All the Queen’s Men (2001)

Suzy Eddie Izzard stars as Tony Parker, a bisexual trans army Lieutenant, in the 2001 action-comedy war film ALL THE QUEEN’S MEN.

In ALL THE QUEEN’S MEN a group of spies, three British agents and an American Army Captain, dress as women in order to infiltrate a German factory that manufactures code-making Enigma machines. They are tasked with bringing an Enigma device back to England, in hopes it will help to end the war.

Upon its release, ALL THE QUEEN’S MEN did not fare well with critics. Today, I think it’s something worth revisiting. The film definitely has flaws, true, but it was surprisingly progressive for the early 2000s. My main issue with it is that it builds up a lot of great queer moments, but chooses to ignore these at the end in favour of closing on a heterosexual couple kissing. We’re left wondering what happens next for the queer characters they spent so much time building up.

Despite that, you’ve still got to appreciate a pre-Brokeback era film where *Spoiler Alert* the queer and trans characters are depicted as heroes and they actually make it to the end of the movie!

Unfortunately, ALL THE QUEEN’S MEN isn’t streaming at the moment but it is available on DVD. 

ALL THE QUEEN’S MEN

2001. USA/Austria/Germany.

Director: Stefan Ruzowitzky

Screenplay: David Schneider

Starring: Matt LeBlanc, Suzy Eddie Izzard, Udo Kier, James Cosmo, Nicolette Krebitz, David Birkin, Edward Fox, Oliver Korittke and Karl Markovics