ELIZABETH

• Starring Cate Blanchett, Joseph Fiennes, Geoffrey Rush and Christopher Eccleston
• Directed by Shekhar Kapur
• Rated R, with moments of strong violence; running time 124 minutes
• With 10 as a must-see, Jack gives this film a 10

By Jack Garner
Democrat and Chronicle

(Nov. 25, 1998) -- Elizabeth is one of the best films of the year.

And to think it was directed by a man who had never heard of the title character when he took on the assignment.

The latest in a long line of portraits of the 16th century's fabled Virgin Queen, Elizabeth is a darkly intimate English drama, a fascinating saga of royal privilege, religious enmity and court intrigue.

Director Shekhar Kapur was fresh from the international success of Bandit Queen, set in his native India. It's difficult to imagine a more fortuitous choice: After being armed with a fascinating screenplay by Michael Hirst and some quick-study research, Kapur brought the passion of the newly converted and the fresh insights of the outsider to this view of an English icon.

Elizabeth was the daughter of Henry VIII, and her succession to the throne ushered in a golden age. Her four-decade reign saw England's growth into the richest, most powerful nation on earth, the defeat of the Spanish Armada, the firm establishment of the Church of England, and support of a fertile culture that generated the plays of Shakespeare and the poetry of Spenser.

Elizabeth, though, focuses on the young princess' complex rise to the throne, the prelude to all that grandeur.

In fact, as the film opens, Elizabeth is in danger of execution. Her older half-sister, Mary, sits on the throne. Infamous now as "Bloody Mary," she was Henry's daughter from his first wife, the Roman Catholic Catherine of Aragon. Elizabeth's mother was Anne Boleyn, for whom Henry divorced himself from Catherine and from the Catholic church.

The sickly Mary saw it as sacred duty to keep the Catholic church in power and to suppress her Protestant half-sister and her followers.

This film portrays how Elizabeth and her supporters manage to survive and eventually thrive when Mary dies. It's a coming-of-age saga, showing the teenage queen trying to bring stability and authority to the throne, despite stern opposition from the nation's Catholics, the pope, the Spanish and various enemies at court.

For the film's style, Kapur has said that in addition to studying earlier films of English monarchy, he leaned on The Godfather. Indeed, the film offers the sort of back-stabbing power struggle and whispered in-fighting seen in the Corleone family.

Elizabeth is as much historical drama as film noir, with ominous characters and conspirators darting from the dim corridors of dank castles.

The film is also blessed with superb performances. Relative newcomer Cate Blanchett (Oscar and Lucinda) perfectly projects the look of Elizabeth, as well as the depth of her resourcefulness and resilience.

Fellow Australian Geoffrey Rush (who won and Oscar for Shine) is mysterious and threatening as Sir Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth's protector and master of spies.

Joseph Fiennes (younger brother of The English Patient's Ralph) offers subtle charm as Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester, who was the one great love of Elizabeth's youth. And Christopher Eccleston projects the sly deceit and conniving obsession of the Duke of Norfolk, Elizabeth's most powerful enemy at court.

Even in small roles, Elizabeth showcases fine actors who fascinate -- including Kathy Burke as the evil but ultimately ineffectual Bloody Mary, Fanny Ardant as a French opponent, Richard Attenborough as a court adviser, and, as the pope, the aged (yet ageless) John Gielgud.