Reviewing Movies

I have now finished Season 1 of The Tudors. A teenaged Henry may have found it fun to be King but a supreme ruler soon discovers that it hard to decide whom he should trust. Heads do indeed roll and heretics are burned at the stake. Those who would manage a man with absolute power must walk a fine line lest the lion turn on them. Channeling that lion’s powers is a fine art which involves keeping the lion busy lest he move in directions his handlers would rather he not go.

In season one Henry becomes obsessed with producing a legitimate male heir. When his wife is unable to give him a son he seeks means to dispose of her so he can marry someone who can. The issue still hangs in the balance as the season ends but intrigue and counter-intrigues and machinations continue unabated. Henry’s desire for an heir begins when he is injured at Jousts and is given further impetuous when his nation is beset by plague.

Witnessing what passed for medical treatment in the early 1500ies makes one wonder just how antiquated we will find our present medical practice in another half millennium. Black Death was not finally eradicated from London until the Great Fire of 1655 incinerated the slums that bred it. For all our scientific advances the old saw still holds, “The six best doctors anywhere and no one can deny it; are sunshine, water, rest, fresh air; with exercise and diet.”

Henry is a man of many talents. He is a horseman, a swordsman, a bowman, an athlete, writes poetry and at one point we see him playing the lute and composing Greensleeves. How astute a judge of character he is may be in question. When he is persuaded to sack Wolsey he soon learns that a little graft may be acceptable in a man who is able to keep his finances balanced.

Interestingly enough the CBC shot a movie about England’s greatest king entirely in Ireland and chose an Irishman to play him. The sets and costuming seem authentic and there are no jarring modern anachronisms in view. It certainly does rain a great deal. If this series manages to survive through Henry’s six wives it will be interesting to see how the make-up department manages to transform the willowy John Rhys Meyers into the paunchy gout-ridden Henry we remember from our history books.