excellent historical film

Rating: 9/10 (14 November 2007)

Although I enjoyed this film which is based more on actual history rather than the hallucinations of the Hollywood scriptwriter, I felt it's one flaw was editing: there were several scenes in which I could not determine who was in the scene, who they were, and what they were doing. One lesser flaw was giving the wrong historical impression about the fire ships--leading those ignorant of the actual history to believe that the fire ships had actually annihilated the Spanish Armanda. In fact, the fire ships primarly broke the formation of the armada, sending them northerward in the storm to circle Scotland in order to get home. As the armada ships became wrecked on British shores and in Ireland, the hapless seamen were captured and tortured to death by Elizabeth. None of these most dramatic historical events show up in the film. nevertheless, I gave the film a 9 out of 10 for its excellent acting by Kate ( despite the lack of chemistry between her and Clive Owen), in gratitude for a most compenent film rich and lavish in historical reenactment. I was especially impressed with the fireship scenes (leaving me wanting even more, despite the fact that in most "action" films I want far less).