Elizabeth (Spotlight Series)
Academy Award-winners Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush and Richard Attenborough lead a distinguished cast in Elizabeth - the critically acclaimed epic of the Queen's turbulent and treacherous rise to power! Before the Golden Age, Elizabeth was a passionate and naïve girl who came to reign over a land divided by bloody turmoil. Amidst palace intrigues and attempted assassinations, the young Queen is forced to become a cunning strategist while weighing the counsel of her mysterious advisors, thwarting her devious rivals, and denying her own desires for the good of her country. Relive the majesty and drama of one of history's greatest monarchs in this stunning production that was honored with 7 Academy Award nominations including Best Picture!
One of the big Elizabethan-era films of 1998, Shekhar Kapur's Elizabeth serves up a brimming goblet of religious tension, political conspiracy, sex, violence, and war. England in 1554 is in financial and religious turmoil as the ailing Queen "Bloody" Mary attempts to restore Catholicism as the national faith. She has no heir, and her greatest fear--that her Protestant half-sister Elizabeth will assume the throne after her death--is realized. Still, the late Queen Mary has her loyalists. The newly crowned Elizabeth finds herself knee-deep in dethroning schemes while also dodging assassination attempts. Her advisers (including Sir William Cecil, superbly played by Richard Attenborough) beg her to marry any one of her would-be suitors to stabilize England's empire. No matter that she already has a lover. The passionate Robert Dudley (Joseph Fiennes) is married, however, and shows he cannot stand up to the growing strength of the Queen. With the help of her aide Walsingham (Geoffrey Rush), Elizabeth strikes against her enemies before they get to her first. But her rise ultimately entails rejecting love and marriage to redefine herself as the indisputable Virgin Queen. Cate Blanchett's Oscar-nominated performance as the naive and vibrant princess who becomes the stubborn and knowing queen is both severe and sympathetic. Her ethereal, pale beauty is equal parts fire and ice, her delivery of such lines as "There will be only one mistress here and no master!" expressed with command rather than hysterics. As striking as Blanchett's performance is the film's lavish and dramatic production design. The cold, dark sets paired with the lush costuming show the golden age of England's monarchy emerging from the Middle Ages. Rich velvet brushes over the dank stones while power is achieved at any price, and with such attention to physical detail, Elizabeth fully immerses you into its compelling chronicle of pioneering feminism and revisionist history. --Shannon Gee
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Elizabeth (Spotlight Series) Reviews
This movie takes lots of liberties with the actual history.
But as a movie, it excels. Often, historical movies are either dry or tabloidesque. (For the latter, see the horrible BBC "Tudors.")
This one manages to be riveting and yet deal with the history pretty well--while compressing and shifting a lot of the details.
Elizabeth's plight--personal, political, religious, human--is exquisitely vivid and wrenching. We see her go through bitter and terrifying shocks, and grow before our very eyes, both as a woman and a politician.
At the end, she seems both superhuman and entirely sad: cut off by her partly self-chosen supreme isolation.
The settings and costumes are gorgeous, and the acting by everyone is splendid.
But what really sets the movie off is the writing: tricky, intelligent, telling just enough and leaving lots of suspense.
Anne of A Thousand Days was a movie I never thought I could love more for the English history until Elizabeth Anne's daughter came out. I absoultely love it. I love history anyway and of course it may not be to the letter but to me I just enjoyed it, bought it and watch it off and on when I'm in the mood. I love the part where Anne says boldly before she is beheaded..."My Elizabeth will be Queen."
I have seen quite a few interpretations of the life and times of "Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen." Biographical Period Films are one (1) of my favorite genres.
This production is an excellent version for both historical facts and background and for the minimally fictionalized, glorified character named Elizabeth. The production is inspired with individuals drifting in and out of the darkness, both real and imagined. The casting of all the Actors was perfection. The set and costume designwork were masterpieces. Direction was strong, but not overly obvious.
I was thoroughly entertained and very impressed.
