PhilPaine.com

Why on earth was this nom­i­nat­ed for Best Pic­ture in its year? It’s glossy, and could be rea­son­ably enter­tain­ing to some­one who does not know what a trav­es­ty of his­to­ry it is, but it isn’t a par­tic­u­lar­ly out­stand­ing film. The con­test between Catholi­cism and Protes­tantism dur­ing the Ref­or­ma­tion (in which both sides were relent­less­ly fanat­i­cal and vicious), is still played out in Eng­lish film and lit­er­a­ture to this very day. This par­tic­u­lar film is pret­ty obvi­ous in its par­ti­san­ship: Protes­tantism (sym­bol­ized by Eliz­a­beth) is good and Catholi­cism is bad. In Eng­land, there is still a kind of anti-Catholic sen­ti­ment which is played out in car­toon form in films such as this. Every cliché is there. For­eign Catholic priests skulk around in the shad­ows with sin­is­ter, swirling robes, and look like demons. A French noble­man is a scream­ing fag, minc­ing about. Eliz­a­beth spouts anachro­nis­tic sen­ti­ments of self­less patri­o­tism and “indi­vid­ual con­science”. Her exe­cu­tions and per­se­cu­tions are explained away as unfor­tu­nate zeal by sub­or­di­nates, or under­stand­able reac­tions to treach­ery, or nec­es­sary steps in a grand plan to build the future glo­ries of Eng­land (cue the Elgar march­es). Essex doesn’t real­ly mind hav­ing his head chopped off — it’s all part of true love. Mary Queen of Scots is men­tioned, briefly, but there’s no fol­low up. Such side-tak­ing is com­mon enough, and there are pro-Catholic inter­pre­ta­tions that are every bit as sil­ly. But in this film, his­tor­i­cal facts are so gross­ly mis­rep­re­sent­ed that no amount of act­ing or cos­tume splen­dour can make it worth watch­ing with­out bel­ly laughs. Siskel & Ebert loved this film, but I don’t think they paid much atten­tion in high school his­to­ry class.