Elizabeth (film)

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Elizabeth

Original Film Poster
Directed by Shekhar Kapur
Produced by Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Alison Owen
Written by Michael Hirst
Starring Cate Blanchett
Geoffrey Rush
Christopher Eccleston
Joseph Fiennes
And Richard Attenborough
Kathy Burke
Daniel Craig
Vincent Cassel
And John Gielgud
Music by David Hirschfelder
Cinematography Remi Adefarasin
Editing by Jill Bilcock
Distributed by Polygram
Gramercy Pictures
Release date(s) 6 November 1998
Running time 124 min.
Country  United Kingdom
Language English
French
Latin
Budget $25,000,000 (estimated)
Gross revenue $82,150,642 (worldwide)
Followed by Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007)

Elizabeth is a 1998 film loosely based on the early reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England. The film was written by Michael Hirst and directed by Shekhar Kapur. It stars Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Joseph Fiennes, Christopher Eccleston, and Richard Attenborough. It was the final film of acclaimed British actor Sir John Gielgud. It also stars 12-year-old Lily Allen as a lady in waiting, Manchester United legend Eric Cantona as the French ambassador, future Doctor Who Christopher Eccleston as the Duke of Norfolk, and Daniel Craig, who would later portray James Bond, as a member of the Vatican who is heavily involved in the film's central plot. It was given an R rating for violence, nudity, horrific images, and language.

A sequel, Elizabeth: The Golden Age was released by Universal Studios on October 12, 2007.

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

In 1558, the Roman Catholic Mary I of England dies of a cancerous tumor 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 Walshingham, 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.

[edit] Dramatic license

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, Lettice Knollys; she was furious when she discovered the truth. However, this was many years after the events of this film. Consequently, Lettice Knollys did not die from a poison dress while having sex with Robert Dudley; she married him years later, as previously stated.)
  • 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 historians consider it very 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 suggested fornication between Anne and other noblemen that sent her to her death.

[edit] Claims of anti-Catholicism

The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights accused the film of anti-Catholicism, stating that the film gives the "impression that the religious strife was all the doing of the Catholic Church", noting that the New York Times' review considered it "resolutely anti-Catholic" complete with a "scheming pope" and repeating the charge made in the Buffalo News that "every single Catholic in the film is dark, cruel and devious".[1]

[edit] Cast

[edit] Trivia

The costuming and shot composition of the coronation scene is based on Elizabeth's coronation portrait.

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


Joseph Fiennes and Geoffrey Rush also star in 1998's other hugely popular costume drama, Shakespeare in Love, in which Queen Elizabeth Judi Dench figures prominently.

Script writer Michael Hirst would go on to create, produce and write Showtime's hit series The Tudors.

1998 was the only year that two performers were nominated for Academy Awards for playing the same character in two different films in the same year. Judi Dench was nominated (and won) for Best Supporting Actress for playing Queen Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love (1998) and Cate Blanchett was nominated for Best Actress for portraying Elizabeth I in this film. She lost to Gwyneth Paltrow (Shakespeare in Love).

Cate Blanchett was chosen to play Elizabeth after she was seen in a play in Sydney.

Elizabeth enters the Tower of London through The Traitor's Gate from the River Thames.

[edit] Soundtrack

Main article: Elizabeth (soundtrack)

[edit] Awards

[edit] Wins

[edit] Nominations

[edit] Release

Elizabeth premiered in September 1998 at the Venice Film Festival and was also shown at the Toronto International Film Festival.[22] It premiered in London on October 2, 1998 and it premiered in the United States on October 13, 1998.[22] It opened in the United Kingdom on October 23, 1998[22] and opened in limited release in the United States in nine theaters on November 6, 1998, grossing $275,131.[23] Its widest release in the United States and Canada was in 624 theaters,[23] and its largest weekend gross throughout its run in theaters in the US and Canada was $3.9 million in 516 theaters,[23] ranking #9 at the box office.[24] Elizabeth went on to gross $30 million in the United States and Canada, and a total of $82.1 million worldwide.[25]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Elizabeth is "resolutely anti-Catholic" Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, January-February 1999
  2. ^ [1]
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  22. ^ a b c "Elizabeth (1998) - Release dates". Internet Movie Database. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0127536/releaseinfo. Retrieved on 2007-10-15. 
  23. ^ a b c "Elizabeth (1998) - Weekend Box Office". Box Office Mojo. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=weekend&id=elizabeth%A0.htm. Retrieved on 2007-10-15. 
  24. ^ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/?yr=1998&wknd=48&p=.htm Retrieved 2007-10-15
  25. ^ "Elizabeth (1998)". Box Office Mojo. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=elizabeth%A0.htm. Retrieved on 2007-10-15. 

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Nil by Mouth		 Alexanda Korda Award for Best British Film
1998		 Succeeded by
East is East
v • d • e
Films directed by Shekhar Kapur

Masoom (1983)  • Mr. India (1987)  • Bandit Queen (1994)  • Elizabeth (1998)  • The Four Feathers (2002)  • Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007)  • New York, I Love You (2008)  •
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_(film)"
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