Marie Antoinette: The Tragic Queen
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DVD Cover Information
DVD: Region Code 0Format: NTSC
DVD Release Date: 1996-06-17
Studio: A&E Home Video
Movie Reviews of Marie Antoinette: The Tragic Queen
Movie Review: A fair and balanced look at the life of Marie Antoinette
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an excellent look at the controversial life and barbaric death of Marie Antoinette. It gives a well-balanced account of her life, clearly pointing out the mistakes and failures that contributed to her own demise while, at the same time, showing her to be a remarkable woman of courage and nobility. For all of their airs, the French have a bloody, ignominious history; the French Revolution could not have been more different than the American Revolution that both inspired and contributed to it. A prisoner for a good two years, her husband beheaded, her power and influence completely stripped away, Marie Antoinette's appointment with a guillotine and the disgusting display of her severed head in front of the blood lusting masses leaves one of the most indelible stains on the pages of history.
Born an arch-duchess of Austria, Marie Antoinette's marriage to the grandson of King Louis XVI of France in her early teens was meant to cement the new alliance between France and Austria, an alliance forged in reaction to a Prussian-English alliance. Half of the French court and at least half of the country had no use for Austria, so Marie was not exactly walking into open arms when she arrived at Versailles. The future Louis XVI had a medical condition which prevented the marriage from being consummated for several years, and Marie's delight in the social life of Paris earned her a reputation for loose morals and profligate spending. There can be no argument over the fact that Marie Antoinette spent money in lavish proportions, even as the people of France suffered through great economic hardship. When things really got bad and France's economic involvement in America's Revolution put the country on the brink of bankruptcy, the young queen purchased yet another palace for herself. Not until the mishandling of a scheme involved to implicate the queen in the purchase of a fabulously expensive diamond necklace did Marie Antoinette come to realize just how much the French people hated her. She and everything she represented became the scapegoat for the nation's troubles.
Marie Antoinette faced death nobly and courageously. Some people might think the peasants rebelled and quickly put the king and queen to death, but that is not the case. The royal family languished under house arrest for over a year and a half, and the king was executed several months before Marie met her fate. She was beheaded just to satisfy the bloodlust of the people. No matter how ineffective a queen she may have been, her brutal execution at the hands of the mob was a true tragedy. This video paints a vivid portrait of a woman viewed all too often in terms of a simple caricature.
And, just for the record, she never said "Let them eat cake."