TOW #28: The Queen of Versailles Documentary Analysis

It's only kind of trashy.

Few outside real estate, time share, and business circles have probably heard about billionaire David Siegel, his wife Jacqueline, and their huge family in Orlando, Florida. Over several decades, David worked his way up from the middle class to become the owner of one of the biggest, most profitable vacation timeshare companies in the United States, and he and Jacqueline are the proud parents of eight beautiful children. In the early 2000s, they began building a huge home inspired by the famous French palace of Versailles, and it was going to be the the biggest single-family home in the country. However, when the 2008 recession hit, the family's company lost so much business that David had to take a severe pay-cut, put their unfinished home on the market, and lay off thousands of employees. The Siegels' trials and tribulations are filmed in the documentary "The Queen of Versailles", directed by Lauren Greenfield.
Throughout the documentary, multiple sides of David, Jacqueline, and the other featured people are shown, giving an honest view of the Siegels and their associates. They are not portrayed as greedy, leech-like wealthy people, but more like wealthy people that worked their way to the top and are now facing major troubles. This is probably the main purpose of the documentary, to show the Siegels as people who just happen to be wealthy instead of vilifying them like a lot of people did during the economic crisis. One of the most obvious ways the filmmakers do this is by including many interviews and voiceovers with David and Jacqueline describing their climb to the top; they talk about their small-town, middle-class backgrounds, David's first business venture, and Jacqueline's college years and work as an engineer at IBM. This repetition implies that they understand what it's like to not be wealthy and that they sympathize with ordinary people, including the ones who work for them. It is supplemented by archival videos and photos of the couple when they were younger: they are wearing more typical clothes, going to school, working in an office, or, in Jacqueline's case, competing in beauty pageants. The old footage, photos, and their interviews show how normal they were when they were younger. This idea is also supported by the interesting juxtaposition between their wealth and some aspects of their lifestyles: for example, the Siegels are enormously wealthy, but eat from McDonald's on a regular basis and shop at stores like Toys "R" Us and Target. It sends the message that even though they are wealthy, they are "just like us". Another important feature of the documentary is where it takes place: Orlando, Florida. The Versailles-inspired house is so close to Walt Disney World that one could see the Disney fireworks from the house. David and Jacqueline had a dream of being successful and wealthy, and their dream comes to fruition near Disney World, the place "where dreams come true". The setting is inherently hopeful and magical, and reinforces the idea that David held onto a seemingly-impossible dream and worked very, very hard to achieve it; he exemplifies the "rags-to-riches" ideal that so many Americans hold onto. 
Much of the documentary may show that David and Jacqueline worked hard to get to where they are today, but their wealth is definitely on display. The Las Vegas office building is one of the tallest buildings in the city and has the brightest sign on the Las Vegas Strip. The Siegels' homes are enormous and luxurious, at 26,000 and 90,000 square feet apiece. Paintings of everyone in their family adorn the walls of their home, which is filled by eight children (many more than the average), maids, nannies, cooks, gardeners, and drivers. Each room is filled with toys, decorations, nice furniture, sculptures, and too many other fine material things to count. The Siegels have pools, tennis courts, bowling alleys, and huge garages. Despite their humble beginnings, the Siegels are still wealthy people. Part of the filmmakers' purpose in making "The Queen of Versailles" is to show the Siegels as "typical" people who are also rich, so that aspect of them is very, very important.
Even before the 2008 economic recession, caused in part by people who run companies like David Siegel, ordinary people both resented and looked up to the wealthy. However, few consider that not all wealthy people are bad, that not all of them take advantage of people. David and Jacqueline Siegel and their family might have different problems than most, but that does not negate the difficulty they have faced for the past several years.