Elizabeth - The Golden Age (2007)

Elizabethan History Buffs Unite

If you are a fan of the first movie, this movie will not disappoint. Cate delivers a wonderful, performance of a queen who must fight her vanity and growing jealousy of those able to lead regular lives and a woman who serves as a mother to her country leading them to one of the most remarkable and important military victories (against Spain) in English history. August 18, 2008

Elizabeth I, The Virgin Queen

Our fascination with British history continues as we watched the gorgeous sequel to Elizabeth I, "The Golden Years." Elizabeth I lived from September 7th, 1533 until March 24th, 1603. She was called "The Virgin Queen" and was the fifth and last person to reign from the Tudor dynasty.

Elizabeth I, masterfully played by Cate Blanchett, is more moderate than her father. The movie continues to create great suspense as we learn more about the latter years of her reign. Her loyal aide Walsingham, played in grand style by Geoffrey Rush, continues to help the monarch to uncover every plot to destroy her reign and Elizabeth is able to check mate all attempts against her.

The extra features provide interviews with the producer and we learn that Shekhar Kapur added amazing detail to provide authenticity as to the battle between England and Spain, and they build a ship that is half Armada, half British, then PC replicated, providing awesome battle scenes. The architecture and decorations of the time are exquisite, filming where construction is actually taking place, and dressing in period clothing all construction workers, so the reality is magnificent.

In this film we see a monarch that is now experienced but confronting great challenges because her Catholic cousin, Mary Stuart is after her throne and upon her death, Spain sees the opportunity to attack England under the disguise that she has executed an anointed queen. We see the relationship the queen has with Sir Walter Raleigh, played by Clive Owen, who brings unique gifts from the new discovered lands of Virginia, named in honor of the Queen. His masterful knowledge of the seas provides great insight to Elizabeth during the defeat of the Spanish Armada.

One of the most spectacular scenes is where the Queen is on her horse, encouraging the people of England to fight to death if necessary to keep England free from foreign domination. As with the first installment, Elizabeth is simply superb, don't miss seeing this movie!
August 13, 2008

Completely Inaccurate. More Hollywood than History

This was awful! The only redeeming value to this mess was the visuals. The costumes and sets look nice, but that's it! This movie was COMPLETELY inaccurate! It completely cuts Robert Dudley out of the story, even though he didn't die until after the battle with the armada. Where was Francis Drake? He harried the Spaniards more than Raleigh ever did and he's missing from the story as well (he also circumnavigated the globe, which made him a national hero). And the Spaniards weren't intercepting Mary Queen of Scots letters at all, Walsingham was too clever for that. Is it so much to ask that movies like this acutaully have some semblence of truth to them? August 13, 2008

Poor history, nice visuals

Costumes were beautiful, Blanchett was worth watching most of the time & other actors were pretty decent, but the history sucked and for such a strong female character, they sure made her look petty & idiotic at times. Also, why do so many movies turn Spain into the evil character? The portrayal of King Phillip was pretty absurd & really made the movie laughable. (the movie Amistad really used Spain as a scapegoat, too, when England did it's fair share in the slave trade.) Elizabeth I had a lot more to her life, boiling it down to just a bad romance is a pretty big disservice. August 7, 2008

The 3 star folks capture it

But boy what a shame. The splendid (no, unbelievable) costumes and glorious scenery do indeed disguise a limp story, with stale dialogue that sounds like Oprah. Clive Owen, while indeed handsome and dashing (though somehow without an Errol Flynn gleam in his eye) drops his innumerable bad lines as if they are hot bricks. Compare Elizabeth's way too Henryesque battle speech with Will's to see how flaccid this is. Not even poetry with a lower case p.

Too many stories going on simultaneously, each of them plenty sufficient to drive the plot, means that the whole thing becomes a confused and wild mess. But the shame comes in the lost opportunities. The execution of Mary, one of the most bizarre and terrifying events in English history, is really untouched. (Maybe they wanted to keep the Elizabeth as guilty and torn and the Elizabeth unsullied by this.) But for a graphic and visually compelling film such as this, the site of her head dropping from the exectioner's hand would have been rather startling.

And the love stuff, while maybe historically accurate (Raleigh did enjoy the queen's favor to a remarkable degree) just sunk this tale. We know she doesn't get the man, we also know she doesn't seem to want to. Showing her as an emotional and flighty female, while more in line with current sensibilities, just doesn't seem authentic. She was queen for a long time, and ruled with a resolve this script misses.

Worth a watch. But not one for the ages. Nope--unlike Elizabeth, this is soon to be forgotten. August 6, 2008

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