A great looking film, an excellent lead, but history?

Rating: 8/10 (6 March 2000)

I watched this movie on DVD. The costuming and other period work are great. Cate Blanchett's performance is spectacular. It is a truly enjoyable film to watch. Just don't expect to learn any real history from it. Many of the historical characters have been altered in their relative ages and arrival on the scene. Walsingham was not around in her early reign, Cecil was in his thirties at the time of coronation and counseled Elizabeth for most of her reign. If she had gotten pregnant by Dudley in her early reign, when she had very little support, do you think she would have survived? Would she be so foolish to risk it? There was never any 'Godfather' quality to her reign, where on a given day numerous enemies were executed Don Corleone style. That is ridiculous. The Scottish French queen resembles her historical figure in name only. On the other hand, the film captures the brutal power-grabbing nature of European politics of the day, the degenerate state of religion. Her early years were treacherous and she almost lost her head. Her rise to power and real control surprised the hell out of a lot of people. Since that is the focus of the movie I can buy off the revisionist stuff and enjoy the movie!