Elizabeth: The Golden Age is a 2007 sequel to the 1998 film Elizabeth, directed by Shekhar Kapur and produced by Universal Pictures and Working Title Films. It stars Cate Blanchett in the title role and is loosely based on events during the latter part of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England. The screenplay was written by William Nicholson and Michael Hirst. The music score was composed by A. R. Rahman and Craig Armstrong.

It was filmed at Shepperton Studios and various locations around the United Kingdom with an estimated production budget of 50 to 60 million USD.^[1] Guy Hendrix Dyas was the film's production designer and co-visual effects supervisor and the costumes were created by Alexandra Byrne.

The film premiered on 9 September 2007 at the Toronto International Film Festival. It opened in wide release in the United States and Canada on October 12, 2007. It premiered in London on 23 October 2007 and is on general release from 2 November 2007 throughout the rest of the UK and Republic of Ireland. It opened in Australia and New Zealand on 15 November 2007.^[2]

The film won an Academy Award for Best Costume Design and Blanchett received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.

Historical background [link]

In 1558, King Philip II of Spain's second wife, Queen Mary I of England, died. They had wed in July 1554, a year after Mary's accession to the English throne, but the English Parliament had refused to grant him much real power as co-monarch of England.^[3] On Mary's death he had then tried unsuccessfully to persuade her sister and successor, Elizabeth I, to marry him, but she would not agree. Phillip decides to take revenge and launches the Spanish Armada, with the blessing of the Pope, to attack England, Protestantism, and Elizabeth herself. Sir Walter Raleigh, whom the Queen loves, marries a ward of her court after he learns she is carrying his child. Elizabeth I has both of them arrested.

Plot [link]

In 1585, Roman Catholic Spain ruled by King Philip II (Jordi Molla) is the most powerful country in Europe. Seeing Protestant England as a threat, and in retaliation for English piracy of Spanish ships, Philip intends to make war. He plans to take over England, and make his daughter Isabella the Queen of England in Elizabeth's place.

In England, Elizabeth (Cate Blanchett) is being pressured to marry by her advisor, Sir Francis Walsingham (Geoffrey Rush). She is aging and, with no child, the throne will pass to her next of kin, Mary, Queen of Scots (Samantha Morton). The Queen is presented with portraits of appropriate suitors, but Elizabeth refuses to marry, particularly to the Archduke Charles of Austria (Christian Brassington), who has become infatuated with the Queen.

Walter Raleigh (Clive Owen) is presented at Elizabeth's court, having returned from the New World, and offers her potatoes, tobacco, two Native Americans, and gold from Spanish ships that he claims were "unable to continue their journey". The Spanish ambassador protests. Elizabeth commands that the Native Americans be treated well, and refuses to accept the gold.

Elizabeth is attracted to Raleigh, enthralled by his tales of exploration, and asks Elizabeth Throckmorton (Abbie Cornish) (nicknamed Bess), her most favored lady-in-waiting, to observe him. Bess also finds Raleigh attractive and secretly begins an affair with him. Elizabeth meanwhile seeks guidance from her astrologer, Dr. John Dee (David Threlfall) who predicts that two empires will go to war. However, he cannot predict which will triumph over the other, leaving Elizabeth to ponder her and England's fate.

Jesuits in London conspire with Philip to assassinate Elizabeth and replace her with Mary, in what Philip calls "The English Enterprise," and which is known to history as the Babington Plot. Walsingham discovers the plot. From her imprisonment Mary sends secret correspondence to the Jesuits, who recruit Anthony Babington (Eddie Redmayne) to assassinate Elizabeth.

Walsingham continues to warn Elizabeth of Spain's rising power and of the Catholic plots against her. However she, unlike her predecessor and sister Mary I, refuses to force her people (half of whom remain loyal to Catholicism) to share her beliefs. Even then, those conspiring against Elizabeth are being hunted and murdered, including Bess's cousin, whom Bess had failed to protect. After learning of her cousin's torture and death at Walsingham's hands, Bess turns to Raleigh for comfort. The barely hidden closeness of Bess and Raleigh causes tension between them, testing her desire to keep him in England and increasing his desire to go back to the New World.

