Elizabeth

REVIEW OF MOVIE :  ELIZABETH 1998 BY SHEKHAR KAPOOR

Directed by	Shekhar Kapur
Produced by	Tim Bevan Eric Fellner Alison Owen
Written by	Michael Hirst
Starring	Cate Blanchett Geoffrey Rush Christopher Eccleston Joseph Fiennes Richard Attenborough
Music by	David Hirschfelder
Cinematography	Remi Adefarasin
Edited by	Jill Bilcock
Production company	PolyGram Filmed Entertainment Kapurfilm Working Title Films Film4 Productions StudioCanal
Distributed by	Gramercy Pictures
Release date	8 September 1998 (VFF) 23 October 1998 (United Kingdom)
Running time	123 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English French
Budget	$30 million
Box office	$82,150,642 Awards: Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture – Drama, Academy Award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling, More Nominations: Academy Award for Best Actress, Academy Award for Best Picture, Academy Award for Best Costume Design, More

  

Shekhar Kapur (born 6 December 1945)^[1] is an Indian film director, actor and producer known for his works in Hindi cinema^[2] and part of the Anand family. 

The story of Elizabeth's ascendency to the throne, the plot of the movie is full of palace intrigues, attempted assassinations and executions. The movie starts with England divided by faith, Protestant vs. Catholic. The queen, Mary Tudor has no heir and her Catholic supporters fear the succession of her half-sister Elizabeth, a Protestant. They convince the queen to have Elizabeth arrested and put in the Tower of London but the queen hesitates and eventually refuses to sign her death warrant. It is announced that the queen is pregnant but it turns out to be a tumor and she dies of it a while later. Her Catholic supporters are forced to give the throne to Elizabeth. Elizabeth's first few years are shaky as she is not versed with the art of finesse and "rules from the heart instead of the mind". There is also the question of her succession as she is yet unmarried and her death without heir would mean the throne falling back into Catholic hands. She has many suitors but she eventually rejects them all. And aided by Sir Francis Walsingham she manages to kill all her enemies and ascends the throne as the "Virgin Queen". 

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Seventeenth-century engraving of Queen Elizabeth with William Cecil (left) and Francis Walsingham (right)