Having read this thread I went to see the movie last Friday night, had been wanting to for a while, and kept in mind the stag as it began.
My goodness, the Stag was everywhere. Dozens of stag heads on the walls of Balmoral, the lamp on the table out side "the boys" bedroom was a stag lamp. She goes for a drive by herself and I know the stag scene is coming. And sure enough, it was so totherworldly in its appearance, accompanied by the 1960's travelogue music.
The Queen had been sobbing a bit before this, I suppose this was an overflow of emotion she was allowing herself while she waited for help, and this made me think, the appearance of the stag was to represent Diana's spirit visiting her. Maybe on some levels it is. But later my partner said he thought the stag represented the institution (monarchy) itself, hunted and under attack. Since they had so many of them in their house and all. As long as it stayed on the estate it was relatively safe, but when it left it was killed.
I think now that was what the Queen was thinking when she went to see it, that going back to London was tantamount to slaughter. But she went.
Initially I had a bad feeling about this movie because I thought all it would accomplish was to rub the Queen nose in the debacle that was the death of Diana. I came away from it with a different perspective, that it told the Queen's side of the story, he point of view. According to the movie she thought this was a private but learned it was not, that Diana had made her own mark on the world and she had to bow to that.
I thought the performaces were amazing, and the guy who played Charles occasionally had some of Heath Ledger's expressions, esp. when he was about to cry. Bless his heart Charles owes them one for getting that guy to play him. Theres is no comparison.
Beautifully reviewed and a real eye-opener for me. Lee and KDs observations allowed me to view this scene from an entirely different perspective. And you have now completely blown me away with your observations. I must go see it again, just to look more closely at this pivotally important scene. And to think, I initially thought that the movie would have been better without this scene all together! (you're such an air-head at times, Kerry!) I guess I was just preoccupied with the vulnerability of the stag. I was expecting it to get shot at any moment, so was shielding my eyes whenever he was on screen, sorta like in a horror movie. I didn't want to see the splatter scene. Unfortunately, in so doing, I missed out completely on the subtlety of what the "stag" was
really about. Thank you for your insightful, sensitive observations.
