Ep. 2 “The Other Boleyn Girl” (2008) - Part 2

Setting: 16th century England, the reign of King Henry VIII, the Early Modern Era

In the second episode of Rebooting History on Film, Caroline McLoughlin and writer Rachael Dickzen (https://www.rachaeldickzen.com/) finish our review of the 2008 movie "The Other Boleyn Girl", based on the Philippa Gregory novel that launched a thousand book covers with headless women in historical costume. That's fitting, as the protagonist is Anne Boleyn-wait, it's not? It's supposed to be about her boring sister Mary Boleyn?!

This version of two of the most infamous simultaneous breakups in history* portrays Anne as the Mean Girl who stole her sister's man and the crown from the rightful Queen of England, Katherine of Aragon. Perhaps that's the moral of this story: be a good girl and do whatever the men in your life tell you and eventually, "Forrest Gump"-style, you might strike it rich and drift into contented family life, free from ambitions or principles. Happy Women's History Month?

*only one of these breakups gets any screentime, and it's not the one about Henry dumping the Pope and racking up a massive body count

Follow the podcast here and on Twitter @rbt_historyfilm. This is the second part of a two-part episode on TOBG, because Rachael and I had a lot to talk about, mostly concerning all the crucial events and people omitted because we are Tudor history enthusiasts who cannot be contained.