Elizabeth: Movie, DVD, HD DVD Review (1998)

(Originally published 1998; updated 2007)

With "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" set for release Oct. 12, now is the time to revisit the film that inspired it--1998's "Elizabeth." Whether you do so via standard DVD or on Universal's terrific new high definition HD DVD transfer, it's impossible to go wrong with either.

From Michael Hirst's script, "Elizabeth" is an expertly acted, brooding melodrama that features Queen Elizabeth I as one staunch, formidable virgin, as Cate Blanchett explores to bewitching success in her Academy Award-nominated performance.

As King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn’s daughter, Blanchett plays Elizabeth as a passionate free spirit hardened by her cold blue bloodline, the ruthless machinations of a court in upheaval, and the tremendous rush for power that undermines it all.

Compressing and rewriting history at will, the film takes great liberties in an effort to put on a good show, which it does--royally.

Beginning with the burning of three Protestant “heretics,” the film comes alive in its frequent beheadings, bloody division of two churches (Roman Catholic and Protestant), and the ascension of one tough, indomitable, 25-year-old woman who surfaces in director Kapur’s hands as one formidable presence.

Indeed, with the odds stacked against her, Elizabeth successfully fights off the Spanish, the French, her rivals and the pope, while at the same time carrying on a torrid love affair with the buff Robert Dudley (Joseph Fiennes).

This is not the rigid, unflinching Queen Elizabeth I Bette Davis played in 1955’s “The Virgin Queen,” or even the cool, knowing queen Judi Dench plays to great affect in “Shakespeare in Love.” Blanchett’s queen is more or less like Helen Mirren's version in last year's Emmy Award-winning HBO miniseries, "Elizabeth I." She's sexy, smart and unafraid to live it up, even while it’s clear that those around her want her dead.

Too bad for them--by film’s end, their heads are mounted on stakes whereas Elizabeth’s is merely shaved partly bald. Swearing off men altogether, she completes her metamorphosis from naive young woman to full, regal queen by reclaiming her virginity with five measured words: “I am married to England,” she declares, and goes on to fulfill a spectacular 44-year reign.

Grade: A-


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