Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Shekhar Kapur

Writers:

William Nicholson (written by) and
Michael Hirst (written by)

Release Date:

12 October 2007 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | History | Romance

Tagline:

Woman. Warrior. Queen.

Plot:

A mature Queen Elizabeth endures multiple crises late in her reign including court intrigues, an assassination plot, the Spanish Armada, and romantic disappointments.

Plot Keywords:

Queen | Spain | Court | Intrigue | Virgin

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 4 wins & 13 nominations

Cast

Jordi Mollà	...	King Philip ll of Spain
Aimee King	...	Infanta
Cate Blanchett	...	Queen Elizabeth I
Laurence Fox	...	Sir Christopher Hatton
John Shrapnel	...	Lord Howard
Geoffrey Rush	...	Sir Francis Walsingham
Susan Lynch	...	Annette
Elise McCave	...	Laundry Woman
Samantha Morton	...	Mary Stuart
Abbie Cornish	...	Bess Throckmorton
Penelope McGhie	...	Margaret
Rhys Ifans	...	Robert Reston
Eddie Redmayne	...	Thomas Babington
Stuart McLoughlin	...	Savage
Clive Owen	...	Sir Walter Raleigh

Also Known As:

Elizabeth - Das goldene Königreich (Germany)
Elizabeth - L'âge d'or (France)
The Golden Age (UK) (working title)
Elizabeth - La edad de oro (Argentina) (Spain) (Uruguay) (Venezuela) [es]
Elizabeth - L'âge d'or (Belgium: French title) (Canada: French title) [fr]
Elisabet - Kultainen aikakausi (Finland) [fi]
Elizabeth - A Idade de Ouro (Portugal) (literal title) [pt]
Elizabeth: A Era de Ouro (Brazil) [pt]
Elizabeth: Altin çag (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
Elizabeth: Az aranykor (Hungary) [hu]
Elizabeth: Golden Age (Japan: English title) [en]
Elizabeth: I hrysi epohi (Greece) [el]
Elizabeth: Kuldajastu (Estonia) [et]

Runtime:

114 min

Country:

UK | France | Germany

Language:

English | Spanish | Swedish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

SDDS | Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

UK:12A | Canada:14A | Germany:12 | South Korea:12 | Finland:K-13 | Ireland:12A | USA:PG-13 (certificate #43467) | Singapore:PG | Netherlands:12 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | Taiwan:R-12 | Philippines:PG-13 (MTRCB) | France:Unrated | Hong Kong:IIA | South Africa:13V | Brazil:14 | Malaysia:U | Australia:M | Sweden:15 | Portugal:M/12 (Qualidade) | Argentina:13 | Singapore:NC-16 (DVD rating) | Iceland:12

Filming Locations:

Baddesley Clinton, Warwickshire, England, UK

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

Eddie Redmayne played different roles in competing Elizabeth movies. In "Elizabeth I" (2005), he played the traitor Southampton, and in Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007) he played Thomas Babington.

Goofs:

Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Like so many biopics about Elizabeth, she and Mary Stuart are referred to as cousins when Elizabeth is Mary's father's cousin. In kinship terminology, a "cousin" is simply one whom shares a common ancestor. To be specific, Elizabeth would be Mary's cousin-once-removed but this is not a term that would have been used in the 16th Century and is only rarely used even today. Suffice it to say, referring to Mary as Elizabeth's cousin (and vice versa) is entirely correct and accurate.

Quotes:

Queen Elizabeth I: [to Raleigh] I like your immensities. Your ocean is an image of Eternity, I think. Such great spaces make us small. Do we discover the New World, Mr. Raleigh, or does it discover us?

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in "The Simpsons: Four Great Women and a Manicure (#20.20)" (2009)

Soundtrack:

Rondes I & VII (Dansereye)

Needs More Clarity

I understand what really happened during this time period but for someone who is not aware it is hard to follow. Overall though it was good but not too special except for Cate Blanchett. After her, the costumes and art direction it wasn't too great.

The acting of this movie overall was OK. Cate Blanchett was phenomenal showing her vulnerability and the complexities in her character having to deal with so many problems and yet having to stay in control. She fit her part perfectly as she did in the first movie. Like the first she really actually gave you the feeling of what a queen from back then might have been like. I like Clive Owen but I hated hated him in this movie. His style was too cliché and what really brought him down was not really realizing the point of his character. I understand Blanchett is supposed to be in love with him but he really just feels like he could have been cut from the entire movie and it wouldn't of made the slightest difference. I would have liked to have seen Geoffrey Rush much more in this movie but unfortunately his role was very limited.

The art direction and costume design was great. You could see some great photography and landscapes with great setup with the clothing. It was sort of able to fill the void with some of the mistakes made in this movie but it just was not enough.

Overall though the directing and editing was poor. The directing failed miserably at giving you an idea of what is happening. Even if you do get it, the movie fails at really showing how this event makes Elizabeth important great and why it is important. This has to do with the editing a lot as well.

I would recommend this movie strictly for Blanchett's performance. This is not really a movie too understand history through though.