Brilliant--a movie worthy of a great woman!

Rating: 10/10 (9 May 1999)

As a history buff who has been studying Elizabeth I since I was in elementary school, it was such a thrill to learn that a movie on her life--or even part of it was being made. And although this movie has compressed numerous events of her life into a few short years, and some liberties have been taken, this film is more akin to "The Godfather" saga than an episode of "Masterpiece Theater". Cate Blanchett-who should have won the Best Actress Oscar-is incredible as the woman I consider the Woman of the Millennium: intelligent, brilliant, sometimes uncertain, and offering herself as sacrifice to her nation. Geoffrey Rush is outstanding as Francis Walsingham, one of her ministers, who will offer life and limb to protect his Queen. And the underrated Joseph Fiennes again wins us over as Elizabeth's lover, Robert Dudley, who loves her in his own peculiar way, but nearly does a Judas on her. If you didn't love English history before, you will after seeing this. It's only hoped that one day, Elizabeth's great father, Henry VIII, will receive a movie as deserving.