Trailler "Elizabeth, the Golden Age"

Film review "Elizabeth, the Golden Age"

    “Elizabeth, the Golden Age” a movie produced in 2007 by Shekhar Kapur with William Nicholson and Michael Hirst as screenwriters and A.R.Rahman and Craig Armstrong as composers. It is a drama based on the 1998 movie “Elizabeth”, and portrays the sequel years of prosperity when England was under the reign of Elizabeth I, interpreted by Cate Blanchett, a female monarch that ascended to the throne following the death of her half-sister, Mary Tudor, and who had been raised a Protestant in the Church of England.

    This story takes place in the year of 1585 in England when a Catholic King, Philip II of Spain (Jordi Molla), which is the queen’s brother-in-law, saw the Protestant England as a threat and decided to take over England so that he could make his daughter, Isabella, the Queen of England.

    Queen Elizabeth has no child and is being pressured to marry by Sir Francis Walsingham (Geoffrey Rush), the queen’s spymaster and adviser, or the throne will pass to her cousin, Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots (Samantha Morton), who is a devoted Catholic with the dream of becoming the Queen of England. When Queen Elizabeth is searching for a husband a pirate that has just returned from the New World was introduced to the queen, Walter Raleigh (Clive Owen), and offers The Queen potatoes, tobacco, two Native Americans and gold stolen from a Spanish ship which the queen refuses to accept.

    Elizabeth I is attracted to Raleigh and sends one of her ladies-in-waiting, Bess (Abbie Cornish), to observe him but Bess also finds him attractive and secretly begins an affair with him.

    Meanwhile, Elizabeth seeks guidance from her alchemist, Dr. Dee (David Threlfall), who predicts that England will face a war but he cannot predict which one of the sides will be defeated.

    In London, Mary Stuart conspires with Jesuits, from her prison, at Fotheringhay Castle, the assassination of Elizabeth by the hands of Anthony Babington (Eddie Redmoyve), who was recruited by the Jesuits.

    Walsingham informs Elizabeth about the rising power of Spain and of the Catholic plots against her and the fact that half of her people are still catholic to what she responds « I will not punish my people for their beliefs, only for their deeds».

    Bess, the queen’s lady-in-waiting, saw her catholic cousin and uncle beny assassinated and searched for comfort in the arms of Sir Walter Raleigh, who had been nominnated Captain of The Royal Guard by the queen. Then the Spanish Ambassador accused Elizabeth of receiving Spanish Gold from pirates and she throws the Spaniards out of her court who there her by saying « there is a wind coming, Madame, that will sweep away your pride.».

    Meanwhile, Walsingham intercepted the letters from Marry to the Jesuits and when the queen was in the church Anthony, the Jesuit recruit, tried to assassinate her but he didn´t succeed because, as Walsingham discovers later, the gun had no bulle. Then Walsingham told to the queen those who tried to assassinate her were sent by her cousin, Mary Stuart, and tried to convince her to assassinate Mary. Elizabeth agreed and Mary was executed wearing a red dress as a symbol of war and the blood that will be shed and she looked at the throne while being executed because it was her biggest dream, to become the queen of England.

      Then, the Spain used her dead to obtain the papal approval for to declare war.

    In England, Bess discovers she was waiting for Sir Raleigh child and marries him without the queen’s approval. Feeling betrayed, the queen banishes Bess from her court and has Raleigh imprisoned for the crime of seducing a ward of the queen.

    The Spanish armada begins its approach up the English Channel, and Elizabeth forgives Bess and sets Raleigh free to join Sir Francis Drake in the Battle. The queen also joined the battle to encourage her people and to show them that if they die, she will be next to them and will die as one of them.

    Although the Spanish armada had more ship's they’re not used to the English sea and they lost their formation. Elizabeth, who is back to her court, walks out to the cliffs and watches the Spanish armada sink in flames. Philip II of Spain failed. 

    In the end, Elizabeth resigned her role as the Virgin Queen and considers herself the mother of English people.

    In this movie the techniques used in terms of sound and light were very simple and most of the soungs are from Church choirs and on most of the scenes there are poor lightning but in the scene regarding the attempt to assassinate of the queen it is completely different, there is a lot of light and we hear the sound of church choirs again.

    This movie is really focusing in passing the real suffer of each character so they use close-ups of the character's face.

    When it comes to characterise the main character, Queen Elizabeth I is an intelligent woman era, fearless, determine, strong, she didn´t condem her people for their beliefs but for their deeds, eccentric, extravagant, kind and a virgin. She had red hair, she always were wear extravagant dresses and she´s really tall and skinny. The Queen was born at Greenwich on 7 September 1533 and was raised in a Protestant Church. During the film, she falls in love with Sir Walter Raleigh, an English pirate, mysterious, attractive, strong, intelligent and brave.

    In this period England became one of the most superpowerful economies globally speaking and the than reign was one of genius, exploration, and growing national pride. During it a secure Church of England was established, she saw many brave voyages of discovery (like Sir Walter Raleigh) which prepared England for an age of colonization and trade expansion, the arts flourished and the Queen attended the first performance of Shakespeare´s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. In at this time literature and art evolved a lot. Also like England, Spain was a superpowerful economy but after being defeated by England, Spain declared bankruptcy twice in that century.

"Elizabeth, the golden Age"

The start !

Hello, to all our followers. We are Ana Catarina Cesário, Ana Rita Batalha and Beatriz Ramalho and we will write this blog about the matters topics disamed in English class, but giving it an economic taste.

We will start by writing a filmreview about “Elizabeth, the golden Age” and the economic sphere of the 16^th century particulary in England and Spain the two main countries introduced in the film.

We hope you enjoy it.