Walsingham's brother, a Papist, knows of the plot against Elizabeth. It is revealed that Walsingham had known of the plot all along, intercepting letters, and his brother is jailed. He reveals the plot to Elizabeth, who angrily confronts the Spanish diplomats. The Spanish ambassador feigns ignorance and accuses Elizabeth of receiving Spanish gold from pirates and insinuating a sexual relationship with Raleigh. A sword fight nearly ensues between the queen's male escorts and the Spanish contingent. She throws the Spaniards out of court. Meanwhile, Philip is cutting the forests of Spain to build the Spanish Armada to invade England.

Mary, Queen of Scots, writes letters condoning the plot. Babington storms into a cathedral where Elizabeth is praying and points a gun at her. Elizabeth opens her arms, seemingly fearless. He pulls the trigger, and the gun fires. At first Walsingham is unable to discern why the gun was harmless, though it is later revealed by the traitor in the torture chamber that there was no bullet in the gun.

Elizabeth learns of Mary's involvement, and Walsingham insists she be executed to quell any possible revolt. Elizabeth is reluctant, but nevertheless agrees. Mary is tried for high treason. She is beheaded, ascending the block in a blood-red dress, red being the Catholic liturgical colour for martyrs. Walsingham sees that this was part of the Jesuit's plan all-along. Philip had never intended Mary to become queen. Since the Pope and other Catholic leaders regarded Mary as the true Queen of England, Philip uses Mary's death to obtain papal approval for war.

In England, Raleigh asks to leave for the New World, which Elizabeth forbids, instead knighting him and making him Captain of the Royal Guard. Bess discovers she is pregnant with Raleigh's child and, after telling him the news, she pleads with him to leave. He chooses not to, and the couple marry in secret. At the same time, Elizabeth awakes during a dream as the wedding is taking place. She confronts Bess a few weeks later, who confesses that she is indeed pregnant with Raleigh's child, and that Raleigh is her husband. An enraged Elizabeth berates Bess, reminding her that she cannot marry without royal consent. Feeling betrayed, the queen banishes Bess from court and has Raleigh imprisoned for the crime of seducing a ward of the Queen.

Walsingham arranges for his brother, William, who is eleven years Francis' junior, to be released and taken to France on the condition that he must never return to England.

The Armada begins its approach up the English Channel, and Elizabeth forgives Bess and sets Raleigh free to join Sir Francis Drake in the battle. Elizabeth gives her Speech to the Troops at Tilbury seated on a war horse wearing full plate armour. The Spanish ships and army vastly outnumber England's, but at the last moment, a major storm blows the Armada towards the beaches, endangering their formation and ships. They drop anchor, and the Armada becomes a sitting duck for English fire ships. Elizabeth, back at her coastal headquarters, walks out to the cliffs and watches the Spanish Armada sink in flames. Philip's plan is shattered.

Elizabeth visits Walsingham on his deathbed, telling her old friend to rest. She then visits Raleigh and Bess and blesses their child. Elizabeth seemingly triumphs personally through her ordeal, again resigned to her role as the Virgin Queen and mother to the English people.

Cast [link]

• Cate Blanchett as Elizabeth I of England
• Geoffrey Rush as Sir Francis Walsingham
• Clive Owen as Sir Walter Raleigh
• Abbie Cornish as Elizabeth Throckmorton/Bess, Lady-in-waiting to Elizabeth I of England
• Samantha Morton as Mary, Queen of Scots
• Susan Lynch as Annette Fleming - Lady-in-waiting to Mary, Queen of Scots
• Jordi Mollà as Philip II of Spain
• Rhys Ifans as Robert Reston
• Eddie Redmayne as Anthony Babington
• Tom Hollander as Sir Amyas Paulet
• David Threlfall as Dr. John Dee
• Adam Godley as William Walsingham
• Laurence Fox as Christopher Hatton
• William Houston as Don Gerau De Spes
• Christian Brassington as Archduke Charles of Austria
• John Shrapnel as Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham

Dramatic license [link]

As in the first film, some of the historical facts and dates have been changed by the film-makers for artistic purposes. Responding to concerns arising from this, lead Cate Blanchett said: "It's terrifying that we are growing up with this very illiterate bunch of children, who are somehow being taught that film is fact, when in fact it's invention. Hopefully, though, a historical film will inspire people to go and read about the history. But in the end it is a work of history and selection".^[4] The most notable of the alleged historical inaccuracies is the representation that Elizabeth wanted to respect Catholicism, which is highly controversial (see discussion below). Other changes include the following:

