Elizabeth, The Golden Age

24th of February, 2009 is a memorable day for our class. It is the first time we get to watch a movie together and the movie was awesome. It is a 2007 film, entitled “Elizabeth: The Golden Age”, which was directed by Shekhar Kapur. In the film, it had many good actors, such as Cate Blanchett, Clive Owen, Geoffrey Rush and many more.

In brief, the story is about the challenges that Queen Elizabeth I (Cate Blanchett) had to face during her reign: Spanish Armada, unfulfilled love and plot of her cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots (Samantha Morton) to steal her throne. According to http://www.imdb.com/, the Internet Movie Database, it describes the story as “Two faiths, two empires, two rulers - colliding in 1588”

What I had learnt from “Elizabeth: The Golden Age” that is useful in my understanding about theatre is the importance of costume in presenting and highlighting the traits of the characters. The element that I like the most in the film was its costume. Just take a look at the picture below.

It is no wonder that the film’s costume designer, Alexandra Byrne, won an Academy Award for Best Costume Design at the 80th Academy Awards. It was amazing to witness how different costumes help to portray a character’s different traits, especially on Queen Elizabeth, the main character. With the help of the costume, she appeared to be elegant, lady-like and majestic as a queen. However, when Queen Elizabeth fought in the war, the warrior suit that she wore portrayed her as a heroic figure. She looks more like a courageous king or warrior than an elegant queen. In fact, the film highlighted a great deal about the role of costume. Before the queen went into the battle field, she would take out the ring from her finger and change her outfit that she normally wore in the court into the warrior suit. However, when she won the battle, she wore back the ring and changed into her usual outfit.

Besides that, through “Elizabeth: The Golden Age”, I had learnt more about Elizabethan culture and view, which will help a great deal in understanding and analysing drama from Elizabethan Era. I realized that people from Elizabethan Era believed that the transformation of nature will cause changes of fate or act as an omen that foreshadows something bad will happen. Thus, when Spanish was about to invade England, Queen Elizabeth asked her astrologer, Doctor John Dee (David Threlfall) for guidance.

Queen Elizabeth I: Give me hope.

Dr. John Dee: The forces that shape the world are greater than all of us, Majesty. How can I promise that they'll conspire in your favor even though you're the Queen? This much I know, when the storm breaks, some are dumb with terror and some spread their wings like eagles and soar.