Elizabeth: The Golden Age Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Elizabeth: The Golden Age Blu-ray Movie Review

More dramatically turgid than the first outing, this iteration of Elizabeth's saga is best when Cate Blanchett is front and center.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 1, 2010

Your parents may have warned you about ever venturing into discussions about religion at any social gathering. Can you imagine the proscriptions against such discussions in the Tudor household? After all, Henry VIII had divorced himself from the Catholic church (irony intended), positing him as Supreme Head of not only his nation, but his own religion, Anglicanism. And all because he had no male heir to carry on his reign. Of course the real irony is that two of his daughters succeeded him, first the Catholic Mary, daughter of Henry’s first wife Catherine of Aragon, and then Protestant Elizabeth, daughter of Henry’s dalliance and/or marriage (depending on your point of view) with Anne of Boleyn. If Mary’s reign is largely forgotten nowadays, Elizabeth’s has entered the public lexicon as few other British royals have, leading to a slew of film and television depictions, as I mentioned in my review of the first part of this filmic diptych, Elizabeth. Elizabeth: The Golden Age picks up a few years after the first film’s conclusion, focusing largely on the long middle period of her reign, specifically her friendship with Walter Raleigh and her long simmering dispute with her once brother-in-law’s country, ultimately leading to the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, one of the most unlikely upsets in the history of sea battles. While some of the luster of the first film has definitely been lost in this second trip to the well, The Golden Age still offers a viscerally exciting performance by Cate Blanchett as the famous queen, with Academy Award winning costumes and an overall production design that is, for the most part, the equal of the first film.

The Virgin Queen

As I also mentioned in my review of Elizabeth, the Catholic League went on record decrying the alleged anti-Catholic stance of both films. While director Shekhar Kapur averred that he was really anti-extremist (of any ilk), as in the first film, the Catholics are the bad guys in this outing, led by Elizabeth’s half-sister Mary’s widower, King Philip II of Spain (Jordi Molla). Philip actually made advances to Elizabeth once she gained the throne, but she rebuffed him. Hell may have no fury like a woman scorned, but in this twist of a venerable adage, Philip is out to teach that upstart Elizabeth a lesson, based not only on her refusal of his proposal, but her troubling rejection of Catholicism and the Pope’s supremacy. Philip has a convoluted design involving both his daughter Isabella and the imprisoned Mary, Queen of Scots, which slowly unfolds as the film progresses. Playing out against this international intrigue is the burgeoning friendship between Elizabeth and Raleigh (Clive Owen), obviously meant to take the part of Elizabeth’s romance with Joseph Fiennes’ Dudley in the first film. The problem here is that this is obviously a platonic relationship, if one fraught with sexual tension, and Raleigh actually has his eyes on one of Elizabeth’s courtiers anyway.

The first Elizabeth cast a perhaps more wide ranging condemnation on Catholic nefariousness than does this film, which focuses more exclusively on Philip’s plotting than it does on cross cultural intrigue generally, though of course that very plotting does include a number of co-conspirators. Ironically, the first film is perhaps more completely subversive in its commentary about Catholicism in one of its most audacious, if extremely subtly handled, moments, when at the end of that film, Elizabeth casts her gaze on a statue of the Virgin Mary and wonders why the Catholics worship her so. Her longstanding confidante Walsingham (Geoffrey Rush, returning in this film as well) tells her it’s because they haven’t found anyone to replace her. Quick cut to Elizabeth shearing her hair and emerging as The Virgin Queen, an obvious allusion to Mary’s chaste state. With Elizabeth’s supposed virginity well ensconced by the time this film gets underway, there’s no such audacity at hand, and instead the film plays out more as melodrama than the first outing, albeit melodrama with exceptionally pretty costumes and sets.

Without the allure of a semi-traditional romance to anchor the emotional content of the film, as in Elizabeth’s case, instead we’re thrust into political and religious machinations that cast all the players, on both the Catholic and Protestant sides of the aisle, in not very flattering light. Blanchett is nonetheless a force of nature in this role, erupting in fury one moment and then at least partially fragile in the next. If at times she seems to be channeling Glenda Jackson, at least vocally, she brings a very careful and nuanced approach to the role that allows the viewer to get glimpses of the human being hidden behind the caked makeup, huge wigs and gargantuan dresses. Owen is fine in the patently underwritten role of Raleigh, and Rush is superb, as he was in the first film, in his understated and magisterial interpretation of Elizabeth’s chief confidante, Walsingham. Abbie Cornish is also excellent, even when she’s forced to mouth some pretty ridiculous dialogue, as Bess Throckmorton, the Queen’s lady in waiting who falls for Raleigh and bears a son by him.

