'Elizabeth' (1998) Film Review

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The College of West Anglia   – January 2008

GCSE   English  -  En3 –  Media Assignment

FILM      ‘Elizabeth’ (1998)   -  Director:   Shekhar Kapur

 By  Stephanie Hoggett

At  first glance the film ‘Elizabeth’ (1998) directed by the Indian Shekhar Kapur and staring Cate Blanchett in the title role, promises to be a spectacular ‘blockbuster’ movie for it stars a host of famous accomplished actors including: Geoffrey Rush as Sir Francis Walsingham, Sir Richard Attenborough as Sir William Cecil, Joseph Fiennes as Robert Dudley, Christpher Eccleston as the Duke of Norfolk and even a brief performance by Sir John Gielgud as the Pope. Indeed the video sleeve boasts the films achievement of five ‘Bafta’ awards. However, in this review I shall argue that despite some redeeming features the film fails to achieve its prime objective to capture the full flavour of English politics during the formative years of reign of Elizabeth I of England as it is riddled with unnecessary historical inaccuracies.

The film attempts to deal with a number of political issues facing sixteenth century England, and begins in 1554 during the reign of Elizabeth’s catholic step sister Mary. Immediately the audience is in no doubt that this is an age of great cruelty and religious strife as Protestant martyrs Latimer and Ridley are gruesomely burned at the stake in the Tower of London, except in reality this happened in Oxford and in 1555! The issue of the succession is highlighted as the childless Mary mistakenly believes the cancerous growth in her stomach to be evidence of pregnancy. She is portrayed as old and inadequate displaying a mouthful of rotten teeth. The filming takes place in Durham cathedral which presents a dark and mournful image that the director claims to be England moving from the middle ages into a brighter Elizabethan age. However as Tudor monarchs had ruled England since 1485 this is certainly a piece of chronological licence, and why not use one of the magnificent Tudor mansions that England has in abundance?    

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Conversely Elizabeth is initially portrayed a naive young woman who dances around green fields with her lover Robert Dudley in endless sunshine and suggests that she is like a lamb to slaughter when imprisoned by Mary for suspected treason. Here Elizabeth and her attendants are seen passing under the Bridge of Sighs of St John’s College, Cambridge, despite the fact that the crossing was not constructed until 1831, more than two centuries after Elizabeth’s death. However I think Kapur underestimates Elizabeth’s abilities here for it is well documented that she was extremely able and intelligent; writing fluently at the age ...

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