Some people are calling this movie "The Day the King of England Ate a Hot Dog." We saw it recently at our little gem of an art theater, the Enzian. I think it's about two distinctly different things. But first let me remind you how I feel about Eleanor and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. I think, like most historians, that he was a great president. I don't, personally, remember him but I remember Eleanor and she made a huge impression on me. She was still writing her newspaper column and expressing her opinions long after FDR died. Highly unusual for a woman at that point in our history.
OK, the first thing the movie is about is this so called "romantic" relationship Franklin (Bill Murray) has with his distant cousin, Daisy (Laura Linney.) (As you know, Eleanor was also a distant cousin. Her last name was Roosevelt before she married.) I found the relationship between FDR and Daisy to be sad on many levels. And a little bit disgusting. It brings up the "character" issue that we never had to deal with in the old days because nobody knew that presidents had dalliances. And, of course, nobody knew that FDR couldn't walk.
The other thing the movie is about is the weekend King George VI and his wife, Elizabeth, came to Hyde Park try to get FDR and therefor the country to get involved in the coming World War II. At this time we were pretty much isolationists. We didn't want to get involved.
By the way, King George VI was the stuttering king that the movie "The King's Speech" was about. He was a reluctant king without much self confidence at the time. He was also the father of Queen Elizabeth II.
So FDR, while entertaining the king and queen in his mother's house at Hyde Park for the weekend, along with his wife and two mistresses (that's FDR not the king,) manages, in very subtle ways, to help King George deal with his stuttering issues - and find a way to humanize the king's image in the eyes of the American public.
And that's why the King of England was served hot dogs.
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