Elizabeth, the bastard daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, is a Protestant, and considered an enemy of the Catholic Queen Mary. As more Protestants start an uprising against the Catholic throne, Mary brings Elizabeth before her to be tried and sentenced for treason as a heretic. Instead, Mary is unable to condemn her half sister to death, and tells her that she is dying of a tumor and when she dies Elizabeth will become queen. At the age of 25 Elizabeth becomes queen of England and must deal with affairs, death threats, attempted murder, and plots from within her own administration to become the Virgin Queen who brought England back to prosperity and prominence.
In 1998, Cate Blanchett was an unknown having only appeared in bit parts here and there, but was more well known on the stage. After considering Nicole Kidman, and turning down Meryl Streep (one of only three roles she has ever been turned down for), Shekhar Kapur, an acclaimed Indian filmmaker making his English language debut, saw a trailer with Cate Blanchett and knew that he found the perfect Queen Elizabeth. And this was a daunting task. Queen Elizabeth is a well revered monarch, and not much is known about the early years of her reign. Piecing together what we know of Elizabeth's life and her reign, Michael Hirst crafted a screenplay that shows how Elizabeth became the queen, and woman, she would become. The question is, how well does it work.
Elizabeth is possibly the most beautiful period piece I have ever seen. The cinematography is amazing, the sets and costumes are absolutely breathtaking, and Shekhar Kapur has an eye for bringing out the most in all of it. Shekhar Kapur also brings a more worldly view of the world as well, not just looking at this as the tale of British nobility, but looking at it as a story for the world of coming of age, politics, and religion mixing with politics and the dangers there in. Hirst's characters are well crafted and lived in, which typically is a problem for most period pieces dealing with real subjects. All too often characterizations suffer in these cases because there are so many people who helped make old mold your central character, but Hirst handles these issues deftly to craft great characters and you either empathize with or despise.
The acting pedigree in this movie is stellar, and the ensemble cast of course makes the best of a great script. The real standout for me was Joseph Fiennes, currently the main character in Flashforward but also known for being in the other great period piece of 1998 Shakespeare in Love. Joseph Fiennes plays his character, Robert Dudley, with love, anger, malice, and sadness. He imbues him with such likability that, even at his worst, you feel every tick of emotion within the character, and Joseph Fiennes wrings ever bit of emotion from the character to the last drop without ever feeling as though he's going over the top. Naturally, though, when you're dealing with a cast that includes Geoffrey Rush (Pirates of the Caribbean), Christopher Eccleston (Dr. Who), Cate Blanchett (The Aviator), Daniel Craig (Casino Royale), Sir Richard Attenborough (Jurassic Park, and a phenomenal director in his own right see Ghandi), and so on saying one actor is a standout is like picking the best lawyer out of a group of Ivy League grads who all graduated at the top of their class.
The one problem that I have to say that I have with this film is that the side plot dealing with Eccleston's Duke of Norfolk and the Vatican seemed slightly undercooked. It just didn't seem as though it was given the attention it needed, and in turn the Duke of Norfolk wasn't given enough to due. He's still fleshed out, but it feels as though your made to believe that he's the sole leader in a plot but I never really completely got the feeling that he was as in control as you were made to believe. Of course, when the real focus of the film is the coming of age of Queen Elizabeth I, this is almost an afterthought, and the plot still shows you how this led to Queen Elizabeth becoming the monarch she became.
I would highly recommend this movie to anyone who likes period pieces, history, and fans of the actors and actresses mentioned above. Personally, I think this is the best work from most of those mentioned above, including Cate Blanchett, which is saying a lot.
4.5/5
Excellent service, the product was in excellent shape and it came to my home in a very short time. .Elizabeth (Spotlight Series) Cate Blanchett, is Elizabeth to a T. Her portrayal of the Queen was excellent. Geoffrey Rush was great in his role as Elizabeths advisor. A real good movie and I would recomend it to all who like history and action, drama.
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