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Elizabeth: The Golden Age
When Queen Elizabeth's reign is threatened by ruthless familial betrayal and Spain's invading army, she and her shrewd adviser must act to safeguard the lives of her people.
2007 · Directed by Shekhar Kapur · 114 min · Drama · History · Romance · Screenplay in the scene database · 6 frames
Tagline
Woman. Warrior. Queen.
Plot
In 1585, Catholic Spain, ruled by King Philip II, is the most powerful country in Europe. Seeing that the Catholic plots against Queen Elizabeth's life that occurred from the 1570s onwards had all failed, Pope Sixtus V approached King Philip, who had amassed the most significant naval force in all of Europe, and convinces him to use this naval force to invade and re-Catholicise England. By doing so, Philip, with the pope's blessing, would overthrow Elizabeth and take control of England. Philip agrees and plots to take over England and install his daughter, Isabella, as Queen of England in Elizabeth's place. Meanwhile, Elizabeth is being pressured by her advisor, Francis Walsingham, to marry; if Elizabeth dies childless, the throne will pass to her first cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots, who is Catholic.
English explorer Walter Raleigh is presented at court, having returned from the New World. Queen Elizabeth is attracted to Raleigh, enthralled by his tales of exploration, and asks Elizabeth "Bess" Throckmorton, her most favoured lady-in-waiting, to observe him. Bess also finds Raleigh attractive and they begin a secret affair. With tensions strained between England and Spain, Elizabeth seeks guidance from her astrologer, Dr. John Dee.
Jesuits in London conspire with Philip to assassinate Elizabeth and replace her with Mary of Scots, in what King Philip calls "The English Enterprise," historically known as the Babington Plot. From her imprisonment, Mary sends secret correspondence to the Jesuits, who recruit Anthony Babington to assassinate Elizabeth. Walsingham continues to warn Queen Elizabeth of Spain's rising power and of the Catholic plots against her, but unlike her predecessor and half-sister, Queen Mary, Elizabeth refuses to force her people to share her religious beliefs.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Screenplay: William Nicholson, Michael Hirst
- Cinematography: Remi Adefarasin
- Edited by: Jill Bilcock, Andrew Haddock
- Music: Craig Armstrong, A.R. Rahman
- Production design: Guy Hendrix Dyas
- Produced by: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Jonathan Cavendish
Cast
- Cate Blanchett as Elizabeth I, Queen of England
- Laurence Fox as Sir Christopher Hatton
- Clive Owen as Sir Walter Raleigh
- Geoffrey Rush as Sir Francis Walsingham
- Tom Hollander as Amyas Paulet
- Abbie Cornish as Elizabeth Throckmorton
- Rhys Ifans as Robert Reston
- Samantha Morton as Mary, Queen of Scots
- Jordi Mollà as King Philip II of Spain
- Eddie Redmayne as Anthony Babington
Production
- Country: France, United Kingdom, Germany
- Language: Swedish, English, Spanish
- Studios: Universal Pictures, StudioCanal, Working Title, Motion Picture ETA Produktionsgesellschaft
- Budget: $55,000,000
- Box office: $74,237,563
- Themes: assassination, england, queen elizabeth i, religious war, tudor, armada, catholicism, sea battle, palace intrigue, 16th century
More by Shekhar Kapur
On this film
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