The Protestant English and the Catholic Spanish go to war against each other.

Rating: Null/10 (23 March 2008)

I enjoyed this movie a bit more than its rating would indicate, but my wife didn't care for it at all. After I saw it, I looked up a short biography of Sir Walter Raleigh and it seems that the movie is fairly realistic. However Raleigh seems to be somewhat romanticized in the movie. But most of the characters appear to be based on real historical people.
It was the 16th century and England was turning towards Protestantism, while about half of England was still Catholic. Queen Elizabeth's insiders urged her to imprison Catholics because of the threat, but she refused to treat her loving subjects that way. She strongly believed that people should stand on what they do, not what they believe. Still, some clandestine executions were carried out without her knowledge.
Meanwhile Catholic Spain considered Elizabeth and her Protestant population heretics and vowed to conquer them. Their case was further aggravated by Sir Walter Raleigh, New World explorer, who also pirated the gold from Spanish ships and delivered it to the Queen.
Cate Blanchett is excellent as Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen. The movie depicts her as having a romantic attraction to Raleigh, who had great affection for her also. However he impregnated one of her attendants, Elizabeth "Bess" Throckmorton (pretty, blonde Australian Abbie Cornish), and they were married in a small ceremony without the permission of Elizabeth. In real life that got them imprisoned in the Tower of London, but it isn't clear in the movie what their punishment was.
Clive Owen is good as charming and witty Sir Walter Raleigh. The movie shows him as a hero in helping to defeat the attacking Spanish Armada, but that was an embellishment for the movie.
Geoffrey Rush is good as Elizabeth's adviser, Sir Francis Walsingham, who was shown as actually doing things to encourage the conflict between England and Spain. He appeared to be a traitor.
Good movie. As history tells us, the Spanish were not successful, England entered into a "golden period" under Elizabeth, and even today Catholics and Protestants coexist in England. Sir Walter Raleigh did not fare so well after Elizabeth died, he was eventually tried for crimes and beheaded.