Here the Queen engages in some blatant exposition, suddenly turning into the thoughtful and analytical type for that specific purpose. Which is not too much of a stretch, though, since Royals tend to be knowledgeable. The fictional ones, at least. To quote a different fictional* monarch, “You have to know these things when you’re a king.”. Contrast this with a statement by non-fictional monarch, King Umberto I of Italy: “Remember: to be a king, all you need to know is how to sign your name, read a newspaper, and mount a horse”.
So, being more intellectually capable than Umberto I, the Queen draws some very interesting conclusions – which just happen to amount to things the scriptwriter wanted the audience to be aware of, what a coincidence. You have to sympathize with the scriptwriter’s desire, though – this particular feature of the plot is either a (sufficiently rare) case of a B-movie scriptwriter actually investing a meaningful amount of thought into something, or a (sufficiently common) case of a B-movie producer actually not investing a meaningful amount of money into something. And in the first case it very much deserves to be pointed out! While in the second case, it very much deserves to be papered over. And the Queen’s exposition would fit both cases, actually.
As regards the ‘recycled’ footage – I guess there were times were you could have gotten a license for old episodes of Gigantor/Tetsujin 28 for hardly any money. After its reemergence with cult/classic status and all of the revivals, that’s probably no longer the case. Let’s just assume that Nolan picked them up cheap while the opportunity existed.
More on Monday.
* Well, the Monty Python version is definitely fictional, that is. I’m not going to wade into the controversy surrounding the historicity of King Arthur in general.
I was going to ask which KIND of mounting a horse, but then remembered this is royalty we’re talking about and so the answer is: Yes.
I seem to recall you can checkout old, vintage footage at certain libraries for media that is too old to be viewed without the proper, dated equipment. That said, you aren’t supposed to leave the building with either the footage or the equipment and that image is far too good quality to be that anyway.
So I’m going to go with bootleg-copy-from-Nolan’s-(or George’s)-college-years which falls within your assumption.
Ironically, Umberto I addressed these words to his son, future king Vittorio Emanuele III – and the later managed to be a disappointment even measured by that very forgiving yardstick, as well as most other ones.
Well, it could be a bootleg…but to cover all possible future bases, I’ll hereby canonically declare that George Geekish once purchased the complete reel archive of some bankrupt local TV station for $ 12 at a garage sale. That should give him access to an unlimited amount of unspecified old footage, and would be a deal too good to pass up even for a miser like him. XD