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Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Promotional film poster
Directed by	Shekhar Kapur
Written by	William Nicholson Michael Hirst
Starring	Cate Blanchett Clive Owen Geoffrey Rush
Music by	Craig Armstrong A. R. Rahman
Cinematography	Remi Adefarasin
Distributed by	Universal Studios
Release date(s)	October 12, 2007(USA) November 2, 2007 (UK)
Country	United Kingdom France
Language	English
Preceded by	Elizabeth (1998)
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Elizabeth: The Golden Age is the 2007 film sequel to the film Elizabeth. It stars Cate Blanchett and is loosely based on events during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England. Written by William Nicholson and Michael Hirst and produced by Working Title Films, The Golden Age is directed by Shekhar Kapur. The film has music composed by Craig Armstrong and A. R. Rahman.

It was filmed at Shepperton Studios and various locations around the United Kingdom with an estimated production budget of 50 to 60 million USD.^[1] Guy Hendrix Dyas was the production designer and the costumes were created by Alexandra Byrne.

The film premiered on 9 September 2007 at the Toronto International Film Festival. It opened in wide release in the United States and Canada on 12 October 2007. It premiered in London on 23 October 2007 and is on general release from 2 November 2007 throughout the rest of the UK and Republic of Ireland.

It opened in Australia and New Zealand on 15 November 2007.^[2]

Contents 1 Historical background 2 Plot synopsis 3 Cast 4 Critical Reception 4.1 Claims of Anti-Catholicism 5 Dramatic Licence 6 Box office performance 7 References 8 External links

Back in 1558, Philip II of Spain’s second wife, Mary I of England – “Bloody” Mary – had died. They had wed in July 1554, a year after Mary’s accession to the English throne, but the English Parliament had refused to crown him jointly with Mary so he had little power in England.^[3] On Mary’s death he had then tried unsuccessfully to persuade her sister and successor, Elizabeth, to marry him.

The film opens in 1585; Roman Catholic Spain is the most powerful country in Europe, with King Philip II on his throne. Seeing Protestant England as a threat as well as in retaliation for England's constant piracy of Spanish ships, Philip intends to make war on his long-time enemy in order to take over the land that is now England and add it to what is already Spain, making his daughter Isabella Queen of England.

Meanwhile, in England, Elizabeth (Cate Blanchett) is still being pressured to marry by her advisor, Francis Walsingham (Geoffrey Rush). She is aging in years (she was actually born in 1533) and, with no child, the throne will pass to her next of kin, her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots (Samantha Morton). The Queen is presented with many portraits of crowned heads of Europe and princes; these include Ivan the Terrible, Erik of Sweden, an Archduke of Austria and a French prince. As always, Elizabeth refuses to take someone's hand in marriage, particularly that of the young Austrian archduke who has become infatuated with the Queen.

Walter Raleigh (Clive Owen) is presented at Elizabeth's court, having returned from the New World, and offers her some of the New World's riches: potatoes, tobacco, and two Native Americans. Raleigh also offers her gold from Spanish ships that he claims could not carry them, but the Spanish ambassadors who are present protest that Raleigh is a pirate and should not be welcomed. Elizabeth commands that the Native Americans should be treated well, but refuses to accept the gold.

Elizabeth quickly finds Raleigh attractive. She becomes enamoured of his tales of high-seas adventure and asks Elizabeth Throckmorton (Abbie Cornish), her most favoured lady-in-waiting, to observe him. Bess also finds Raleigh an attractive man and secretly begins an affair with the explorer. Elizabeth meanwhile seeks guidance and advice from John Dee who predicts that two empires will go to war. However, he cannot predict which will triumph over the other, leaving Elizabeth to ponder her fate.

Meanwhile, a Jesuit group in London conspires with Philip to assassinate Elizabeth and replace her on the throne with Mary, Queen of Scots in what is referred to between Philip and the group as "The English Enterprise", and is known to history as the Babington Plot. Mary sends secret correspondence from her prison in Scotland to the Jesuits, who recruit Anthony Babington to assassinate Elizabeth.

Walsingham constantly warns Elizabeth of Spain's rising power and of Catholic plots against her life. However she, unlike her predecessor and sister “Bloody” Mary, does not force her people (half of whom remain loyal to Catholicism) to share her beliefs. Even then, those conspiring against Elizabeth are being hunted and murdered, including Bess's cousin, whom she tries to protect but fails to do so. After learning of her cousin's death, Bess turns to Raleigh for comfort. The barely hidden closeness of Bess and Raleigh causes tension between Elizabeth and Raleigh to mount, testing her desire to keep him in England and increasing his desire to go back to the New World.

