Elizabeth

[MagusYanam]

I just recently watched the 1998 Cate Blanchett / Geoffrey Rush film Elizabeth. I was quite frankly impressed with Hollywood's portrayal of perhaps my favourite English monarch. This idealistic, impressionable young woman goes from being Daddy's (King Henry VIII's) little girl to Public Enemy #1 and then to Queen, thrown suddenly into a political frenzy among people like William Cecil (with his incessant urges for her to make a politically shrewd marriage) and Francis Walsingham (her sharp but not-so-admirable spymaster who essentially does the dirty work necessary to keep Elizabeth's life and reign intact). On top of all this add her unhappy love-affaire with Robert Dudley, and she's in way over her head. Yet she, with some sacrifice on her own part, becomes an extremely effective and capable queen.

I enjoyed particularly the treatment of the religious conflict that at that time was splitting England in two, and there are some scary parallels between the Catholics of that movie and the fundamentalists of our time. (True, fundamentalists are more into character and political assassinations now than into burning heretics, but the analogy is still sound.) Elizabeth in the movie is confronting the same problems that face the Anglican Communion (the church she helped create) today. Also, the foreshadowing in her promise to Mary as by the end she is ready to assume the likeness of the Madonna, cut her hair and make herself England's mistress and mother - beautifully done.

And Cate Blanchett got Elizabeth's character down perfectly. At the beginning she portrays herself as a passionate, impressionable, though timid young woman - as the historical Elizabeth was said to have been. And by the end she displays the decisiveness, the forthrightness, the austerity and the occasional humour which made Good Queen Bess famous. Geoffrey Rush steals his scenes as Walsingham - when he's there, he's always in the shadows but always making himself, his influence and his power known (although, making him an agnostic might not have been historically accurate).

Sorry, I can't seem to stop gushing over this movie - I should have watched it a long time ago. But the questions I should ask are, if you've seen this movie, did you enjoy it? Did it bring to mind any thoughts on current political or religious issues? What did you think of the way the movie handled them?

[ST88]

But the questions I should ask are, if you've seen this movie, did you enjoy it? Did it bring to mind any thoughts on current political or religious issues? What did you think of the way the movie handled them?

I was perhaps less impressed with the movie than you were, although Blanchette was fantastic. It's always tricky trying to play someone from an earlier time, one with different ethical standards, and making it both realistic and sympathetic.

In my opinion, it's highly doubtful that her iconic image had anything to do with her wish to be a popular public symbol of Protestantism, though it's a pretty good story what with the whole Catholic/Virgin Mary overtones. It's well-done, but a bit too psychological-spin for my taste.

It would be interesting to see Ms. Blanchette play the role of the older queen later in her career.

[MagusYanam]

I agree that it's difficult to make an historical character or story accessible, particularly when one of the major aims is historical accuracy, and I commend Ms. Blanchett for doing as well as she did in making Elizabeth seem not just accurate but also real. Though, to be honest, I think there was some merit in the interpretation that Elizabeth was meant to take the place of the Virgin Mary in English hearts, given the strength of the Catholic faith at the time; how much they overshot themselves in emphasising it, however, it might take a more dispassionate audience than myself to determine.

I would also be very happy to see Cate Blanchett again take on the role of the queen in her more mature years. They would have plenty of material to choose from: Drake, Mary Stuart, the defeat of the Armada, Shakespeare et cetera. Whether they would be able to make a cohesive movie of it (as this one was) without focusing on just one event might be a little trickier.

What did you think of the rest of it, though? Perhaps this might not have been true in 1998 so much as now, but to me (watching it in 2006) it was particularly poignant in its portrayal of the more rabid Catholics' religious extremism clashing with the religious inclusivism of Elizabeth and Parker. The extremes of the Anglican Communion today are threatening to tear the main church apart over the issue of homosexual ordination, using the same language as Elizabeth's interrogators did in the first scenes of the movie. And the way the Pope signed his bull calling for Elizabeth's assassination - remind one of any prominent political or religious figures in recent times? I just thought these parallels really interesting, though it may speak more on how our perspective on everything has changed in recent times.

[ST88]

I would also be very happy to see Cate Blanchett again take on the role of the queen in her more mature years. They would have plenty of material to choose from: Drake, Mary Stuart, the defeat of the Armada, Shakespeare et cetera.

Not to mention the oft-filmed Essex story. How did you feel about other Elizabeth portrayals? I'm thinking of Bette Davis & Glenda Jackson. Not to mention all of the other filmed versions of England's monarchs. Off the top of my head, I really enjoyed these portrayals:
Mrs. Brown
The Madness of King George
A Man for All Seasons
Anne of the Thousand Days
The Lion in Winter
and the fictionalized Shakespearian Richard III (Ian McKellen) and Henry V (Branagh)

What did you think of the rest of it, though? Perhaps this might not have been true in 1998 so much as now, but to me (watching it in 2006) it was particularly poignant in its portrayal of the more rabid Catholics' religious extremism clashing with the religious inclusivism of Elizabeth and Parker.

That's a very interesting parallel that I hadn't even thought about - perhaps because I saw it so long ago. Within the context of the movie this works as a contemporary critique (even if the intensity of the critique has increased beyond the age in which it is was made), but we shouldn't forget that Catholic horror was followed by Protestant horror in the 16th century. Recently, it has been suggested that Shakespeare's father, for example, was a closeted Catholic, fearing persecution. Who knows what kind of effect that had on little Willie.

As for the rest of the movie, I really enjoyed Elizabeth's grilling. I also liked the dynamic between her and her court -- very very smartly aware of the power shifts from one moment to the next; this particular aspect reminds me a little of the current American TV series "Commander in Chief" with Gina Davis as the first female president. I see a lot of this Elizabeth story in that show.

[MagusYanam]

I haven't seen The Madness or Anne of a Thousand Days, but I have seen and enjoyed immensely both the Ian McKellen version of Richard III and the Kenneth Branagh version of Henry V.

The entire World War II thing I thought was very creative of the Richard III writers, and I thought for a backdrop it worked pretty well, but I'm still not too sure whether it enhanced the feel of the storyline. They were going for historical realism with Henry V, interspersed with some creative anachronism courtesy Sir Derek Jacobi, which I liked.

Heck with it, what's not to enjoy from a movie with both Branagh and Emma Thompson (not enough Emma Thompson, IMHO), supported by both Jacobi and Judi Dench?

That's a very interesting parallel that I hadn't even thought about - perhaps because I saw it so long ago. Within the context of the movie this works as a contemporary critique (even if the intensity of the critique has increased beyond the age in which it is was made), but we shouldn't forget that Catholic horror was followed by Protestant horror in the 16th century. Recently, it has been suggested that Shakespeare's father, for example, was a closeted Catholic, fearing persecution. Who knows what kind of effect that had on little Willie.

Good point. The C of E did used to persecute Catholics, though back then, Catholics who weren't members of the C of E were usually not convicted on the grounds of religion but on the grounds of treason or suspected treason. (I think only about 50 were executed during Elizabeth's reign; another 100 or so died in prison - there were quite a number of Catholic plots to assassinate English monarchs, after all.) Also, Elizabeth did adopt a pretty lenient stance toward the Catholic populace. The reason the High Church and the Broad Church exist today is because of Catholic influence on the Anglican churches they joined (the Book of Common Prayer was indeed largely a latitudinarian effort on Elizabeth's and Parker's part, since it managed to satisfy all parties involved save the most fanatical Catholics and the most incorrigible Protestants).