Review: Firebrand/The History Behind It

Although this movie released a year earlier at The Cannes Film Festival, it wasn't until this July that there was any sort of release to theatres, or streaming. In order to review this movie, I had to buy it on Apple here in the US, however it is also available to stream on Amazon Prime. I don't know how to view it in the UK, unfortunately: it seems you might need a VPN to do so.

!!!SPOILERS AHEAD FOR FIREBRAND!!!

The poster for Firebrand

Firebrand is based off of the book "Queen's Gambit" by Elizabeth Freemantle. The book itself follows Catherine Parr, the final wife of Henry VIII, through her adult life. The book itself takes a few liberties, however very few of them made it into the movie. Maybe if I'm able to get my hands on the book, I'll write a review here about it as well.

The movie, interestingly enough, follows a certain part of the book, and is narrated in the beginning and end by Princess Elizabeth, the second daughter of Henry VIII. Although it centers around his last marriage, the story mainly focusses on the window between Henry returning from his last wars with the French (the siege of Boulogne) and his death on January 28th, 1547. Henry does not appear for a good chunk of the first bit of the movie. 

Instead, we see Catherine (called Kit in the movie) act as regent: attending council meetings, taking care of her stepchildren: the Prince Edward and Princess Elizabeth, and meeting secretly with the Protestant Martyr Anne Askew who probably never met Catherine. 

There was, however, some unrest about the possibility that they had back in the day: Bishop Gardiner was trying his hand at re-converting Henry back to Catholicism before his death, and saw an opportunity to rid the court of as many Reformers as he could. Catherine was one of them, yet he was having trouble securing evidence of this. Catherine had come from the same part of the north of England that Anne Askew had, and Anne was very popular and had already been arrested twice before for heresy (which was unheard of, as heresy was a two strike offense: get arrested a second time and it's game over). Anne, at the time of this plot, had been arrested a third time, and in her chronicles The Latter Examinations of Anne Askew, it was clear that her entire imprisonment was mainly concerned which high born ladies she was connected to, and if she was connected to the Queen. Askew never spoke definitively as to if she had connections, or who they were, so she went to her death having not implicated Parr. However, Gardiner still was able to mock up an arrest warrant for Catherine, which was only disregarded because Henry forgot he signed it.  

Back to the plot, a few things happen in the story that aren't exactly accurate: first of all, Catherine becomes pregnant. There is no evidence that Catherine Parr became pregnant before her marriage to Thomas Seymour, a pregnancy ultimately caused her death. This fictional pregnancy is explained away in the film as a fetal loss, which makes a bit more sense in the book, where Catherine has a history of pregnancy loss, but not much in the movie, where that context is erased.

Secondly, Catherine is arrested and imprisoned, only to be released before Henry's death. This, as stated before, is not true: Catherine and Henry eventually reconciled, and Henry completely forgot about the arrest warrant. Catherine never was imprisoned: she had actually burned a lot of her heretical writings before any could be collected. 

Thirdly, Catherine did not cause Henry VIII's death. Although it feels good to see Kit, having been told time and time again what had happened to her namesake, Catherine Of Aragon, press a pillow into the face of the man who had done so much harm to the women before her, Henry VIII died of what historians believe was a mix of diabetes complications and a bone infection (unfortunately this link goes with Alison "Pulmonary Embolism" Weir's thoughts on the matter) He died around midnight, on his late father's birthday, clutching a rosary to his chest: an ironic sight for the man who tried desperately to break from the church who required such. I can't lie though: I did cheer when Kit smothered him, and I almost hate to admit that lol

Besides plot points, Firebrand has amazing costumes and settings: everything looks nearly period, and the French hoods have straps! It's a lovely piece, although I should warn future viewers that there is a LOT of domestic violence in the film, and it's unfortunately pretty historically accurate.

But, the characters are pretty on par to what their historical counterparts would have been like, and it's an overall gorgeous and enthralling film that I definitely recommend (if you can stomach it).