Walsingham's brother is a Papist who knows of the plot against Elizabeth. It is revealed, though, that Walsingham had known of the plot all along, intercepting letters, and his brother is jailed. He reveals the plot to Elizabeth, who angrily confronts the Spanish diplomats. The Spanish ambassador feigns ignorance and accuses Elizabeth of receiving Spanish gold from pirates and insinuating a sexual relationship with Raleigh. A sword fight nearly ensues between the queen's male escorts and the Spanish contingent. She throws the Spaniards out of court. Meanwhile, Philip is cutting the forests of Spain to build the Spanish Armada in order to build the invasion fleet.

Mary, Queen of Scots writes a letter condoning the plot. Anthony Babington storms into a cathedral where Elizabeth is praying and points a gun at her. Elizabeth opens her arms, seemingly fearless. He pulls the trigger, and the Queen falls. It is later revealed by the traitor in the torture chamber that there was no bullet in the gun.

Elizabeth learns of Mary's involvement and Walsingham insists she be executed to quell any English Catholic revolt. Elizabeth is reluctant, but nevertheless Mary is tried for high treason. Mary ascends the block in a blood-red dress, red being the Catholic liturgical colour for martyrs. She is beheaded on February 8, 1587. This officially puts the war with Spain in motion. Philip tries to get approval from the Pope to declare war. The Pope and other Catholic leaders regard Mary as the true Queen of England so Philip was given the just cause of avenging the queen's death and overthrowing Elizabeth's court.

In England, Elizabeth forbids Raleigh from returning to the New World instead knighting him and making him Head of the Queen's Guard. Bess discovers she is pregnant with Raleigh's child and after telling him the news, she pleads him to leave. He chooses not to and the couple marry in secret; at the same time, Elizabeth awakes during a dream as the wedding is taking place. She confronts Bess a few weeks later, who confesses that she is indeed pregnant with her husband's child. An enraged Elizabeth confronts her, reminding Bess that she cannot marry without royal consent. Feeling betrayed, the queen banishes Bess from court and has Raleigh imprisoned for seducing a ward of the Queen. At the same time, Walsingham arranges for his brother, William, who is eleven years Francis' junior, to leave for France on the condition that he must never return to England.

The Spanish Armada begins its approach across the English Channel, and Elizabeth sets out on the coast in battle armour to rally the troops for a ground invasion. She forgives Bess and sets Raleigh free. The Spanish ships vastly outnumber England's, but at the last moment a major storm begins to blow the Armada towards the beaches, potentially wrecking their formation. Dropping anchor, the Armada becomes a sitting duck for English fire ships. Raleigh arranges for the English to set their ships on fire and direct their sails to steer into the heart of the fleet while abandoning ship. Elizabeth, back at her coastal headquarters, walks out to the cliffs and watches the Spanish Armada sink in flames. Philip's plan is shattered, and the Spanish naval fleet suffers their most humiliating loss in history.

As the film ends, Elizabeth visits Walsingham on his deathbed, telling her old friend to rest. She then visits Raleigh and Bess and blesses their child, presumably Damerei. Elizabeth seemingly triumphs personally through her ordeal, consigning herself to being a Virgin Queen but a mother to the English people.

• Cate Blanchett as Elizabeth I of England
• Clive Owen as Walter Raleigh
• Geoffrey Rush as Sir Francis Walsingham
• Abbie Cornish as Elizabeth Throckmorton
• Samantha Morton as Mary, Queen of Scots
• Jordi Mollà as Philip II of Spain
• Rhys Ifans as Robert Reston
• Eddie Redmayne as Anthony Babington
• Tom Hollander as Sir Amyas Paulet
• David Threlfall as Dr. John Dee
• Adam Godley as William Walsingham
• Laurence Fox as Christopher Hatton
• William Houston as Don Gerau De Spes
• Christian Brassington as Archduke Charles of Austria

The film received mixed reviews from U.S. critics. As of November 24, 2007 on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 34% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 145 reviews.^[4] On Metacritic, the film had an average score of 45 out of 100, based on 32 reviews.^[5]

Roger Ebert gave the film 2 1/2 stars out of 4, saying 'there are scenes where the costumes are so sumptuous, the sets so vast, the music so insistent, that we lose sight of the humans behind the dazzle of the production.' Ebert did, however, praise many of the actors' performances, particularly that of Cate Blanchett as Queen Elizabeth I. He said 'That Blanchett could appear in the same Toronto Film Festival playing Elizabeth and Bob Dylan, both splendidly, is a wonder of acting.'^[6] Blanchett portrayed Bob Dylan in the film I'm Not There.

