Fabricated claptrap!

Rating: 1/10 (15 October 2007)

The producers of this film took one of the most dramatic moments in English history and turned it into a beautifully costumed and artistic piece of garbage. Having seen Helen Mirren's version, this one pales in all categories-drama, plot, dialog, history and actors. With the rich history of record and the countless rumors from the period, the producers decided to make up their own out of whole cloth! Sir Francis Drake gets maybe a dozen words, and the Armada facts are turned upside down. I don't recall the English losing a single ship, and the Spanish only a few-and though the fire ships will wreak havoc on the Armada, it will come about as they travel home-not as in the film in a giant conflagration. But then, the focus was to make a fairy tale. And, interestingly, not the fairy tale of English legend, "God blew and they were scattered." Instead, the fairy tale is of high school melodrama.