Elizabeth: The Golden Age dramatizes the era in which England defeated Spain, the superpower of the day, in a naval battle. Rather than focusing on the naval commander who is responsible for the victory, the film imagines a supposed relationship between Queen Elizabeth (played by Kate Blanchett) and Walter Raleigh (played by Clive Owen), who tries to court her, is knighted, falls out of favor when he marries one of Elizabeth’s ladies-in-waiting (played by Abbie Cornish), and then plays a central part in the naval battle by setting ships on fire to ram the Spanish Armada. Although there is no record that Elizabeth had any amorous interest in Raleigh, he was appointed Captain of the Guard. Founder of the Virginia colony (so named because Elizabeth was a virgin), he was in fact ashore at the time of the 1588 naval battle. Nevertheless, filmviewers are informed that half of Britain then consisted of Catholics, including her sister Mary Queen of Scots (played by Samantha Morton), and that Spain’s King Philip II (played by Jordi Mollà) goes to war primarily to replace Elizabeth with Mary, whereas in fact the Spanish were trying to maintain control of most of what is now called Belgium against an Anglo-Dutch alliance. Elizabeth’s declaration of religious toleration in the service of nationalism is perhaps the most profound statement in the film. Directed by Shehkar Kapur, the film ends with a title noting that Spain, which suffered its worst naval defeat in the battle, was bankrupted in ten years. Anyone looking for contemporary parallels might perhaps reflect that the American government, by trying unsuccessfully to control events in the Middle East that have gone awry, has become so bankrupted in only six years of the “war on terror” that the value of the dollar has fallen to an all-time low. However, the film instead appears to celebrate the rise of Britain as a superpower. MH
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