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Elizabeth I
RRP: £19.99
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Better than Cate Blanchets Golden Age!
Review date: 2008-03-21 Rating: 10 out of 10
This is miles ahead of the cate blanchett version. With Helen Mirren and Jeremy Irons as the main cast, acting in the golden age of elizabeth I's reign. With a supurb script and cast list AND! historic acuracy!! (which must be stressed with films portraying hisory!) you cant go wrong.
If i could choose either Elizabeth I Golden Age or this it would be this without hesitation.
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Reviews
Excellant but very gory adaption
Review date: 2007-09-03 Rating: 8 out of 10
Being a history nut I really enjoyed this film. It breated life into characters that I have only read about in a book or seen in a documentary.
Although Helen Mirren's role was understandably and correctly lauded we have seen and heard a lot about Elizabeth over the years, for me it was great to see characters such as Francis Walsingham and Robert Dudley fleshed out.
SPOILER ALERT
My one complaint has been mentioned before but deserves another mention. This involves the tortue and the execution scenes, particularly the hanging drawing and quartering scene. Now I agree that it was accurate to the times and I think I can understand why it was in the film but it was shown in a manner that took me by surprise. For instance when Babington was executed it showed him being dragged from the scaffold with the camera upon his face, then when the executioners drag him to the table and force his head down, the camera pans down to show his companion being disembowled slowly while alive. It made me start and overwhelmed my mind for much the rest of the film.
Ok it happened like this in reality but to show this in such detail in a 15 film is in my opinion highly unnesesary. It could have been done like the execution scene in Braveheart, itself a highly viceral film. We all knew what was happening to him (Wallace) yet they did not NEED TO show in all its gruesome glory. This in a film already abounding with chopped limbs, smashed heads and bloody battles!!
If they felt necessary to depict the scenes like this then perhaps like the Passion of the Christ, a film showing an even more agonizing and almost as gruesome form of execution the rating should have gone up to an 18. At the least we should given a clear warning because I could not get rid of that image for weeks.
END SPOiLER
Saying that I still loved the film and thought it highly classy. There was crackling performances and chemistry from the leads and wonderful atmosphere throughout. The threat and subsequent neutralisation of the Spanish Armada was wonderfully realised and 'those quotes' were delivered with perfection. Especially when Elizabeth realised how much her words encouraged and strengthened her troops.
All in all highly recomended to all.
A Vivid, Colourful and Moving Performance From A Brilliant Actress
Review date: 2007-07-27 Rating: 10 out of 10
Helen Mirren's performance is stunning in this, cementing her position as one of Britain's most charismatic and versatile actors. This film charts the life of another impressive woman, Elizabeth the first, during various tumultuous stages of her life.
What is particularly brilliant about this film is the way in which Mirren so convincingly shows the anguish and difficulty of Elizabeth the First's reign, in an age where Monarchs had purpose, strength and challenging lives. The most convincing part of Elizabeth's struggle which Mirren has perfected is Elizabeth's dilemma when it came to balancing business and pleasure, or more specifically, balancing the greater good of the country with her sexuality and desires. This is part of what makes this film so fascinating and potent - for every women has the same dilemma in life, and at some point in her life, finds that logic and sexuality cannot always co-exist in perfect harmony. Being the nigh on perfect actress that she is, Mirren encapsulates this battle between business and pleasure with convincing aplomb.
Elizabeth's various (apparently unconsummated) relationships with various men, including the Earl Of Leicester, are detailed here, as is her unique and impressive ability to reign supreme over all men, keeping them all in check and reverent to her impressive, assured authority.
In portraying a unique and inspiring woman, Mirren absolutely dazzles, and truly brings the Elizabeth of the history books back to life, in order for viewers to investigate and celebrate the life of one of history's most impressive leaders.
A great, sweeping portrayal of Elizabeth from age 45 to her death at 69. Helen Mirren shines
Review date: 2007-06-03 Rating: 10 out of 10
This may be a television mini-series but it has the quality, detail and acting superiority of an excellent motion picture. Elizabeth (Helen Mirren) has been on the throne for twenty years. It's 1579 and she is 45 years old. We meet her at the conclusion of a discrete but public examination to establish for all to know that she is capable of bearing a child. The need for her to marry, both to ensure an heir and to ensure her survival as Queen, obsesses her councilors. For Elizabeth, it's not so simple. She is not just a queen, but a sovereign ruler, anointed, in her words, by God. She has the same passionate need for love and intimacy as her subjects. She probably realizes that marriage, in her era, would most likely lead to her own inevitable subordination to her husband if he is English or the subordination of the country to another country if he is foreign. She most probably realizes that by not making a choice, she keeps all the choices on the bargaining table.
