The White Queen doesn t have a Helen of Troy problem.
I was watching a broadcast of the 2004 movie Troy the other day and I didn t get it. I loved reading the Iliad as a kid (and I read new translations from time to time as an adult) but the Helen in the movie (actress Diane Kruger) didn t seem as if she had a face that as tradition has it could launch a thousand ships. A couple dozen tops. It had nothing to do with anything as shallow as looks it was all about her acting and her charisma. She lacked a mythic quality.
The new Showtime series The White Queen doesn t have that problem. The show which started tonight is based on the historical fiction of writer Philippa Gregory but in this case the facts read like a legend. And the White Queen (Elizabeth Grey n e Woodville played by Rebecca Ferguson) has the kind of inner fire that seems to illuminate the production. You can see why King Edward IV (played by Max Irons) might risk his realm to marry her. There s no Helen of Troy problem here. (BTW as it turns out Ferguson has roots beyond Britain she was born and raised in Sweden to a Swedish father and British mother).
Starz managed to find two guys who had what it took to play Spartacus. In the early going it looks as if they re pulling off a similar trick here.
The White Queen is a far gentler BBC ish version of the kind of historical drama found in Spartacus. There s war sex and historical intrigue but without the graphic novel extremes. Still this is Starz and the royalty in this movie spend much more time with their royal robes disrobed than the plot logically demands.
In this opening episode we see young Elizabeth confront King Edward IV on the road asking for the return of her rightful holdings. He s a Yorkist King and she s a Lancastrian commoner but he is quickly taken with her and tries to take her by force.
The scene in which she threaten to cut her own throat rather than be date raped by the King is a powerful one. Do not doubt my courage your grace she declares the dagger drawing blood. I m match for any man.
So he marries her in secret.
There s some intrigue when it is revealed that the secret marriage could have been a fake one engineered simply to get her into bed. There is also the threat that the king could marry a French princess and leave Elizabeth behind. But in the end she gets what she wants and against the advice of his mother and the scheming Lord Warwick the king publicly announces his once secret marriage. She has pulled a 15th century Beyonce like Queen B advises all single ladies she s convinced her man to put a ring on it. She s Queen Elizabeth now.
What did you think of the opening episode of The White Queen Leave your thoughts in the comments.
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Starz Rebecca Ferguson as Elizabeth in The White Queen.
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