Elizabeth (1998) Critique

dlrjsorkTmsrjrladuddjsz
Elizabeth (1998) The movie, “Elizabeth,” is a biographical film of Queen Elizabeth I of England produced by Tim Bevan, Alison Owen, and Eric Fellner released in year of 1998. The film was directed by Shekhar Kapur starring Cate Blanchett as Queen Elizabeth, Geoffrey Rush as Sir Francis Walsingham, and Joseph Fiennes as Robert Dudley. This movie is the first of the series of Elizabeth with a following sequel, “Elizabeth: The Golden Age,” that was released in 2007. The colorized film of “Elizabeth” focuses on the enthronement of the queen during a time of political unrest and how she eventually becomes the ‘Virgin Queen’ of England.
The movie starts with a scene that represents the years of England ruled by ‘Bloody Mary,’ the half sister of Elizabeth. Mary soon dies of her tumor, but England is in great political, economical, and religious threat due to the conflict between Catholics and Protestants. Elizabeth, who is religious tolerant, wishes for Protestants and Catholics to live harmoniously and to create a unified Church of England. The reality of a weak England, politically and economically, places pressure on Elizabeth to form an alliance with another country, either with the Duke of France or the King of Spain. However, Elizabeth does not want to get married with any of the two, as her heart remains with Lord Roberts. Throughout the movie, Elizabeth struggles in fighting the pressure of marriage, restoring a weak England, and gaining confidence from her people despite her reputation as the heretic and illegitimate product of the King and his mistress. Though the movie is based on the life story of Queen Elizabeth, it is still historically inaccurate. The physical depictions of Queen Elizabeth are accurate, as they were based off of real historical paintings such as the portrait, “The Coronation of Elizabeth.” The people reflected in the movie of that time period are real, but their roles in that time period are off. Some of the biggest inaccuracies are the relationship between Queen Elizabeth and Lord Roberts, the death of Mary the Guise, and the role of Walsingham. The movie portrays Lord Roberts as deceitful to Queen Elizabeth by hiding his married status. After finding about his married status, Queen Elizabeth rejects Lord Roberts in public, and then Lord Roberts becomes involved in a treasonous act with Spain that was plotting to kill the Queen. However, in real life records, Lord Roberts did not commit treason against Queen Elizabeth and they remained close throughout their lifetime. The movie also overdramatizes the relationship between Mary the Guise and Queen Elizabeth of England. In the film, Queen Elizabeth receives a dress from France as a “gift” that turns out to be poisoned where one of Elizabeth’s maids die from wearing the dress. Upon this finding, Queen Elizabeth sends Lord Walsingham to France and he kills Mary the Guise. However, this incidence is historically inaccurate; Mary the Guise never sent a poisoned dress to Queen Elizabeth, and historical facts suggest that Mary the guise died from natural causes and not by Walsingham. Finally, the role of Walsingham is overemphasized, since he was not active in politics until the second century of Queen Elizabeth’s reign. Also, the movie suggests that Sir Walsingham is homosexual with young boys, whereas facts suggest that he was happily married with his wife. This movie portrays some of the historical aspects of Queen Elizabeth’s life story accurately to a limited degree; but many parts, especially the romantic relationship between Queen Elizabeth and Lord Roberts, are overdramatized to make a movie about political unrest more exciting. The movie starts in the year of 1554 when Queen Mary was in reign. The setting of time periods were two or three centuries out of date because the movie displays lifestyles closer to twelfth-and-thirteenth-centuries and not of sixteenth-century. In the beginning, Elizabeth is running across the fields and dancing with Lord Roberts. Later, a group of Mary’s troops come to lock her into a throne by herself. However, Lord Robert was actually already incarcerated in the tower previous to Elizabeth because he took part in his father’s attempt to enthrone his daughter-in-law, Lady Jane Grey. The customs of the movie are considered accurate. Most of Queen’s dresses are based out of the paintings of that time and the many had detailed accuracy of those paintings. Lord Roberts and other characters’ clothings were fairly accurate, but it can be argued that some pieces were missing. The ages of the characters were inaccurate; for example, William Cecil, in the movie, is shown as very old, where in reality, he was in his thirties when Queen Elizabeth was in her first century of ruling. Also, she never retires him.
“Elizabeth,” seems to focus heavily on the romantic struggles of Queen Elizabeth and the visual presentation of the events. The costumes and makeup of the characters are very vivid and interesting, and they are considered somewhat historically accurate as well. Even though the plot line of the movie was very different from the historical records, the movie was very enjoyable with the dramatized relationships between her and Lord Roberts and the many suitors at hand. The actress who played the role of Queen Elizabeth, Cate Blanchett, did a great job in highlighting the Queen’s strong personality. The facial expressions and visual look of Cate Blanchett is very similar to the paintings of Queen Elizabeth that present her as very composed. The other actors were also very good in playing their parts. One of the issues of this movie was its attempt to cover Queen Elizabeth’s twenty years of reign into a two-hour movie. There were too many events overlapping in a single time-period, and the scenes change too quickly for the audience to keep up with the storyline. This makes it difficult for the audience to fully see a clear sequence of events that lead to a developing climax. The audience should not expect to see a clear sequence of the historical events that partook during Queen Elizabeth’s reign, as the movie focuses on presenting a more visually appealing film of her life and time period. This movie is to be watched more as enjoyment than as for educational purposes. This film could be made better in contemporary time period if the movie were to be presented with the same dramatic elements but with more historical accuracy either in a longer movie or series of television shows. Overall, the presentation and characters of the movie were all worth applauding, but it is the historical inaccuracies that limit this movie from being a true biography of Queen Elizabeth I of England.