Kapur invests more visual flash this time around, perhaps to cover up the fact that this film simply doesn’t have the substance of the first. The Golden Age is a stylish but ultimately not extremely involving trip through one of the most epochal eras in Britain’s history. Blanchett gives it her heart and soul, but a hackneyed script weights her down like the anchors which brought the Spanish fleet to their ultimate doom.

Elizabeth: The Golden Age Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

I'm just a little conflicted when it comes to grading The Golden Age's image quality. Should one judge solely on the Blu-ray as a standalone item, comparing it to Blu-ray's in general? Or should one judge this by how well it recreates the film's original look? By the first standard, The Golden Age's VC-1 encoded 1080p 1.85:1 transfer is decidedly less stellar than the first Elizabeth, which was a riot of color and sharp precision. Instead, The Golden Age, as perhaps fits it soubriquet, is awash in amber, with an almost sickly yellow cast overlaying large swaths of the film. It's also much more heavily post-processed than the first film, full of all sorts of filters and other tricks of the trade that make a relatively "objective" analysis of the image a bit more difficult. This film is also a good deal softer than the first film, some of which can be ascribed to guazy focus and Kapur's odd decision to frame a really high percentage of shots with out of focus large elements in the foreground and his in focus subjects way, way back in the far reaches of the frame. All of this said, I'm sure this is an apt recreation of the original theatrical presentation. The Blu-ray delivers excellent detail (sometimes too much so, revealing some not very believable CGI in the Armada sequence), and the overall feel of the film is almost painterly at times, told in hues on the white to yellow sides of the spectrum. In fact in one of the extras, Kapur goes into some detail about his desire to cast this film in much lighter hues than the first, something the plays out in an ironic fashion when Philip compares himself to light and Elizabeth to darkness as they enter their sea battle. Insofar as this does recreate the theatrical experience, I'd tend toward a higher grade. As a Blu in and of itself, this simply doesn't offer the visual splendor of the first film, and I've slightly downgraded it accordingly.

Elizabeth: The Golden Age Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

On the other hand, there is at least one completely overwhelming sonic experience to be had in Elizabeth: The Golden Age's DTS-HD MA 5.1 mix that overshadows anything the first film had to offer, and that's the literally explosive Armada sequence which makes up the final 20 minutes or so of the film. Until that segment, we're offered an excellent and extremely clear mix that provides top notch directionality, with great, if subtle, use of surround channels in the many mammoth spaces in which the film was shot. You'll hear footsteps clearly pan from rear channels to front, or from side to side, and dialogue follows suit as well. Underscore is very well mixed and the balance between dialogue, score and effects is just as good as it was in the first film. When we finally do get to the Armada sequence, we're suddenly awash in absolutely bombastic LFE as cannons fire. Both the subwoofer and various surrounds kick in during these blasts, providing a very visceral listening experience. Some very realistic effects, like the crackle of fire and splash of water, also enter the soundfield from virtually every direction, immersing the listener in a very exciting battle.

Elizabeth: The Golden Age Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

In quantity, if not in quality, The Golden Age ups the original Elizabeth's quota of supplements, with a fair array of SD extras. Kapur is on hand again with another excellent commentary. Additionally the disc features:

• Deleted Scenes (8:48), which actually contains several extended scenes
• The Reign Continues (11:23) an EPK love-fest about Blanchett's accomplishements in the role
• Inside Elizabeth's World (7:24), a somewhat more interesting examination of some of the locales utilized for the shoot, including several where the real Elizabeth visited
• Commanding the Winds: Creating the Armada (12:04), a look at both the CGI and set building that went into The Golden Age's big climactic set piece
• Towers, Courts and Cathedrals (10:44), wherein Kapur looks at the dialectic between light and dark which plays out both in this film and between his two films.

Elizabeth: The Golden Age Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Golden Age never quite attains the heights of the first Elizabeth, but it offers pomp and pageantry galore, if a bit too much unseemly religious plotting and scheming, most of which makes all of its characters seems at least partially unsavory. Blanchett, however, is magnificent in her second "at bat" in this role, and she helps the film overcome its shortcomings.