Elizabeth - DVDfever.co.uk

Elizabethtakes you back in time in 1554 when England was ruled by Queen Mary I, aCatholic letting out all her agression on the Protestants in a fatal style.She tries her illegitimate sister, Elizabeth, for treason but fails to do soand when Mary dies, Elizabeth becomes crowned the Queen of England. Oppositionis all around, but she is determined to fight back and keep her position.

This is one of two period dramas from 1998 which were brought to the fore aftermany Oscar and BAFTA nominations, the other being Shakespeare In Love,but Elizabeth only scored over the Bard with Best Makeup. It previouslywon the Golden Globe Best Actress Award for Cate Blanchett, an award itwould win again from BAFTA along with Best Film and others. It’s worth notingthat two of this cast also starred in the other critically-acclaimed drama,namely Joseph Fiennes and Geoffrey Rush.

This film certainly has quite a cast. As well as an Australian playing an EnglishQueen, Joseph Fiennes, plays her favourite suitor, the Earl of Leicester.Leading the revolt against Elizabeth is the Duke of Norfolk (Cracker‘sChristopher Eccleston) while Sir Francis Walsingham (Geoffrey Rush)strikes back. The cast is completed with Kathy Burke as Queen Mary,Richard Attenborough as Sir William Cecil, kung-fu footballer EricCantona as a rival suitor to Elizabeth, Monsieur de Foix, Trainspotting‘sKelly Macdonald as one her ladies-in-waiting, Sir John Gielgud asthe Pope and TV’s “Mr. Sex”, Angus Deayton as the Chancellor of theExchequer in a very brief role.

Of the large cast, Blanchett, Eccleston and Rush easily earn theirpay-cheques, while the rest appear to read their lines without much thought andthen move on.

For picture quality, this release is not all that it could be. As withThe Big Lebowski, in some scenes there are obvious artifacts on viewin the form of glitches onscreen. It happens where stationary pixelsonscreen are next to moving ones – the method used for compressing the dataon DVDs – but it doesn’t work quite well. Most other times, small artifacts arenoticeable even from the normal viewing distance.

The average bitrate is a very good 6.30Mb/s, sometimes peaking over 9Mb/sand the disc is 16:9-enhanced for widescreen televisions allowing 33% extraresolution. The film is presented in its original widescreen ratio of 1.85:1.

The sound is excellent though, with crystal-clear dialogue and classic music,such as “Nimrod” from Elgar’s “Enigma Variations”, presented in Dolby Digital5.1 in two languages, being downmixed to Dolby ProLogic for those without therequisite equipment.

Extras : Chapters :There are 21 chapters to choose from during the 119 minutes of the film,but no theatrical trailer is to be found. Languages & Subtitles :

The languages coming in two Dolby Digital 5.1 channels, English and German,while subtitles are available for these two plus Dutch. English subtitlesgive you a “deaf and hard of hearing” option which means that any majorsound effects are also included within square brackets and displayed onscreen.

Featurettes :

There are three featurettes available, totally 24 minutes :Interviews with the cast and crewThe Making of ElizabethBehind The Scenes

Menu :

The menu is static and navigating is easy, but with the “Widescreen TV” settingenabled, for watching an anamorphic presentation, the menu appears squashed atfirst but does sort itself out after a short while. It also contains a few staticshots from the film including a couple of Cate in her full regalia. The copyrightinfo can be bypassed by accessing a previously bookmarked scene.

Overall, the only problem with Elizabeth is that it’s a slow-moving dramawhich can be off-putting, but if you stick with it, it’s worth a watch for theglorious set-design and first-rate acting from the aforementioned Cate Blanchett,Geoffrey Rush and Christopher Eccleston.

The featurettes are fairly interesting, but you might not go back to them too often,while the lavish booklet contains brief biographies of principal cast members, plusdirector Shekhar Kapur, all in three languages, but one has to ask why we don’t get atrailer or the director’s commentary which American DVD owners are treated to.FILM : ***PICTURE QUALITY : ***½SOUND QUALITY: *****EXTRAS: **——————————-OVERALL: ***½

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Dom Robinson

Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.

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