August 1, 2007
Elizabeth I Returns Posted by Alexander Burns at 07:45 PM EST In my post last weekend about the movie Hairspray, I neglected to mention something that might be of interest to readers of AmericanHeritage.com. John Steele Gordon, by utter coincidence, has given me a perfect opportunity to correct this omission. Mr. Gordon wrote yesterday about Elizabeth I, who is “forever enshrined as the apotheosis of English monarchs, clear-eyed assessments be damned.” I’m not sure what Gilbert and Sullivan would think of this, not to mention Queen Victoria herself, but that’s entirely beside the point. Mr. Gordon quotes Elizabeth’s 1588 speech to her troops at Tilbury, in which she announced: “I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and a king of England too.” My fellow blog contributor asks whether Shakespeare could have written better words. I haven’t the faintest idea, but I doubt that any playwright or filmmaker could turn this speech into a more dramatic scene than the one already preserved in popular memory. At least I would doubt that, had I not seen, last Saturday, a preview for Elizabeth: The Golden Age, the Working Titles Films sequel to Cate Blanchett’s magnificent 1998 film, Elizabeth. In The Golden Age, Blanchett returns as the queen, Geoffrey Rush is back as Sir Francis Walsingham, and Clive Owen appears for the first time as Walter Raleigh. I expect this film, like Elizabeth, will take its fair share of creative liberties with history. But I also expect it will be a damned good film. One doesn’t see very many brand-new high-quality movies about history—or, at least, about history before 1900—and this looks like it might be a welcome contribution to the genre. I might end up disappointed – but watch the preview for yourself, and see if you don’t end up with similarly high expectations.
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