My Thoughts on the movie The Other Boleyn Girl

After receiving The Other Boleyn Girl a few weeks ago via my online rental, I was finally able to watch it. I have to admit I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect. I know it is based somewhat on Mary and Anne Boleyn and King Henry in real history. I also know it is based off a fiction book of the same name. But being a fan of English history I had to see it.

I don’t actually know much about the Tudor history period. I know that Henry VIII had nine wives over the years and that Anne Boleyn was the second who birthed Elizabeth, the greatest monarch England ever had. Beyond that I have never studied his reign. As a history minor who mostly took Medieval English classes I should have but I concentrated on Renaissance and Queen Elizabeth’s time. I have seen season one of Showtime’s The Tudors but that’s about it.

After watching The Tudors and then this movie, I am unsure what is actually right on how Anne came to be queen. The Tudors has Henry being with Mary and then tiring of her right away and being seduced by Anne who teased and tormented him without giving in for a long time. And in The Other Boleyn Girl, he is enraptured with Mary and has a long tryst with her until Anne returns from and exile and begins to beguile him without originally intending too.

The movie was decent and most of the clothing beautiful. I don’t like the style bodice the women wear nor the fabric covering the upper chest and neck. It existed but I’m used to the Renaissance where cleavage was shown fairly openly. In fact cleavage was nothing to see but ankles were scandalous. I wasn’t even sure how far the movie would go in the relationship of Anne and Henry. But it pretty much followed their whole relationship from beginning to the end where Anne is beheaded. And that is not a secret of the film; she really was beheaded by order of the king.

While watching The Other Boleyn Girl though I kept comparing it to what I have seen of The Tudors. How this part was completely different or instead of something happening one way it was another. I am going to get some books on this period and learn. If you want to watch a movie about real characters from history, I do recommend this one. Don’t rely on it to be completely factual though. Take it with a grain of salt and realize that Hollywood embellishes where it can for a story.