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For many non-British, the image of Prince Philip (Elizabeth II's husband, Duke of Edinburgh) comes from the Netflix series "The Crown". Matt Smith and Tobias Menkis play young and middle-aged Philip, the former cunning and the latter restrained and elusive.
Prince Philip. People's Vision Infographic
Stills from the first season of The Crown, with Matt Smith playing Philip
The real-life Prince Philip is more handsome than the two actors, and the old photos are enough to match any male star of Hollywood's golden age. Philippe was an avid flyer and served in the Royal Navy. The last piece of news about him that spread around the world before his death was a car accident. Prince Philip, 97, drove a Land Rover into a crash and the man came out of the overturned car unharmed.
As a close companion of the Queen, Philip was never a King. Like the real-life James Bond, he was a combination of aristocrats, playboys and adventurers, a caged wild horse. He has Bond's limitations (machismo, narrow racial notions, etc.) and the most glamorous part of playboy – heaven and earth, energetic, and a pure love of adventure. Living to the age of 99, Philip let people see what Bond looks like when he grows old.
On 24 November 1947, the newly married Princess Elizabeth of England and her husband Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, honeymooned at Broadlands Manor in Hampshire. People's Vision Infographic
Stills from the first season of The Crown
From a historical point of view, Philip was an important pillar that underpinned the British monarchy to where it is today. Menkis, who had done a lot of homework (but never met Philip himself), described Philippe as "very intelligent, funny, charismatic, and one of the most popular members of the royal family." Like Princess Diana, he injected new blood into the ancient family through marriage, bringing star effect and human touch to the dull and closed royal family.
After serving the royal family for 65 years, Philippe was always aware of his duty: to assist and protect the Queen. Although "The Crown" has a lot of fiction, this statement made by the actor for the prince is not false. Tobias Menkis, who plays the middle-aged Philip, himself does not identify with the monarchy, but he admires the old prince who has done a good job all his life.
Stills from the third season of The Crown, with Tobias Menkis as Philip
Whether the fallen Greek prince wants to continue the glory of the great nobility, out of love for the queen or out of responsibility to the royal family, Philip has a beginning and an end. After his death, the flowers on the square in front of Buckingham Palace are the gratitude of the British people for this lifelong service. They are not thankful for the monarchy, but for protests against the privileges and luxuries of the royal family in Britain, and the voices calling for tax increases and budget reductions have always been there. But out of a yearning for long-term, stable affairs (even if it is only a symbol, fortunately only a symbol), Philip's death and the Queen's aging are sad after all.
Prince Philip around 1980. People's Vision Infographic
Philip in The Crown is not the protagonist. In different periods of Elizabeth II, there were always characters who were heavier than him: Princess Margaret, Churchill, the Duke of Windsor, Charles, Diana and Camilla, Margaret Thatcher, Princess Anne...
Stills from the second season of The Crown, Matt Smith's version of Philip
Matt Smith plays the young and mercurial Philip, lost in the turmoil of British politics after World War II. Tobias Menkis's middle-aged Philippe was often absent from the hustle and bustle of the ground. When others were engaged in busy business, he flew a plane in the sky and landed on time for lunch. The camera shows Princess Margaret either visiting the royal family in a scenic or frustrated manner, and the repressed ambition is unleashed in an arbitrary manner, but there is little representation of Philip's visit (in fact, Philip has visited the country 637 times since 1952). Probably because Philip's behavior is too easy to predict, and the most outrageous is nothing more than telling rude jokes with a little color and expressing opinions on matters that interest him, but he never avoids talking about his family, let alone revealing his inner waves.
The Crown, a fiction based on reality, reasonably imagines Philip's loss. The seventh episode of the third season, "Moondust," is calm, with no explosions, no political and family turmoil, only middle-aged Philip sitting in front of the TV obsessed with the 1969 moon landing.
Season 3, Episode 7
In the play, the three astronauts come to Buckingham Palace and are received privately by Prince Philip. "Because of my situation, mainly my partner's identity, I can't take the risks that a man, an explorer should take." The young astronauts had the opposite view. They were envious and curious about the huge palace, and felt that Philip was the big winner in life.
In reality, the astronauts did visit Buckingham Palace after the successful moon landing, but did not meet with Philip in private. Philip, who loves to fly, has not shown an extraordinary enthusiasm for the moon landing.
Between royal secrets and universal humanity, The Crown places more emphasis on the latter. The screenwriter's Philip was once a courtesan, attending a high-class club, refusing to bow to her at the Queen's enthronement ceremony (presumably fictional), and angry that his children did not take his surname Mountbatten (after the Queen compromised, giving the children the surname Mountbatten-Windsor).