• Sir Walter Raleigh's role in the defeat of the Spanish Armada was relatively minor. The role of Sir Francis Drake, one of the key figures in the victory, is downplayed. In some episodes, such as the confrontation with the Spanish ambassador, Drake's historical actions are attributed to Raleigh. Similarly, Robert Dudley, 1st earl of Leicester, was lieutenant general at the armada crisis. His role at Tilbury camp is performed by Raleigh in the film, while Dudley is absent from the screen.
• Charles Howard, 1st earl of Nottingham, says, "We're losing too many ships." In reality, not a single English ship was lost during the battle.
• The film depicts Elizabeth frequently seeking the advice of Dr John Dee. Historically, however, Dee was travelling the continent throughout the period depicted and did not return until more than a year after the defeat of the Armada. Elizabeth's actual main advisor and chief minister, Sir William Cecil, is omitted from the film altogether.
• In 1588, Infanta Isabel of Spain is portrayed as a child. In reality, she was twenty-one by this time.
• In 1585, Elizabeth was fifty-two. The film shows various suitors being presented to the queen, with a view to marriage and children. These scenes presented actually took place much earlier in her reign. Erik of Sweden abandoned his proposals to marry Elizabeth after his trip to England was interrupted by the death of his father in 1560, when Elizabeth was twenty-seven.
• Several events that occurred during a different time during Elizabeth's life are shown coinciding. For example, her lady-in-waiting, Bess Throckmorton, became pregnant with Walter Raleigh's child in the summer of 1591 three years after the defeat of the Armada, not immediately before. Shortly after his birth, the baby, named Damerei, was relegated to a wet nurse and died shortly afterwards.
• Mary, queen of Scots, is depicted as having a Scottish accent when in actuality she probably had a pronounced French accent. She was raised at the French court from the age of five and did not return to Scotland until she was a young woman.
• Elizabeth is depicted as being a tolerant queen, which is debatable. In her forty-five year reign, only five people were burned at the stake in comparison to her sister Mary I (Bloody Mary), who burned alive almost three hundred Protestants during her much shorter time on the throne. While Elizabeth did not execute people strictly on the charges of their religion, some Catholic historians have suggested that some of those beheaded or hanged for treason were actually subject to fabricated accusations and that the treason was an excuse to be rid of papists. Monarchs during her time were typically critical of those who did not follow their religion, and while she may not have been as accepting as the portrayal, she was definitely more tolerant than most kings and queens were during the sixteenth century.
• The film shows Spanish envoys and other members of court wearing swords during their audiences with Elizabeth. Because of continuous threats of assassination, only members of the Royal Guard were permitted to carry weapons near Elizabeth while she was in court.
• The execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, is portrayed as having happened very swiftly after her arrest, while she was still a young woman. However, the real Mary was held in custody in a number of castles and manor houses in England for 19 years before being executed in 1587, at the age of 44.
• In the movie, Elizabeth is confronted at the altar of Old St Paul's Cathedral by Anthony Babington with a pistol charged with powder but no shot. The real Babington Plot against the queen was thwarted while it was still being planned.
• Sir Walter Raleigh is shown being knighted in the castle against his will because the queen wishes him to stay in England. However, according to general belief, he was actually knighted on the deck of his ship after returning from a voyage and was not at all dismayed by it because by doing so Elizabeth was not attempting to keep him in the country. This was a way of honoring him for his service.
• There is no evidence that Elizabeth hit Bess Throckmorton on learning of the latter's pregnancy and elopement as the movie depicts. The only time Elizabeth is believed to have ever actually struck one of her ladies-in-waiting did not involve Throckmorton. However, she was expelled from court when the marriage was discovered and was not reinstated shortly after as portrayed. As a result of their elopement, which was illegal, Raleigh lived in disgrace for the next five years.
• In the film, when a young man who has been tortured is then hanged, the method of hanging is "the long drop" method, where the force of the fall coupled with a specific knot breaks the neck of the victim. This method of hanging was not invented until the nineteenth century by William Marwood.
• The Battle of the Spanish Armada was fought between Spanish and Portuguese ships (Portugal was at the time under the rule of Spain, and would reclaim its independence in 1640) against English and Dutch. The film creates a setting that Phillip II wished to invade England for religious purposes, using Mary Queen of Scots as a pawn and attacking a peaceful England, when in reality this battle was just a fragment of the Anglo-Spanish War between England and Holland against Spain and Portugal.
• In the film Phillip II of Spain is portrayed as an eerie absurd unsuccessful figure who is fixated on religion and world domination. In truth, although during Phillip II's reign Spain suffered economically, he was successful in foreign policy (e.g. Battle of Lepanto, destroying the Ottoman fleet and neutralising the Ottoman threat to Europe), war and expanding the Spanish Golden Age. During his reign Spain reached the height of its empire. He was known to be very hard-working, quite intelligent and a good administrator. His physical appearance was also different to the one that is shown in the movie, as he was blond.