Colin Covert of the Minneapolis Star Tribune gave the film 3 stars out of 4 said '... as a pseudo-historical fable, a romantic triangle and a blood-and-thunder melodrama, the film can't be faulted' and also wrote, 'This isn't historical fabrication, it's mutilation. But for all its lapses, this is probably the liveliest, most vibrant Elizabethan production since Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet.'^[7] while Wesley Morris of The Boston Globe said, 'Historians might demand a little more history from "Elizabeth: The Golden Age." But soap opera loyalists could hardly ask for more soap.'^[8]

The film’s patriotic theme had greater resonance for domestic U.K. critics. Michael Gove, speaking on BBC Two's Newsnight Review, said: ‘It tells the story of England’s past in a way which someone who’s familiar with the Whig tradition of history would find, as I did, completely sympathetic. It’s amazing to see a film made now that is so patriotic ... One of the striking things about this film is that it’s almost a historical anomaly. I can’t think of a historical period film in which England and the English have been depicted heroically for the last forty or fifty years. You almost have to go back to Laurence Olivier’s Shakespeare’s Henry V in which you actually have an English king and English armies portrayed heroically.’^[9]

The film depicts an important episode in the violent struggle between the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation that polarised European politics. Several critics felt the film was anti-Catholic.

In the U.S. the National Catholic Register film critic Steven D. Greydanus compared it to The Da Vinci Code, and wrote: "The climax, a weakly staged destruction of the Spanish Armada, is a crescendo of church-bashing imagery: rosaries floating amid burning flotsam, inverted crucifixes sinking to the bottom of the ocean, the rows of ominous berobed clerics slinking away in defeat. Pound for pound, minute for minute, Elizabeth: The Golden Age could possibly contain more sustained church-bashing than any other film I can think of." Greydanus asked: "How is it possible that this orgy of anti-Catholicism has been all but ignored by most critics?"^[10]

Stephen Whitty of the Newark Star-Ledger said: "This movie equates Catholicism with some sort of horror-movie cult, with scary close-ups of chanting monks and glinting crucifixes."^[11] Colin Covert of the Minneapolis Star Tribune complained of what he saw as "ugly anti-Catholic imagery",^[12] and Bob Bloom of the Lafayette Journal & Courier agreed that anti-Catholicism was one of the film's "sore points".^[13]

Mgr Mark Langham, Administrator of Westminster Cathedral, was criticised by some Catholics for allowing scenes to be shot there; although praising the film as a ‘must see’, he suggested that ‘it does appear to perpetuate the myth of “killer priests”’.^[14][15]

A Vatican-backed historian, Franco Cardini of the University of Florence, alleged 'the film formed part of a "concerted attack on Catholicism, the Holy See and Papism" by an alliance of atheists and "apocalyptic Christians"'.^[16][17] ‘Why put out this perverse anti-Catholic propaganda today, just at the moment when we are trying desperately to revive our Western identity in the face of the Islamic threat, presumed or real?’^[18]

Director Shekhar Kapur rejected this criticism of his film, saying: “It is actually very, very deeply non anti-Catholic. It is anti extreme forms of religion. At that time the church in Spain, or Philip had said that they were going to turn the whole world into a very pure form of Catholicism. So it's not anti-Catholic. It's anti an interpretation of the word of God that is singular, as against what Elizabeth's was, which was to look upon her faith as concomitant.’^[19][20] ‘The fact is that the Pope ordered her execution; he said that anybody who executes or assassinates Elizabeth would find a beautiful place in the kingdom of heaven. Where else have you heard these words about Salman Khan or Salman Rushdie? That’s why I made this film, so this idea of a rift between Catholicism and Protestants does not arise. My interpretation of Elizabeth is an interpretation of greater tolerance and Philip, which is absolutely true. It’s completely true that she had this kind of feminine energy. It’s a conflict between Philip, who had no ability to encompass diversity or contradiction, and Elizabeth who had the feminine ability to do that.’^[21]

Kapur extended this pluralist defence to his own approach: ‘I would describe all history as fiction and interpretation ... Ask any Catholic and they’ll give you a totally different aspect of history ... History has always been an interpretation ... I do believe that civilizations that don’t learn from history are civilizations that are doomed to make the same mistakes again and again, which is why this film starts with the idea of fundamentalism against tolerance. It’s not Catholic against Protestant; it’s a very fundamental form of Catholicism. It was the time of the Spanish Inquisition and against a woman whose half of her population was Protestant, half was Catholic. And there were enough bigots in her Protestant Parliament to say, “Just kill them all,” and she was constantly saying no. She was constantly on the side of tolerance. So you interpret history to tell the story that is relevant to us now.’^[22]

