Editor Reviews:

Product Description:
Academy Award® winners Cate Blanchett and Geoffrey Rush join Academy Award® nominee Clive Owen in a gripping historical thriller full of suspense intrigue and adventure!When Queen Elizabeth's reign is threatened by ruthless familial betrayal and Spain's invading army she and her shrewd advisor must act to safeguard to the lives of her people. But when a dashing seafarer Walter Raleigh captures her heart she is forced to make her most tragic sacrifice for the good of her country.Elizabeth: The Golden Age tells the thrilling tale of one woman's crusade to control her love destroy her enemies and secure her position as a beloved icon of the western world.System Requirements:Running Time: 115 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA/HISTORICAL EPIC Rating: PG-13 UPC: 025193333223 Manufacturer No: 61033332

Amazon.com:
In 1998's Elizabeth, Shekhar Kapur added a layer of suds to his history lesson; the director follows the same audience-pleasing recipe in Elizabeth: The Golden Age. Since the first film, Blanchett scored an Oscar for her note-perfect rendition of Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator, and she plays the preternaturally bemused monarch in a similar fashion. By 1585, Elizabeth I is an experienced ruler about to face two of her biggest challenges: betrayal by her Catholic cousin, Mary Stuart (Control's Samantha Morton), and invasion by the Spanish Armada. It isn't so much that the Protestant Elizabeth wishes to rid England of "papists," but that she wants her country to remain free from foreign domination. Closer to her home, she enjoys a sisterly relationship with lady-in-waiting Bess (rising Aussie star Abbie Cornish). That changes when Sir Walter Raleigh (a dashing Clive Owen) hits the scene. In order to continue exploring the New World, he seeks the queen’s sponsorship. She is charmed, but Raleigh only has eyes for Bess. As in the previous picture, Elizabeth enjoys better luck at affairs of state than affairs of the heart, but the conclusion is more beatific than before (and Kapur intends a third installment if Blanchett is willing). Elizabeth: The Golden Age is a rush of royal intrigue, bloody torture, fantastic headpieces, and irresistibly ripe dialogue, like "I have a hurricane in me that will strip Spain bare if you dare to try me!" To Kapur, victory for the Virgin Queen was a viable alternative to sex. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

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Stills from Elizabeth – The Golden Age (click for larger image)

Rating : - This is a MUST see
Okay, so I'm a little impartial; I'm a huge Cate Blanchett fan and also love historical movies. That being said I think this is a great movie, and even better than the first. There has been a lot of criticism that the film is not historically accurate, and while that may be true, it is called historical fiction for a reason; if you're looking for a documentary on Elizabeth I, I would recommend Elizabeth: The Acclaimed Saga of England's Virgin Queen produced by the History Channel. Some people have said this movie is only good for eye candy and that the plot is incidental and weak, that it isn't complex or motivate the viewer to think. While I don't necessarily disagree with this opinion, I would argue that there are at least two types of cinematic styles that can make a film extraordinary. The first is the intellectual type that requires abstract thinking, attention to detail and a good memory, the type of film that when all the pieces fall into place it seems almost like an epiphany. The second type of extraordinary film is one that is poignant, sensuous, ecstatogenic and fills one with exaltation. Elizabeth - The Golden Age is the latter type of film. It truly is sublime in the Romantic sense; attempting to analyze, interpret, and dissect this film will all cause you to miss the point! One can only appreciate the sublime when one ceases to try to comprehend, label, and order it; you can only stand in awe of it and allow it to overwhelm you. This is not to say that one type of film is better than the other, simply that they cannot be appreciated in the same manner. Think of the joy the first time you solved a complex equation or suddenly grasped a complex scientific theory; this is analogous to appreciation of a highly complex detail oriented film. Now think of the first time you heard Beethoven's "Ode to Joy"; you certainly wouldn't have been able to appreciate it if you had approached it in the same analytical fashion as say, the Golden Ratio. So, try to approach this film on its own terms, and you won't be disappointed.