Each member of the royal family in the play has a very different personality, but there is one thing in common - both nature and ambition cannot be stretched. Philip was no more than one of the less conspicuous. Compared with the more fierce Princess Margaret, Princess Diana, and her daughter Princess Anne and son Prince Charles, Philip was less rebellious because he was more loyal to the duties of assisting the Queen and the royal family.
Stills from the first season of The Crown, with Smith playing Philip
Matt Smith plays the young Philip, who inherits the brave and fierce side of the European aristocratic spirit, but is useless. He performed his duties on behalf of the royal family, visiting, cutting ribbons, holding various honorary positions, and being tempered in the noisy operation of the royal machine. The elderly Philip was taken over by Menkis, and the sharpness of his eyes was hidden in the solemnity of the developed jaw. His repressed personality can only be released in the sky, and his cold personality (some people say it is cold) is gradually thrown by this strange life.
Regarding the relationship between Philip and his daughter-in-law, Princess Diana, "The Crown" is closer to reality. As played in the play, Philip is indeed the first important member of the family to accept Diana. He chatted with Diana at a family gathering, teaching her the art of "small talk." Diana pointed out to him the difference: "Although we both entered the family through marriage, you and I are not the same. Halfway through his life, Philip tried to tell Diana the essence of the game: "Everyone in this system is a lost, lonely, irrelevant outsider, except for the only important person." He told Diana that everyone in the family depended on the Queen for existence, breathing because of the Queen's breath. Diana at that time could not understand this crucial lesson, perhaps to the death, and did not want to understand.
The two men's true letters reveal Philip's warmth and support for Diana. In the letter, Philip was completely on Diana's side. He wrote to Diana, "We couldn't have imagined that Charles would give up on you for Camilla's sake." It would be foolish to be in his position and risk losing everything for Camilla's sake."
The Crown Season 4
Phillip of Menkees has completely faded the rebellion and recklessness of the Smith stage. He is fully a man of the family and needs to deal with the relationship with the adult children with the Queen. In the fourth season, the complex relationship between parents and children is clearly not just a problem for the Queen and Margaret Thatcher's family. The Queen and Margaret Thatcher, who were both mothers, were equally partial to her young son, causing resentment among the other children. The Queen quietly told him at lunch with her beloved Prince Andrew that she would not stop him from fighting as heroically as his ancestors. "If you want to be the first heir, you need not only to kill Prince Charles, but also to get rid of Charles's children." The discord between Philip and his eldest son Charles is well known. Philip himself said that he and the Queen had waited so long to prevent Charles from ascending to the throne.
Stills from the third season of The Crown, with Menkis playing Philip
The depiction of the contradiction between father and son in the play is not as explicit as in reality, and it focuses more on the gap between the two due to personality differences. Philip favored Princess Anne. The eldest daughter is like him, strong and bright, highly skilled in equestrianism, rebellious and courageous, neat and nonsensical, emotionally introverted, all of which are the personality characteristics of Philip himself. Charles, for his part, loves gardening and is passionate about the construction of ecological gardens. This national hobby is a far cry from that of the adventurer father. His personality is feminine and restrained, lacking competitive and masculine qualities, and does not possess the talent of an artist. Others, such as the narrow distance between the eyes, are probably one of the reasons why Charles did not like his parents.
Menkis pondered Philip's feelings for Diana. In addition to the sympathy in similar situations, "there may be a simple element of male attraction to women." Diana's youthful vitality still shines in the loneliness. The whole world fell for it, and Philip must have found out. His help failed to save Charles's marriage to Diana. With his identity and way of thinking, he may not necessarily see the deep pain and the factors that lead to destruction in this marriage. Even if he saw it, Philip's own marriage secret, tolerance, would hardly work in Charles's marriage.
Charles in the play is not willing to be placed under the light of his wife, and is portrayed as a stingy husband, a royal family member with no interest and lack of charm, and a dead-eyed lover. Even Camilla was much more charming than he was.
Unlike his father, Charles didn't tell jokes. Philip loved to tell jokes. If big people tell jokes, they are most likely a means of showing power to show their superiority and approachability. Philip's jokes were often inappropriate and easily offensive. They are like the crutches of a lonely man, tapping whether there is any loosening in the environment that is awe-inspiring by his arrival, and are a small means for a person to relieve stress by playing the "queen's husband" for a long time.
In the fourth season of the latest "The Crown", the outsider Prince Philip has become a kind and handsome old prince, a more silent background board, but still the closest of them. Will he fade out more in the next season, or will he still have a story and continue to live on the screen?
Menkis shoots a tidbit of the fourth season of The Crown
This issue is edited by Zhou Yuhua