Cate Blanchette a joke that should play Reinhardt Hiendrich

Rating: 1/10 (17 January 2008)

Shekhar Kapur once again gives us a complete distortion of history of the reign of Queen Elizabeth the first. The casting of the very masculine Cate Blanchett as Queen Elizabeth is also disaster as the original Queen Elizabeth was a highly sexual creature from the age of about fourteen. Furthermore Queen Elizabeth was a very stoic person who showed no emotion to anyone in an age where royalty really was a sign of divinity. Cate Blanchett and the director are unable to capture the ruthlessness of the Queen Elizabeth nor even a close track of the historical sequence of events. There are many period films depicting great sea battles and this one is not that impressive. Geoffry Rush appears as Sir Francis Walsingham adviser to the Queen but is better suited to playing an Evil Pirate in line with his acting ability.
There have been much better films about the reign of Queen Elizabeth the first and the events at the time but students should stick to the documentaries and History texts if they want academic credibility.
I think this film would have been more entertaining if Shekhar Kapur gave it the Bollywood treatment with lots of Indian costumes , singing and dancing around decorated trees and re;eased it in his native India. I really believe that Cate Blanchett is best suited to Bollywood films or playing a the role of her look alike General Reinhardt Heinrich head of the Nazi Gestapo.