The 1998 movie Elizabeth directed by Shekhar Kapur and produced by Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, and Alison Owen was an entertaining movie with great acting. It takes place in the mid 1500s from when Queen Mary dies and leaves Elizabeth the crown and when Elizabeth becomes the Virgin Queen. The film goes over Elizabeth’s search for a husband especially her relationship with Robert Dudley. It also includes main events during her early reign like her breaking England from the Catholic Church. The movie is very good and I liked it very much because it is entertaining and shows the young reign of Elizabeth which I did not know much of before.
The acting in Elizabeth was wonderful. The actors gave the characters many dimensions. They were all pretty mysterious yet relatable. The major actors in Elizabeth were Cate Blanchett as Elizabeth, Geoffrey Rush as Sir Francis Walsingham, and Joseph Fiennes as Robert Dudley. Cate Blanchett acted really well in this movie. I read a book about Elizabeth I and Cate Blanchett is exactly how I thought Elizabeth would have acted. She was smart, funny, quick-witted, and she had a smart sense of how to rule. I thought Sir Francis Walsingham was a good actor who was mysterious but in reality he was only a year older than Elizabeth but in the movie he seemed much older. Robert Dudley’s character is head-over-heels in love with Elizabeth but in the movie it is a big deal when Elizabeth finds out he is married but in reality Elizabeth knew he was married the whole time.
The movie’s costumes, especially the girl’s dresses, were gorgeous. They were in deep colors and they had jewels and beautiful fabric. The men wore deep jewel colors also and during the dances they wore tights. The costumes matched pictures I have seen elsewhere and overall looked completely authentic.
The time period gave the impression of being a pretty prosperous time. The parties had a lot of good music and food and everyone was always dancing and having a good time. Also, Elizabeth was a good ruler and cared for her people a lot. The scenes also looked very authentic and depicted the time period very well. The castles were huge and covered in ivory. They overlooked large fields with many greens. My favorite scenes were during the balls because they were festive and decorated very interesting and loud.
In Elizabeth there were not many special effects. The few there were, however very cool. The effects included cannons going off and the three people being burned at the stake. These effects were done well and added a lot to the movie.
The major events in Elizabeth are pretty accurate. Elizabeth really did break away from the Catholic Church and she made England a Protestant country. They bishops really did not have any say in whether or not she broke England away from the church, it was actually depending on the Pope’s excommunication of Elizabeth. In the movie they make a big deal of voting on the bill. Also, the attack by Mary of Guise is not completely accurate in the film. In history, a group of Scottish lords allied to Elizabeth deposed Mary of Guise and signed the Treaty of Edinburgh. This treaty lead to the withdrawal of the French troops. Mary refused to approve the treaty but French influence was reduced greatly in Scotland. Also, Mary of Guise dies of natural causes, and she is not murdered by Walsingham in bed. When she dies, Mary of Guise was on the verge of defeat by Scottish rebels, not close to winning the battle. Also, Elizabeth did not become the Virgin Queen until she was much older and she did not start wearing heavy white make-up until she was covering scars from small pox when she was old. Although many events were not completley accurate, this movie, as a whole, was accurate in showing the culture and the overall events during Elizabeth’s early reign.
I really liked the movie because the actors and costumes were really authentic and interesting. The movie allowed me to see the young and loving side of Queen Elizabeth, which seems to be left out in other things I have read about her. Also, I liked how we were able to see how Elizabeth handled different situations like when France attacked England and when she converted England back to a Protestant country. I do wish, however, that we were able to see more of how she treated her people because we only see her dealing with her advisors or her ladies. I also think that the movie was focused too much on her fling with Robert, which, from what I read was not as big as the movie made it out as. The love connection between Elizabeth and Robert did make the film much more interesting to watch even though it is not completely accurate. I think it would have been a more realistic and interesting film if it went into more detail about the major events during her reign like her break from the Catholic Church. Overall, I liked Elizabeth and I would suggest it to anyone who likes historical/romance films.