Elizabeth I (2005)

Wonderful character development!

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Elisabeth I wasn't on my list of films but last night I was flicking through films available on channel 4 and came across it. I didn't expect much but what a treat this mini series was! I now can't think of a better person than Helen Mirren to play Elisabeth I. From the very start she kept me captivated by her flawless acting, beautiful dresses and wit. Her golden speech "I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too" is there, and it's marvelously delivered to her people and you believe that they bought it. Mirren was so fantastic, it almost feels as if she surpassed Elizabeth I. I think even a person with the least interest in history would enjoy this semi in series.

I've watched this two-part series many times. I never tire of it. In my view, Helen Mirren BECOMES Elizabeth I. I have read many histories of Elizabeth I's life and the period. This movie makes the history come alive before your eyes. I never tire of Helen Mirren, Jeremy Irons and now a huge fan of Hugh Dancy. The costume wardrobes, sets, acting are all superb. But, its Mirren, Mirren, Mirren who IS Elizabeth.I would have loved for several of the events that happen within this movie to have been explored further, those are Elizabeth's death and funeral, the war with Spain, especially the Spanish Armada, her relationship with the Duke of Anjou and would love to have seen more views of her palaces, as much as still exist today.Hugh Dancy did a spectacular job as Robert Devereaux, the Earl of Essex, which was really a tragic story, truth be told. Someone should pick up that story and explore it better in future movies. Jeremy Iron's Earl of Leicester was even more endearing and brought me to tears on many occasions. Irons was so expressive and became the part so well.I highly recommend watching this Elizabeth I... even many times. Each time you will hear and see things you did not see before. Elizabeth's dialog are often quotes for which she is famous, but woven within the movie. You will also see items which were both hers and her father's, Henry VIII.

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 councilors want dead. There is her own passionate nature focused 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 councilors 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 contains an blatant error to anyone that knows of the Babington Plot. One commentator mentions the English historian Dr David Starkey had been on set and was much impressed. Well, shame on him. Chidiock Tichbourne, one of the Babington Plot conspirators, just before his execution wrote to his wife one of the most moving poems of that century. It follows at the end of this comment.In the production, this poem is given to Elizabeth by Cecil after Essex's execution and Cecil says it had been written by Essex the night before. She reads part of it which makes her weep. This was no doubt a deliberate error as a device to produce an emotional scene. The alternative is that everyone involved with the production were ignorant of the facts. Either way, so much for HBO respect for historical accuracy. If they get such a well-known incident wrong, deliberately or not, then so much for anything they ever portray.My prime of youth is but a frost of cares, My feast of joy is but a dish of pain, My crop of corn is but a field of tares, And all my good is but vain hope of gain; The day is past, and yet I saw no sun, And now I live, and now my life is done.My tale was heard and yet it was not told, My fruit is fallen, yet my leaves are green, My youth is spent and yet I am not old, I saw the world and yet I was not seen; My thread is cut and yet it is not spun, And now I live and now my life is done.I sought my death and found it in my womb, I looked for life and found it was a shade, I trod the earth and knew it was my tomb, And now I die, and now I was but made; My glass is full, and now my glass is run, And now I live, and now my life is done.