The Young Victoria

For this week’s blog I watched The Young Victoria. The movie is based on the early life and reign of Queen Victoria, and her marriage to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The romance between Albert and Victoria is part of the main story. The film also shows the role of the Queen at that time and all of the political motives to get her to marry.The film makers tried to stick to the facts in this film. Though no film is without its flaws The Young Victoria does a better job than most when sticking to the facts. Julian Fellows the writer of the film said that everything he put in the film was based on fact, it was just a story many people weren't familiar with. He wanted fundamental truth in the film. Although this notion is respectable he did stary from the truth a few times. A small mistake in the film was during the coronation scene it show Prince Albert being there when in fact he was not. Victoria wrote to him to tell him about her coronation. But the main error historians focus on is on one of the assignation attempts on Queen Victoria, this is the part of the movie I want to focus on. The movie shows Queen Victoria and Prince Albert riding in their carriage when a man pulls out a pistol and shoots at them. Prince Albert throws himself in front of a pregnant Victoria and takes the bullet.  Although this assignation attempt did occur, the gun man ,Edward Oxford, missed both times he shot at them.  Many reports of the time praised Albert for being cool and courageous during the assignation attempt. This seems to be the main part of the movie historians complain about. There was even an article in a British newspaper citing that Queen Elizabeth II did not like this scene in the movie and felt that it should have been left out. The director Jean-Marc Vallee said he only made Albert take the bullet to show his devotion to his wife. Over all the film was a success with historians and critics alike, in telling a true story and gripping story about Queen Victoria.  




Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert,_Prince_Consort
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Young_Victoria
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/theroyalfamily/4994692/Queen-not-amused-by-inaccuracies-in-The-Young-Victoria-film.html