Boleyns

Lately I seem to be very Boleyn obssessed, after watching The Other Boleyn Girl (the 2008 version with woefully miscast Americans) I decided to start reading the novel, which I have had for yonks and also finally getting round to watching Season 2 of the Tudors (I'm so behind). I have to say the movie was watchable but I can see why it panned, I'm only a quarter of the way through the book and already it's obvious the movie is nothing like it, they may as well have given it a different title, there's just no comparison and casting two Americans as the Boleyn sisters and an Australian as King Henry was a bit too much, I'm getting very tired of watching people who cannot do accents attempting to do them. Interesting trivia, both Boleyn sisters spent much time in the French court and so probably spoke with French accents, not English, Anne at the very least did.

I loved Jim Sturgess as George, I think he did the best he could with the material portraying a loving brother caught up in a marriage he did not want and trying to do the best for his sisters, particularly Anne. George is fantastic in the book, I absolutely adore his character whilst Mary is needy and naive and Anne is an ambitious brat, I still do love their characters. The book, whilst not historically accurate, is a wonderful work of fiction and I now understand why it and Philippa Gregory's other novels have done so well, I will be definitely reading The Boleyn Inheritance. I particularly love how Mary calls Anne The Other Boleyn Girl when I imagine most people would view Mary with that title as Anne is definitely the more famous of the two siblings. Knowing how the novel must inevitably end I am already sad, particularly for poor George.

In The Tudors Mary and George aren't really seem that much, Mary is portrayed as young with no mentioning of her first husband or her time in France, she alludes to being called a whore but implies this is because of her sister rather than her own reputation (historically Mary apparently got around both the French and English court) and there is absolutely no hint at her ever being Henry's mistress, this role goes to another lady-in-waiting. George is seen mainly in the background though he has finally taken on some role towards the middle of Season 2, he is portrayed as bi and it is implied that Jane Parker did not want to marry him and that their wedding night was rather violent, which I guess is The Tudors' explanation for why she portrayed him in the end.

Historically I do feel sorry for the Boleyn family but they were just too ambitious. I feel that Henry did not so much love Anne as was obssessed with her, I feel that if he truly did love her he would have given her more of a chance to give him a son, she did die young after all, and he would have banished her instead of executing her. I think Anne just caused him to sacrifice too much in the end, he risked civil war, excommunication from the church and thus the hatred of Spain and Italy, and he lost many of his friends for Anne and I think when he finally possessed her and she failed to give him a son right away he decided she was not worth the sacrifice after all.

That is just my opinion of course, I also feel that Anne was somewhat a vindictive schemer and even in fiction this shows as she is so rarely portrayed sympathetically. Even Natalie Dormer's fantastic portrayal of Anne Boleyn is hard to sympathise with even as you see her fall from grace in Season 2 and suffer the miscarriage of her baby, which her unsympathetic father blames her for, you still find it hard to care about her as she has been such a cruel, jealous and self-serving woman.