As in the first film, some of the historical facts and dates have been changed by the film-makers for artistic purposes. Responding to concerns arising from this, lead Cate Blanchett said: ‘It’s terrifying that we are growing up with this very illiterate bunch of children, who are somehow being taught that film is fact, when in fact it’s invention. Hopefully though an historical film will inspire people to go and read about the history. But in the end it is a work of history and selection.’^[23] The changes include the following:

• The film depicts Philip II of Spain as a very dark-haired man with a strange, waddling gait. In reality he did not have this bizarre manner of walking, and his hair, as seen in the many contemporary portraits of him, was slightly fair. Further, his oversized Hapsburg jaw is not to be found on actor Jordi Molla, who plays him.
• In 1588 Infanta Isabel of Spain was 21 years old. The film shows a little girl who plays with a doll of Isabella of England.
• In 1585 Elizabeth was 52, having been born in 1533. The film shows various suitors being presented to the queen, with a view to marriage and children, or at least a child, to prevent the throne from being passed to Mary, Queen of Scots. In fact, the scenes presented took place much earlier in her reign, as one might expect (for instance, Erik of Sweden abandoned his various marriage proposal attempts after his trip to England was interrupted by the death of his father in 1560, when Elizabeth was 27 and much more likely to bear children). In reality, Erik married in 1567 and died in 1577; Ivan the Terrible died in 1584.
• Sir Francis Walsingham was only about a year older than the queen. His brother in the film, William Walsingham, is fictitious.
• There is no mention of Leicester, Burghley, Sir Robert Cecil, or Essex, who had a much greater influence on Elizabeth than Raleigh.
• Elizabeth had brown eyes (contemporary portraits show her to have had the deep amber brown eyes of her mother) and Bess Throckmorton had blue eyes, the reverse of the actresses portraying them in the film.^[24]
• The film locates Elizabeth's lifestyle and court in various limestone interiors. In truth, as any visitor to Hampton Court Palace knows, there would have been much more wood panelling and tapestry-covered walls.
• Near the start of the film, Elizabeth and her attendants are seen passing under the famous 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
• The film places Fotheringay Castle at the centre of a loch, overlooked by the Scottish Highlands. Fotheringhay is actually a village situated in a very flat part of Northamptonshire in central England. Speaking to the Northants Evening Telegraph, the film’s historical adviser, Justin Pollard, ‘denied it glosses over the county’s role in the story’, saying ‘it was because Fotheringhay castle no longer exists’.^[25] The castle shown in the film is Eilean Donan. The image of a castle on an island is reminiscent of Lochleven Castle, where Mary had been held many years before.
• Mary might not have had a 'delicate Scottish burr', because she had lived in the French court from the age of 5 to 16, though she was bilingual in spoken language, did write letters in Scots, and could pronounce a speech ‘in Englishe with a verie good grace’.^[26][27] Kapur, discussing Samantha Morton’s portrayal, said, ‘The only argument we had is did she have a French accent or did she have a Scottish accent?’ Referring to the larger problem of reconciling modern language in film with historical accents and dialects, he quoted Morton: ‘She’s the Queen of Scots, she believes she’s Queen. I want to go with a Scottish accent, go with it.” ^[28]
• The Jesuit conspirator played by Rhys Ifans is given the fictional name of Robert Reston. He is loosely modelled on John Ballard, who went under several different aliases, and whose character, played by Daniel Craig, was disposed of in the previous film.
• In the film, Elizabeth is confronted at the altar of Old St Paul's Cathedral by Babington, who is armed only (but unknowingly) with a pistol charged with powder but no shot. The actual Babington Plot to overthrow or murder the queen was discovered, without risk to Elizabeth, before it could be executed.
• The evidence used against Mary was shown to be indisputable in the movie. In actuality, there was no hard evidence produced and Mary was never permitted to see any of it. The charges were believed to have been trumped up by court intrigue although Mary may have been privy to such connivance and apparently endorsed the plot in detail.^[29]
• Bess Throckmorton's pregnancy, which led to her secret marriage to Sir Walter Raleigh and the birth of their son Damerei, actually occurred in the summer of 1591, some three years after the Spanish Armada, not immediately before. Shortly after its birth, the baby was relegated to a wet nurse and presumably died soon thereafter.
• Elizabeth may not have addressed her troops astride a white steed while wearing a suit of shining armour. The real queen did make a personal visit to address her army, and several witnesses or contemporaries do allude to her martial appearance. Most historians are inclined to accept the traditional story that she rode sidesaddle on horseback, carried a marshal's baton, and wore a cuirass, with a page carrying a silver helmet before her. Although the content of her speech was much less subdued than shown in the film, her presence did have a positive effect on the morale of both the troops and their leaders.^[30]
• Sir Francis Drake, who is absent from the film, played the leading role in the battle of Gravelines (despite a false report to the contrary from Martin Frobisher).^[31][32] The English commander-in-chief was Lord Charles Howard, on Raleigh's old ship, the Ark Royal. Howard appears in the film as a minor character played by John Shrapnel. Another English admiral, Sir William Winter, is played by David Robb.
• It is unlikely Raleigh commanded a ship at the battle of Gravelines.^[33] Raleigh Trevelyan writes: ‘According to one biographer, Stebbing, Raleigh was among the "many gallant captains", but there is no confirmation of this; if he had been there it would have been without authority.’^[34] ‘Raleigh’s name, to his regret, hardly appeared in contemporary descriptions of the defeat of the Armada, as indeed was to be the case in subsequent histories. This was because of his being in charge of the land defences; if the Spaniards had been able to attempt a landing, his role would certainly have been a vital one. He was at least able to take pride in the performance of the Ark Royal. His own heavily armed merchantman, the Roebuck, also took part in the battle.’^[35] Trevelyan adds: ‘According to Hakluyt, Raleigh took part in the battle of Portland Bill on 2 August, like the smart courtiers who rushed down from London, but there is no hint of this in Raleigh's own writings. But more credibly, and according to a Spanish source, he was sent by the Queen with a message to Howard as he neared the French coast.’^[36] William Camden's (1615) claim that Raleigh had served at sea under Howard from 23 July 1588 is unverified, and it was from London that he was sent to the south coast to 'confer' with Howard.^[37]
• The English battle fleet was not 'out-gunned' by the Armada, as Howard is made to claim at a crisis point in the film.
• None of the fire ships sent towards the Armada actually caused any material damage to the Spanish fleet. They simply caused the fleet to scatter out of formation. Many of the Spanish ships were forced to cut their anchors, however, and this proved to be a factor when the Spanish fleet subsequently encountered the storms in the Atlantic off the west coast of Ireland during their circuitous return to Spain. Many vessels were sunk through being unable to anchor off the rocky coast, so they were driven on-shore by the westerly winds.^[38]
• By saying "the Sultan of Turkey", Elizabeth refers to the Republic of Turkey which was established in 1923. Instead, she should have referred to the Ottoman Empire. This "so called anachronism" created a long discussion in the Turkish press, and finally came to a conclusion, when Turkey's most venerated historians and the curator of The Topkapi Palace, Ilber Ortayli said that English monarchs have always referred to Ottomans as Turks.

