Warrior Queen (2003)

The Celtic queen who shook the Roman Empire. Wife of a king. Mother of two daughters. Leader of her tribe in first century Briton. Boudica (Alex Kingston, Moll Flanders and ER) is one of history’s first and fiercest women warriors.

Sickened by ceaseless war, the king of the Iceni accepts a treaty with the Romans in exchange for his tribe’s continued independence. But oppressively high taxes impoverish the tribe and soon the Romans want something more — slaves. Refusing to submit, the Romans, led by the greedy and psychotic Emperor Nero, move to crush the Iceni and control their lands. When the king dies mysteriously, his wife, Boudica, is left alone to face the rapacious Romans and save her people.

Drawing on the strength of her warriors, mystical druidic powers, and her own pain, Boudica unites the historically fractious tribes of Briton to unleash a stunning onslaught on the Roman colonial camps. The ferocity of Boudica’s attacks will shake the foundations of the Roman empire and make her a legend.

Taken from the pages of Roman history books, the spine-tingling tale of the fearsome Queen Boudica, who dared to take on the most powerful army on earth, bursts into life as a story of love, treachery, and unquenchable thirst for revenge.

Special DVD features include: selected cast filmographies; selected cast list; biography of host Russell Baker; a link to the Masterpiece Theatre Web site; closed captions; and described video for the visually impaired.

On one DVD5 disc. Region coding: All regions. Audio: Dolby stereo. Screen format: Letterboxed.

Not good

If you know anything about Boudicca and are looking for a both entertaining and accurate movie, your half right. Entertaining it is, accurate, far from it.

To give away what has been edited or deleted from the facts would give away the story, but as someone who is educated on her story,I was not pleased. If I would have known how inaccurate this movie was, I would have not purchased it. October 4, 2008

Warrior Queen - The Good and the bad.

Warrior Queen

I very much enjoyed the movie. I had first seen it on PBS's Masterpiece Theater. This show that uses fictional works, rather than a documentary approach. Using the works of Tacitus and Cassius Dio to guide him, Andrew Davies, who wrote the screenplay for the movie, tells a story that is basically true but uses also uses speculation to fill in the gaps of knowledge left by the Roman historians accounts. Further, Davies occasionally does deviate from the Roman accounts of the battles, especially in the area of tactics. The celts, who did not write things down. So we lack their "take" on this time. So an understanding of accounts of what happened, which were left to us by history helps separate fact from fiction in this movie. I felt, as an biography, it was adequate but not exceptional. The brilliance of the movie is in the twist at the very last scene, which gives the story a whole new power.

Do be ready for violence, sex, and what I like to refer to as "Fellini moments". I would give it an "R" rating, if it was up to me.

Where this film does excel, in my opinion, is the "humanization" of the celts and of the romans. Fleshing them out into real people. It deals no only with the what but the why. The emotion with the intellect. This is where I feel other documentaries, that I have on the subject of Boudica, fail. I personally love this movie, you may very well also; but I can see where some may not. In general, I recommend it!

December 22, 2007

Absolutely Dreadful!

Okay, there's bad, and then there's utterly dreadful. This falls into the later category. The producers don't even try to conceal the fact that this is totally biased. To add insult to injury, the costumes and overall production are absolutely terrible. The Celts look like something out of the movie "Caveman" while the Romans look straight out of a low-budget movie from the 1960's.

I was able to forgive the cheesy sequences depicting magic, however the fact that every attrocity committed by Boudicca is conveniently overlooked is unforgivable. It is only mentioned in passing that they had sacked Londinium (London). No mention of the fact that every citizen unable to leave was murderously butchered. Most historians agree that approximately 80,000 were killed in Boudicca's rampage, most of them fellow Brittons.

The Roman tactics were the most abominable I have ever seen. Children burrowing under a camp and hamstringing the legionaries?? Say what?? If the Romans were so easily beaten by children and teenage girls (yeah, I loved how Boudicca's daughters are able to cut down numerous Roman soldiers before falling in the final battle), then it is doubtful they would have ever conquered the known world in the first place. Their armor looked straight out of a third-grade Halloween party as well.

It is painfully obvious that no effort was made whatsoever with historical integrity. What you have is a piece of poorly made Celtic propoganda that even the most die-hard "woad" could not find inspiring.

If you want to learn about Boudicca's rebellion, read "Imperial Governor" by George Shipway. It is the book that the movie SHOULD have been based on. Don't waste your time watching this; I honestly felt like my IQ had dropped a few points after suffering through it! September 7, 2007

Not up to Masterpiece Theater Standards

I wouldn't know about the historical inaccuracies some mentioned here, but I was expecting a bit more. I am familiar with her story and was eager to enjoy this, but it just felt flat for a PBS produced piece. There is a film in production on Boudica, but I don't know its status. June 12, 2007

Not All Celts Come From Ireland

This movie is a fast and loose stab at telling the tale of the English Celtic queen Boadicea (or Boudica)although apparently at least one reviewer thinks she was Irish. All a bit too sword and sorcery-like for me. Costuming for the Iceni tribe and particularly for the heroine was atrocious and unrepresentative. Since the only written narrative of the rebellion came from the Romans we have only their inherent biases to go on for historical accuracy. This is a story that longs to be told and filmed well...this attempt just isn't it. August 15, 2006

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