Elizabeth: The Golden Age

Essay by Gidz.08High School, 11th gradeA+, May 2008

download word file, 2 pages 5.0

It's been almost a decade since the first Elizabeth movie came out. Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, and director Shekhar Kapur have reunited for the follow-up of Elizabeth with Elizabeth: The Golden Age. As I haven't seen the previous movie, I can't compare and contrast between it and its sequel. However, comparing with other historical movies that I have seen, this movie vividly re-creates the true environment. The churches, the streets, the meadows, all of these settings are full of bright colors. The actors did a great job of portraying their respective characters (particularly Blanchett). Their vibrant costumes (especially of Elizabeth and other royal members) were dazzling and astounding. The energetic music and the sets were also stunning and impressing. The battle between the Spanish Armada and the English ships was remarkably illustrated and was very exciting.

Elizabeth: The Golden Age opens in the year 1585 and the queen is being forced to find a suitable husband and producing an heir by her chief adviser Sir Francis Walsingham.

She considers a number of royal suitors, but is charmed the most by Sir Walter Raleigh - a pirate and an explorer, who has just recently returned from the New World. Raleigh tells the monarch and her court about how he established a colony there in honor of the Virgin Queen - Virginia - and shows off the gifts he has brought back for her, namely tobacco, potatoes and gold. There are mainly two antagonists in this movie: Spanish Catholic king and Elizabeth's her own traitorous Catholic cousin Mary Stuart.

In the movie, when Elizabeth's ministers warn her of the dangers of Catholics in England, she says, "I will not punish my people for their beliefs, only for their deeds." This correctly depicts her as a politique because she wants national unity...