And, of course, there is the question of her cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots, now a prisoner but a continuing threat to her rule, whom her councillors want dead. There is her own passionate nature focussed on Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester (Jeremy Irons), and, later, on the young Robert Devereaux, Earl of Essex (Hugh Dancy). One will die in bed; one will lose his head. There are religious issues so deeply held they could, and have, split the nation. Before long, there will be the threat of Spanish invasion to deal with. Through it all, Elizabeth procrastinates, twists and turns, takes a step forward and then one back. If we didn't already know her story so well, we might be surprised when we realize that in time the religious question is finessed with little violence, that Mary is dealt with, that the Spanish fail, that her people come to love her (more or less), that she invariably chooses her councilors well and they become dedicated to her, that she will be the one to make the final decisions and that rebellion is a fatal choice for those who disagree with her, even if they are one of her favorites. She is, in fact, a ruler who makes mistakes, can be swayed by vanity and avoids choices, but who when it matters makes the right choices.
Helen Mirren does a masterful job, taking Elizabeth from 45 to Elizabeth's death at 69. Elizabeth could be fickle and imperious, but she had a core of steel, particularly when it came to defending her realm and her prerogatives. Mirren is such a dynamic and skilled actor it is entirely believable that the young Earl of Essex just might find the aging Queen an agreeable and intimate companion. Mirren is equally believable in demonstrating the iron will of a Queen who moves against someone she may well have loved.
Mirren is at her best in dealing with complex emotions. When Elizabeth at last is brought to sign the order of execution for Mary but then tells the clerk to keep her action secret and not to show the document to anyone until she tells him, Mirren gives us a subtle portrait of Elizabeth, a Queen who knows it's in her best interests to have Mary executed but who flinches from being the one to make the order happen. At some level, Elizabeth must know that her order will not be kept secret, that it will be given to her councillors and that Walsingham will see to it that the execution takes place immediately. As Walsingham says, the Queen wants Mary executed but doesn't want to be the one responsible. It's a complex set of motives and emotions that Mirren has to display; they range from her reluctant signing to her hysteria when she learns Mary has been executed.
Equally impressive is Mirren demonstrating the ability of Elizabeth to rouse the rabble with a combination of patriotism and bravado. She does a bravura job with Elizabeth's famous words before her army awaiting the Spanish invasion: "Let tyrants fear; I have always so behaved myself that, under God, I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and good will of my subjects. And therefore I am come amongst you at this time, not as for my recreation or sport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live or die amongst you all; to lay down, for my God, and for my kingdom, and for my people, my honor and my blood, even the dust. I know I have but the body of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England, too!"
While Mirren dominates the story, all the actors are excellent. In major roles, in addition to Irons and Dancy, there is Patrick Malahyde as Sir Francis Walsingham, Toby Jones as Robert Cecil, Barbara Flynn as Mary and Ian McDiarmid as William Cecil. The production is sumptuous and the DVD picture is immaculate.
Brilliant, but inacurate.
Review date: 2007-03-24 Rating: 10 out of 10
I think this is absolutely brilliant. Helen Mirren plays Elizabeth the way i imagened her to be. Jeremy Irons is also fantastic and acting some scenes with a breeze. The only issue i have with this tv/film is that it does have the most horrific executions and tortures i have ever seen in a film e.g if you actually want to see what hung drawn and quartered would have been like to witness then this wont let you down (yuk). Also mary queen of scots being executed is horrific, when the axe comes down the camera is starring right at her neck, it also takes 2 strokes of the axe to cut the head off. (histroricly innacurate). But appart from that its great. Just dont faint while watching the gory bits. Helen mirren does the famous heart and stomach of a king speech wounderfully. Its on two discs 2 hours on each disc, so its about 4 hours long. If you love histry you wont be dissapointed.
Product Details/Specifications
Recording label: 4dvd
Manufacturer: 4dvd
EAN: 6867441002192
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2006-04-17
Aspect ratio: 1.77:1
Audience rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 240 minutes
Theatrical release date: 2005
Language: English (Subtitles For The Hearing Impaired)
Language: English (Original Language)