Editor Reviews:

Description:
Academy Award® winners Cate Blanchett and Geoffrey Rush join Academy Award® nominee Clive Owen in a gripping historical thriller full of suspense, intrigue and adventure!

When Queen Elizabeth's reign is threatened by ruthless familial betrayal and Spain's invading army, she and her shrewd advisor must act to safeguard to the lives of her people. But when a dashing seafarer, Walter Raleigh, captures her heart, she is forced to make her most tragic sacrifice for the good of her country.

Elizabeth: The Golden Age tells the thrilling tale of one woman's crusade to control her love, destroy her enemies and secure her position as a beloved icon of the western world.

Amazon.com:
In 1998's Elizabeth, Shekhar Kapur added a layer of suds to his history lesson; the director follows the same audience-pleasing recipe in Elizabeth: The Golden Age. Since the first film, Blanchett scored an Oscar for her note-perfect rendition of Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator, and she plays the preternaturally bemused monarch in a similar fashion. By 1585, Elizabeth I is an experienced ruler about to face two of her biggest challenges: betrayal by her Catholic cousin, Mary Stuart (Control's Samantha Morton), and invasion by the Spanish Armada. It isn't so much that the Protestant Elizabeth wishes to rid England of "papists," but that she wants her country to remain free from foreign domination. Closer to her home, she enjoys a sisterly relationship with lady-in-waiting Bess (rising Aussie star Abbie Cornish). That changes when Sir Walter Raleigh (a dashing Clive Owen) hits the scene. In order to continue exploring the New World, he seeks the queen’s sponsorship. She is charmed, but Raleigh only has eyes for Bess. As in the previous picture, Elizabeth enjoys better luck at affairs of state than affairs of the heart, but the conclusion is more beatific than before (and Kapur intends a third installment if Blanchett is willing). Elizabeth: The Golden Age is a rush of royal intrigue, bloody torture, fantastic headpieces, and irresistibly ripe dialogue, like "I have a hurricane in me that will strip Spain bare if you dare to try me!" To Kapur, victory for the Virgin Queen was a viable alternative to sex. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

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Stills from Elizabeth – The Golden Age (click for larger image)

Rating : - Magnifficent visual feast
An immaculate and glorious visual feast, featuring Elizabeth I's inspired leadership of England, during the 1580s.
The basic threads involve her enlightened rule and refusal, of the advice, by her council to persecute her Catholic subjects, the imprisonment of Mary, Queen of Scots (Samantha Morton) and the Babbington Plot leading to Elizabeth being forced by her council especially Francis Walsingham (Geoffrey Rush), the relationship of Elizabeth (Cate Blanchett) with Sir Walter Raleigh (Clive Owen) and his love of Elizabeth's beautiful lady in waiting, Bess Throckmorton, played charmingly by the exquisite ( Abbie Cornish), and of course Elizabeth's rallying of England against the Spanish armada which threatened to invade and conquer England and bring with it all the horrors of the inquisition.
It also briefly features Elizabeth's consultation with the astrologer and psychic John Dee (David Threlfall).
Most inspiring is Elizabeth's leadership in resisting the Spanish invasion and her rousing speech to the assembled English troops (although not including her famous word about having the feeble body of a woman but the heart of a king): "My loving people. We see the sails of the enemy approaching. We hear the Spanish guns over the water. Soon now, we will meet them face-to-face. I am resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live or die amongst you all. While we stand together no invader shall pass. Let them come with the armies of Hell; they will not pass! And when this day of battle is ended, we meet again in heaven or on the field of victory".
While there is much that is not historically accurate, this is high drama at it's remarkable best, never falters in it's pace or it's majesty, and capture both the greatness and capriciousness of Queen Elizabeth I.
It is inspiring and exciting to see how she leads her nation in struggling against the darkness that would be imposed by the Spanish Conquest of England, with an imposed inquisition.
A struggle of a free land against the darkness of backward religious intolerance and destruction.
This period peace should inspire people to read up more on Queen Elizabeth and 16th century Britain.