Themes: Crowned Heads, Rise To Power, Conspiracies
Main Cast: Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Christopher Eccleston, Joseph Fiennes, Richard Attenborough
Release Year: 1998
Country: UK
Run Time: 121 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
This British-made historical drama depicts the rise of young Elizabeth Tudor to Queen of England, a reign of intrigue and betrayals. In 1554, Queen Mary I (Kathy Burke) tries to restore Catholicism as England's single faith. With no heir to the crown, she maneuvers to keep her Protestant half-sister Elizabeth (Cate Blanchett) from succeeding her, but her efforts fail. With Mary dead, Elizabeth is proclaimed Queen of England in November 1558. Elizabeth relishes the return from exile of her childhood sweetheart, Lord Robert Dudley (Joseph Fiennes). Chief adviser Sir William Cecil (Richard Attenborough) urges the young Queen to forget personal matters and instead address the country's pressing problems. England is bankrupt, has no army, and is under serious threat from abroad. Elizabeth even has enemies within her own court, the most dangerous being the Duke of Norfolk (Christopher Eccleston). Hoping for an heir, Cecil suggests marriage candidates -- King Philip II of Spain or the French Duc d'Anjou (Vincent Cassel) -- to secure the realm. Elizabeth agrees to meet their ambassadors, but her true feelings are revealed when she meets Dudley for a secret tryst. French "warrior queen" Mary of Guise (Fanny Ardent) amasses troops at the Scottish border. Elizabeth bows to the pro-War lobby led by Norfolk, despite protests from her Master of Spies, the enigmatic Sir Francis Walsingham (Geoffrey Rush), but the decision to fight leads to a humiliating defeat. As dark clouds of court conspiracies gather, and the possibility of assassination looms, Elizabeth strikes out at her enemies and puts her trust in Walsingham. Shown at 1998 film fests (Venice, Toronto), this is the first English-language film of Indian director Shekhar Kapur, who shot on locations at Northumberland, Derbyshire, North Yorkshire, and at Shepperton Studios. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
Review
Taking on the historical terrain given previous cinematic life in two Bette Davis vehicles, Elizabeth presents a complex portrait of the self-styled Virgin Queen and the violent underpinnings of the monarchy. Indian director Shekhar Kapur re-imagines the early, hotly contested years of the legendary queen's reign with a keen eye for both the harsh brutality of 16th century life and the opulent luxury afforded the nobles. As Elizabeth I, Cate Blanchett dexterously evolves from light-hearted young woman to preternaturally wise power broker to ossified icon, as emotionally gutted by her rise to supremacy as Francis Ford Coppola's Mafia don Michael Corleone. Geoffrey Rush and Christopher Eccleston excel as, respectively, the queen's consigliere and chief nemesis; and Remi Adefarasin's chiaroscuro cinematography further lends the events an atmospheric Godfather-esque sheen. Hailed for its visual splendor and Blanchett's career-making performance, Elizabeth scored seven Oscar nominations, including Best Actress and an unexpected nod for Best Picture, but lost out to the breezier Elizabethan romp Shakespeare in Love (1998). ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
In 1558, the Roman CatholicMary I of England dies of a canceroustumor in her uterus, leaving her Protestant half-sister Elizabeth as queen. Elizabeth had previously been jailed for a supposed conspiracy to murder Mary, but has now been freed for her coronation. The film shows Elizabeth being courted by suitors (including Henri, Duc d'Anjou, the future King Henry III of France, whom she rejects) and urged by William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley to marry, which, as he states, would secure her throne. Instead, she has a secret affair with her childhood sweetheart, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. The affair is, however, no secret from Cecil—who makes clear that a monarch has no private life.
Elizabeth deals with various threats to her reign, including The Duke of Norfolk, her Catholic cousin who conspires to have her murdered, and the regent of Scotland, Mary of Guise, who allies with France to attack England's forces. At the end of the film, Norfolk is executed for his conspiracy and Mary is assassinated by Elizabeth's advisor, Francis Walsingham.
Elizabeth permanently banishes Dudley from her private presence when she finds out that he is married; as depicted in the sequel, Elizabeth then gives up ever having sex again, feeling that such relations could give a man too much power over her. Moreover, cutting off her relations with Dudley is part of the process by which she becomes increasingly tough and assertive—in one scene she carefully prepares and rehearses the speech she would deliver to a recalcitrant Parliament and force through her religious reforms.
She also becomes capable of occasional ruthless behavior—as in unflinchingly ordering the execution of those who she considers dangerous to her rule, as well as taking up as her right-hand man the Machiavellian Walsingham, who thinks nothing of torturing people or killing with his own hands.
All this is a considerable change from the warm-hearted, rather romantic girl which Elizabeth was in the early parts of the film; remaining such would have been incompatible with being a queen who actually ruled and dominated the men around her, and her transformation is a major theme of the film.
The film ends with Elizabeth assuming the persona of 'The Virgin Queen', and initiating England's Golden Age.
The costuming and shot composition of the coronation scene is based on Elizabeth's coronation portrait.[citation needed]
This portrait "The Coronation of Elizabeth" was used as the basis for the photography and costume of Cate Blanchett during the coronation scene in the film. This is a copy of a now lost original, this copy attrib. Nicholas Hilliard
Cate Blanchett was chosen to play Elizabeth after she was seen in a play in Sydney.[citation needed]
The film takes many liberties with history. Among them:
The real Robert Dudley did not betray Elizabeth, and remained a loyal subject until his death, nor did Elizabeth ever end their close friendship, as is implied here.
