MovieChat Forums > The Queen (2006) Discussion > If Balmoral estate is 40,000 acres of pr...

If Balmoral estate is 40,000 acres of private land...


then how & why was some stranger out deer hunting on it? The Queen didn't seem the least bit concerned about that fact (or the fact that she herself could've been shot).

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I don't know, but I imagine that the locals wander onto the estate to hunt (poach) now and then.

The Queen may have a lot of security people, but how effectively can they police an estate that size?

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I believe locals are able to use it?

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When Phillip and Elizabeth are getting ready to leave and walking down the stairs, he clearly says the stag wandered over to one of the neighboring estates and was shot on the estate.

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I was referring to the scene where the Queen's SUV breaks down and while she's sitting there waiting for someone to come pick her up, she sees that male deer and shoos it away so that the hunter off in the distance doesn't shoot it.

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I think some of the symbolism there is she's shooing this deer away, thinking she's doing the right thing, but she might have shooed it towards the hunters, resulting in its death.

I think this is meant to be a metaphor for her personal responsibility with Diana's death, with the idea that her actions or inactions resulting in Diana being exiled from the royal family may have resulted in her death.

In terms of the land boundaries and hunting, my sense is she was just near the border of the estate.

What's interesting about this is the lack of security. I would have expected the Queen to have more sophisticated security that would prevent armed people, even well-off estate hunters, from coming near the Queen. I would have kind of expected her to have the kind of security you would expect for any senior government figure, if anything because of her symbolic value. At a minimum the IRA were a theoretical risk still in 1997, and then there's just the general risk of other potential terrorists or even just crazies or whatnot.

Even without bad faith actors, just the that hunters would be allowed to be in a position to even *potentially* have the Queen down range is a risky business. You'd not want her to get shot accidentally.

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I read in a review that it was Prince Philip and one of the boys stalking the stag. Not a stranger. To me that is horrific, but hunting is normal for the royals.

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