Brief thoughts on 'The King's Speech'

I saw the movie last night. The climactic scene, for those few who may not have seen the movie or read about it, is the radio address George VI gave on Sept. 3, 1939. Colin Firth turns in an excellent performance, though he makes the address sound perhaps a bit less labored than it actually was in George VI's delivery: you can listen to the original here. Perhaps the most interesting clause in the speech is the remark or warning at the end that "war can no longer be confined to the battlefield," which of course turned out to be entirely and tragically accurate.

Symbolic milestone in Red Square

For the first time, soldiers from Britain, the U.S., and France have participated in a V-E Day parade in Moscow. The event was not entirely free of diplomatic tensions, however, as Vladimir Putin apparently disinvited both Prince Charles and V.P. Biden. On the other hand, official relations between Russia and Israel may be improving.

Symbols and symbolic occasions, of course, have been and still are important elements of international politics, although evidently I haven't paid a lot of attention to them in this blog. A search on "symbols" turns up only one post, for a quoted reference to border walls as "symbols of separation."

Life 1, Art 0

The actor who played Tony Blair in the movie The Queen appears in the New Year Honours list.

Prince William and the "Suspect Vessels"

On the BBC website there's a little video report by Nicholas Twitchell about Prince William heading off to the Caribbean for a couple of months to do a stint with the Royal Navy. The Navy is apparently a bit miffed that he chose to go to Sandhurst, but he has to become familiar with all branches of the armed services; hence he's already spent time in the air force, and now he's off to help patrol the waters for drug smugglers, help with hurricane relief ops, and perhaps even board "suspect vessels," provided that such boarding does not pose a threat of bodily harm from armed resistance (which it usually doesn't, a naval officer assures Twitchell).

Digression: The best thing I've ever read about running contraband in the Caribbean is Robert Stone's novel A Flag for Sunrise, one of my favorite pieces of fiction.

Anyway, the funniest part of the report is Twitchell's reference to the fact that the Prince of Wales, William's father, spent five years in the navy, but by his own admission "never got the hang of navigation." Twitchell gives this phrase a slightly supercilious-sounding twist, as if to say "what a moron!" while the video shows Charles on a ship, kind of fumbling with what may or may not be a sextant.

Good stuff, if you keep an eye on the royals or more specifically Prince William, for whom informed observers have long seemed to feel a bit sorry (born into a role he really doesn't want to play, etc.) but who, to some of the rest of us, is just cool (or hot?). Whatever.