Similarly, Dudley is shown in the film as converting to Catholicism when in fact he was a staunch Protestant (of the type that would later become termed as Puritan), making such conversion unthinkable.
Kat Ashley is portrayed as being of similar age to Elizabeth, though in reality she was significantly older, having been Elizabeth's governess.
In the film, Elizabeth appears to find out from Sir William Cecil that Robert Dudley is married, whereas in reality Elizabeth was well aware, since she attended his wedding. (While it is true that Elizabeth knew that Dudley married his first wife, Amy Robsart, and did indeed attend their wedding, she may not have known about his second marriage—to her cousin and one-time maid of the Privy Chamber, Lettice Knollys; she was furious when she discovered the truth. However, this was many years after the events of this film.
The character who seems to be based on Lettice Knollys - called Isabel Knollys in the film for some reason - dies from a poison dress while having sex with Robert Dudley. However, Lettice Knollys did not suffer this fate or anything similar; she actually married Dudley years later, as previously stated, and died of old age when she was 91.
In the film, the name of the Duke of Norfolk's lover - Lettice Howard - seems to be a combination of two of Dudley's mistresses: Lettice Knollys and Lady Douglas Howard. Lettice was Dudley's mistress before she married him, and Lady Douglas Howard gave birth to Dudley's illegitimate son, who was also called Robert Dudley. There is no Lettice Howard known in this historical context.
In the film, Elizabeth I is courted by Henri, Duke of Anjou. The two never met in reality, as the actual proposal was for her marriage to François, his younger brother. François came to England and the proposal became a very serious prospect, although it was never fulfilled. Neither Henry nor François went to Scotland to meet Mary of Guise (indeed, Mary died years before the marriage proposal to François was even made). The film insists on Henry's alleged homosexuality or bisexuality, an old assumption based on the Duke's elegance and dislike of manly activities such as hunting and war; today some historians consider it unlikely considering Henry's uncountable affairs with women.
William Cecil was not even 40 years old when Elizabeth began her reign, contrary to his cinematic portrayal as elderly. He was not retired by the young queen, either. He remained one of her most trusted advisers until his death, shortly before hers. Similarly, Francis Walsingham was in his mid-twenties when Elizabeth was crowned, not a middle-aged man as he was portrayed by Geoffrey Rush.
The conspiracy of The Duke of Norfolk combines several events into one—in the film he is arrested and summarily executed for trying to supplant Elizabeth and marry Mary, Queen of Scots to cement his hold on the throne. In reality Norfolk was imprisoned in 1569 for trying to wed Mary, Queen of Scots without permission, but was eventually released. He was then implicated in a separate plot in 1572 (three years later) to put Mary Queen of Scots on the throne, for which he was then tried and executed. Contrary to his portrayal in the film as ruthless and powerful, he was actually a weak man, easily led and used by others.
No evidence exists to support the claim that Francis Walsingham was involved in the death of Mary of Guise; she died of dropsy. Furthermore, her death occurred only a year into Elizabeth's reign, whereas many of the other events in the film occurred later, making them seem concurrent in the way they are presented.
In the film, and as emphasized in its promotion, Elizabeth has bright blue eyes (Cate Blanchett's natural eye color); however, Elizabeth is well known for having the deep amber brown eyes of her mother, Anne Boleyn, and the bright red hair of her father, Henry VIII. Blanchett has sensitive eyes, so she was unable to wear coloured contacts for her role.
Bishop Stephen Gardiner (Terence Rigby) died before Elizabeth came to the throne, and had no part in the Ridolfi plot.
The Earl of Arundel was not executed as shown in the film, but was confined to the Tower of London and died as a prisoner.
The Earl of Sussex was a loyal servant of the Queen and was neither implicated in the plot nor executed.
At the beginning of the film there is a short scene that states that the sole successors of Henry VIII were Mary I and Elizabeth I; Edward VI was a successor, as was Lady Jane Grey (whose status as monarch is disputed).
When Elizabeth is being questioned by her accusers in the beginning of the film at the Tower of London, the bishop suggests that the debate between Catholicism and Protestantism is what killed her mother, Anne Boleyn. This is not at all the case, for it was the (probably false) accusations of witchcraft, incest, treason, and fornication between Anne and other noblemen that sent her to her death.
At the end of the film, Elizabeth decides to shave her hair to look like a virgin. In reality, she wore a wig and much white make-up after having smallpox, to hide the thin, sparse hair and scars on her face it had left her with.
Elizabeth premiered in September 1998 at the Venice Film Festival and was also shown at the Toronto International Film Festival.[2] It premiered in London on October 2, 1998 and it premiered in the United States on October 13, 1998.[2] It opened in the United Kingdom on October 23, 1998[2] and opened in limited release in the United States in nine theaters on November 6, 1998, grossing $275,131.[3] Its widest release in the United States and Canada was in 624 theaters,[3] and its largest weekend gross throughout its run in theaters in the US and Canada was $3.9 million in 516 theaters,[3] ranking #9 at the box office.[4]Elizabeth went on to gross $30 million in the United States and Canada, and a total of $82.1 million worldwide.[5]
BAFTA Awards: Alexander Korda Awards for Best British Film (Alison Owen), (Tim Bevan), Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music (David Hirschfelder), Best Cinematography (Remi Adefarasin), Best Makeup/Hair (Jenny Shircore), Best Supporting Actor (Geoffrey Rush), Best Actress (Cate Blanchett)[7]
