many other monarchies were swept away by wars and revolutions. Ruthlessness and shrewdness were essential at the outset. King George V refused to help his Russian cousins, fearing that their presence in his country might hasten the end of his newly retitled family's reign. His epileptic youngest son was hidden from public view until his early death. Strong ties to Germany were severed. Even George V's own premature death was orchestrated by his doctor so that it could be announced in the morning edition of the London Times. But nothing could be done to ease the Edward VII situation, which continued with his grandson Edward VIII and with the current Prince of Wales. The British monarchy requires that its heirs have virtually nothing to do for most of their adult lives. With no real role to play, these Prince Charmings can and do get into inevitable mischief while waiting for the King or Queen to die. It took a brush with death to restore the future Edward VII to the affections of the British people. The future Edward VIII was quoted in Time magazine making dark predictions about his future many years before his actual abdication. And Charles, well into middle age, continues to twiddle his thumbs and whine about Daddy. Andrew Morton observed that “When historians review the reign of Queen Elizabeth II they will point to a weakness and an overindulgence at the top that allowed an unnecessary degree of drift and damage within the family to occur.” The most intriguing element of this 1994 documentary is that the Queen's friends and family candidly discuss the Windsors on camera, in addition to the usual assortment of biographers, journalists, and gadflies. Many of the carefully chosen and well-researched film clips are unfamiliar to contemporary audiences. Clearly, the producers have done their homework and do in fact develop fresh insights about their increasingly vulnerable subjects. Who are the Windsors and why are they necessary? The British people are suckers for violent threats to the Establishment, and historically, the monarchy has often been revitalized as a result of such tragedies, so who knows?

1994 228m/C GB Janet Suzman; D: Kathy O'Neill, Stephen White, Annie Fienburgh; M: Michael Bacon. VHS