Critical reception [link]

Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian, gave the film 1 star out of 5, remarking on the film's historical revisionism and melodrama. He writes: "Where Kapur's first Elizabeth was cool, cerebral, fascinatingly concerned with complex plotting, the new movie is pitched at the level of a Jean Plaidy romantic novel".^[5]

Although Cate Blanchett's performance was highly praised, the film received generally negative to mixed reviews from U.S. critics. As of November 24, 2007 on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 34% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 145 reviews.^[6] On Metacritic, the film had an average score of 45 out of 100, based on 32 reviews.^[7]

Roger Ebert gave the film 2½ stars out of 4, saying 'there are scenes where the costumes are so sumptuous, the sets so vast, the music so insistent, that we lose sight of the humans behind the dazzle of the production'. Ebert did, however, praise many of the actors' performances, particularly that of Cate Blanchett as Queen Elizabeth I. He said 'That Blanchett could appear in the same Toronto Film Festival playing Elizabeth and Bob Dylan, both splendidly, is a wonder of acting'.^[8] Blanchett portrayed Bob Dylan in the film I'm Not There and was nominated for an Academy Award for her role in both movies.

Colin Covert of the Minneapolis Star Tribune gave the film 3 stars out of 4 said '... as a pseudo-historical fable, a romantic triangle and a blood-and-thunder melodrama, the film can't be faulted' and also wrote, 'This isn't historical fabrication, it's mutilation. But for all its lapses, this is probably the liveliest, most vibrant Elizabethan production since Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet'.^[9] while Wesley Morris of The Boston Globe said, 'Historians might demand a little more history from "Elizabeth: The Golden Age". But soap opera loyalists could hardly ask for more soap'.^[10]

Michael Gove, speaking on BBC Two's Newsnight Review, said: 'It tells the story of England's past in a way which someone who's familiar with the Whig tradition of history would find, as I did, completely sympathetic. It's amazing to see a film made now that is so patriotic ... One of the striking things about this film is that it's almost a historical anomaly. I can't think of a historical period film in which England and the English have been depicted heroically for the last forty or fifty years. You almost have to go back to Laurence Olivier's Shakespeare's Henry V in which you actually have an English king and English armies portrayed heroically'.^[11]

Claims of anti-Catholicism [link]

The film depicts an important episode in the violent struggle between the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation that polarised European politics. Several critics claimed the film was "anti-Catholic", and it followed a traditional English view of their own history. A British-based priest, Father Peter Malone, declared the film to be jingoistic in his review at the (Cathport website).

In the U.S. the National Catholic Register film critic Steven D. Greydanus compared it to The Da Vinci Code, and wrote: "The climax, a weakly staged destruction of the Spanish Armada, is a crescendo of church-bashing imagery: rosaries floating amid burning flotsam, inverted crucifixes sinking to the bottom of the ocean, the rows of ominous berobed clerics slinking away in defeat. Pound for pound, minute for minute, Elizabeth: The Golden Age could possibly contain more sustained church-bashing than any other film I can think of". Greydanus asked: "How is it possible that this orgy of anti-Catholicism has been all but ignored by most critics?"^[12]

Stephen Whitty of the Newark Star-Ledger said: "This movie equates Catholicism with some sort of horror-movie cult, with scary close-ups of chanting monks and glinting crucifixes".^[13] Colin Covert of the Minneapolis Star Tribune complained of what he saw as "ugly anti-Catholic imagery",^[14] and Bob Bloom of the Lafayette Journal & Courier agreed that anti-Catholicism was one of the film's "sore points".^[15]

Monsignor Mark Langham, Administrator of Westminster Cathedral, was criticised by some Roman Catholics for allowing scenes to be shot there; although praising the film as a 'must see', he suggested that 'it does appear to perpetuate the myth of “killer priests”'.^[16][17]

Historian Franco Cardini of the University of Florence, alleged 'the film formed part of a "concerted attack on Catholicism, the Holy See and Papism" by an alliance of atheists and "apocalyptic Christians"'.^[18][19] 'Why put out this perverse anti-Catholic propaganda today, just at the moment when we are trying desperately to revive our Western identity in the face of the Islamic threat, presumed or real?'^[20]

