{"id":3495,"date":"2013-02-11T09:31:02","date_gmt":"2013-02-11T17:31:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/?p=3495"},"modified":"2013-02-11T09:31:02","modified_gmt":"2013-02-11T17:31:02","slug":"the-queen-of-versailles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/2013\/02\/the-queen-of-versailles\/","title":{"rendered":"Living Beyond Epic Means"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I knew what I was getting into when I selected The Queen of Versailles<\/em> on Netflix instant. I guess I felt like watching a train wreck. I didn\u2019t imagine it would be so riveting.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Queen of Versailles<\/em><\/a>, directed by Lauren Greenfield<\/a>, tells the story of David and Jackie Siegel, a wealthy couple from Florida. David is the founder and CEO of Westgate Resorts<\/a>, the largest private time-share business in the world. They are filthy\u2026quite literally in fact\u2026rich. So rich that they set out to build their own version of Versailles right there in southern Florida. They sink tens of millions of dollars into the project, a 90,000 square foot behemoth with 10 kitchens, 13 bedrooms, 23 bathrooms, and a 20-car garage with additional space for limos, a two-lane bowling alley, an indoor rollerskating rink, a video arcade, a fitness center with spa, two tennis courts, and a baseball diamond.<\/strong> Do they really need this much space? Well, they\u2019ve already consumed themselves out of space in their current 26,000 square foot mansion.<\/p>\n

Before they can finish their \u201cdream home,\u201d the economy tanks, sending David\u2019s business into a tailspin. Development of a new Vegas property halts and new business slowly dries up. David panics, stresses out, and begins a desperate search for new money. The Siegels also try to sell off many of their most valuable assets (a plane, properties, etc.) while still trying desperately to hold on to their Versailles. It doesn\u2019t work and they\u2019re forced to put Versailles on the market. It\u2019s still available if you\u2019ve got the cash ($65 million that is).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
David and Jackie in an unfinished Versailles.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On one level, The Queen of Versailles<\/em> is nothing more than a cheap freakshow.<\/strong> It\u2019s a glimpse into how the other .5% live, and it is, here, deeply grotesque. There are endless purchases and mounds of waste. There are eight children who know nothing about taking care of themselves. If you meet them as adults, run the other way. This is a brood of vipers if I\u2019ve ever seen one.<\/p>\n

Yet they\u2019re representative of so much of what\u2019s wrong in the world today and, as such, are terribly normal. The wise Notorious B.I.G. left us with one important lesson: mo\u2019 money, mo\u2019 problems. Actually, The Queen of Versailles<\/em> shows us it\u2019s actually, simply, mo\u2019 money, same problems.<\/strong> Like so many of their middle-class counterparts, the Siegels cannot live below, or even within<\/em>, their means. Their means just happen to be epically larger than most everyone else\u2019s. With the ability to purchase more, their greed grows unchecked, even after David demands cutbacks during the larger economic crisis. As director Greenfield put it<\/a>, \u201cIn a way they represent the best and worst of us. They\u2019re hardworking, self-made people; they\u2019re not entitled. But they went too far; they didn\u2019t know where to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Versailles in Florida.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There\u2019s a clear sense that David and Jackie are just rail-roaded themselves. David is clearly blaming the wrong people in his anger toward the banks. As Roger Ebert pointed out in his review<\/a>, \u201cThere is rich irony as he complains that greedy bankers tempted him with cheap money to take out loans he couldn\u2019t repay \u2014 which is exactly what his sales force has been persuading time-share customers to do.\u201d Jackie frequently walks around her palatial house in a daze, unable to help her maids or to speak meaningfully to her own children. So much of The Queen of Versailles<\/em> is an exercise in \u201cwhat could have been.\u201d<\/strong> How could their resources have been better spent? What could the future hold for these privileged children if they had better parental guidance?<\/p>\n

The Siegels are a terribly broken family. It\u2019s clear that they are miserably failing the truism that \u201cto whom much is given, much is required.\u201d While the Siegels\u2019 actions deserve stern criticism, The Queen of Versailles<\/em> should also force us to face our own failings as well\u2026those ways in which we refuse to live within or below our means and consume, consume, consume.<\/p>\n

The Queen of Versailles <\/em>(100 mins.) is available on DVD and streaming on Netflix.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I knew what I was getting into when I selected The Queen of Versailles on Netflix instant. I guess I felt like watching a train wreck. I didn\u2019t imagine it would be so riveting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":288,"featured_media":3497,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film"],"yoast_head":"\nLiving Beyond Epic Means<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I knew what I was getting into when I selected The Queen of Versailles on Netflix instant. I guess I felt like watching a train wreck. 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