Elizabeth: The Golden Age grossed $6.1 million in 2,001 theatres during its opening weekend in the United States and Canada, ranking #6 at the box office.^[39] In the United Kingdom and Ireland the film entered at #4 and earned £1.3 million ($2.7 million) on its opening weekend.^[40] As of 28 November 2007 the worldwide total was $44.5 million, including $16.3 million in the U.S. and Canada and $28.2 million elsewhere.^[41]

In 1998, the preceding film, Elizabeth, opened in 9 theatres and grossed $275,131.^[42] Its widest release in the United States and Canada was in 624 theatres.^[42], and its largest weekend gross throughout its run in theatres was $3.4 million in 516 theatres^[42], ranking #9 at the box office.^[43] The 1998 film Elizabeth went on to gross $30 million in the United States and Canada, and a total of $82.1 million worldwide.^[44]

• Official site
• International site
• Elizabeth: The Golden Age at the Internet Movie Database
• Elizabeth: The Golden Age at Rotten Tomatoes
• Elizabeth: The Golden Age at Metacritic

• Review of the film
• Elizabeth: The Golden Age at Box Office Mojo
• Elizabeth: The Golden Age at All Movie Guide
• Elizabeth: The Golden Age at Working Title Films
• Elizabeth: The Golden Age at ukfilmtourism.com
• Interview with Cate Blanchett at tribute.ca
• Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Four making-of video features at stv.tv
• Soundtrack Review at Tracksounds