Director Shekhar Kapur rejected this criticism of his film, saying: “It is actually very, very deeply non anti-Catholic. It is anti extreme forms of religion. At that time the church in Spain, or Philip had said that they were going to turn the whole world into a very pure form of Catholicism. So it's not anti-Catholic. It's anti an interpretation of the word of God that is singular, as against what Elizabeth's was, which was to look upon her faith as concomitant'.^[21][22] 'The fact is that the Pope ordered her execution; he said that anybody who executes or assassinates Elizabeth would find a beautiful place in the kingdom of heaven. Where else have you heard these words about Salman Khan or Salman Rushdie? That's why I made this film, so this idea of a rift between Catholicism and Protestants does not arise. My interpretation of Elizabeth is an interpretation of greater tolerance and Philip, which is absolutely true. It's completely true that she had this kind of feminine energy. It's a conflict between Philip, who had no ability to encompass diversity or contradiction, and Elizabeth who had the feminine ability to do that'.^[23]

Kapur extended this pluralist defence to his own approach: 'I would describe all history as fiction and interpretation ... [A]sk any Catholic and they'll give you a totally different aspect of history ... History has always been an interpretation ... I do believe that civilizations that don't learn from history are civilizations that are doomed to make the same mistakes again and again, which is why this film starts with the idea of fundamentalism against tolerance. It's not Catholic against Protestant; it's a very fundamental form of Catholicism. It was the time of the Spanish Inquisition and against a woman whose half of her population was Protestant, half was Catholic. And there were enough bigots in her Protestant Parliament to say, “Just kill them all”, and she was constantly saying no. She was constantly on the side of tolerance. So you interpret history to tell the story that is relevant to us now'.^[24]

Soundtrack [link]

Home media [link]

The film was released on Region 1 on DVD and HD DVD February 5, 2008.

Awards and nominations [link]

At the 80th Academy Awards Alexandra Byrne won an Academy Award for Best Costume Design .^[25] Cate Blanchett was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the film, becoming the first female actor to receive another Academy Award nomination for the reprisal of the same role. Cate Blanchett was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama for her performance in the film,^[26] and the Critic's Choice Award for Best Actress in a leading role, she was also nominated for a SAG Award. The film won two Satellite Awards for Best Production Design for Guy Hendrix Dyas and Best Costume Design for Alexandra Byrne. Guy Hendrix Dyas received a nomination from the Art Directors Guild for Best Production Design in a Period Film, and Alexandra Bryne a nomination from the Costume Designers Guild for Best Costume in a Period Film. The film was also nominated for four BAFTA awards including Actress in a Leading Role, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design and Best Makeup.

At the 11th Pyongyang International Film Festival held on September 2008, one of the awards for special screening were conferred upon the film.

Box office performance [link]

Elizabeth: The Golden Age grossed $6.1 million in 2,001 theatres during its opening weekend in the United States and Canada, ranking #6 at the box office.^[27] In the United Kingdom and Ireland the film entered at #4 and earned £1.3 million ($2.7 million) on its opening weekend.^[28] As of February 2009^[ref] the worldwide total was $74.2 million, including $16.4 million in the U.S. and Canada and $57.8 million elsewhere.^[29]

In 1998, the preceding film, Elizabeth, opened in 9 theatres and grossed $275,131.^[30] Its widest release in the United States and Canada was in 624 theatres.,^[30] and its largest weekend gross throughout its run in theatres was $3.4 million in 516 theatres,^[30] ranking #9 at the box office.^[31] The 1998 film Elizabeth went on to gross $30 million in the United States and Canada, and a total of $82.1 million worldwide.^[32]

See also [link]

• Cultural depictions of Philip II of Spain
• Spanish Armada
• Black Legend

References [link]

External links [link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Elizabeth: The Golden Age

• Official website
• Elizabeth: The Golden Age at the Internet Movie Database
• Elizabeth: The Golden Age at Rotten Tomatoes
• Elizabeth: The Golden Age at Metacritic
• Elizabeth: The Golden Age at Box Office Mojo
• Elizabeth: The Golden Age at AllRovi
• Elizabeth: The Golden Age at Working Title Films
• Elizabeth: The Golden Age at ukfilmtourism.com
• Interview with Cate Blanchett at tribute.ca
• Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Four making-of video features at stv.tv