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 | Court | Intrigue | Spain | America

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 4 wins & 13 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Wed. July 15

4:05 AM

MAX

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:

Motion Picture ZETA Produktionsgesellschaft

Trivia:

To save money on building replicas, only one ship was built. It was Raleigh's English vessel on one side and a Spanish galleon on the other side. When filming wide shots of the deck that might reveal the difference, they used smoke in the scene to cover up any separation in design.

Goofs:

Factual errors: As with most historical biopics, some of the events did not occur exactly as they are portrayed in the film, or may have happened at a different time. Some did not take place at all and are included purely for dramatic purposes.

Quotes:

Elizabeth Throckmorton: The puddle man is outside, Majesty.

Movie Connections:

Edited from Elizabeth (1998)

Soundtrack:

Coronation Banquet

Elizabeth: Die Hard With a Vengeance

This rates as high as it does for me because of the cinematography. It is dazzling and Blanchett can't be denied, but "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" is like a chick-flick with explosions plus costumes, super hair, and loud, intrusive music. The result is faux epic.

My wife summed it up well as we left the theater: "I feel like I've just flipped through a coffee table picture book for two hours and somebody turned up the stereo." History wrote this plot but Nicholson and Hirst thought they could do better. They couldn't, or certainly didn't. Freshmen composition classes come up with better stuff. Trite, forced, predictable. Did they even run this by an expert in English history? You gotta wonder. The script is oozing with 21st century mores and clichés. It made me think (during the movie, mind you) of the way Dutch painters depicted Homer and Aristotle in the garb of 17th century Holland. Are we that dumb? Sir Walter Raleigh is a caricature and Sir Francis Drake, never properly introduced, was a throwaway. Geoffrey Rush is wasted as Walsingham. Come to think of it, nearly everybody is wasted. Every single character is underdeveloped, with the possible exception of the title character—possible exception.

"Golden Age" set the target high and then turned and fired in the opposite direction. Realizing the script had missed, Director tried to make up for it with window dressing. Substance would have served this queen better. With the colon in the title, I almost expected to see Bruce Willis saving the day.

You can see why "Golden Age" came out in October because it's not going to compete for Oscars in categories that anybody cares about. With all the budget they had for this movie, you'd Universal could have found better writers.