Review of Anonymous – the DVD

By Dean McCleland in Movies & DVDs 0 Comment

Summation:  Revisionist history of Elizabeth I and William Shakespeare

Rating: 4 out of 5

If you are one that prefers one’s historical facts and characters to be a facsimile of reality, do not switch on your DVD player. How is this for some revisionist history: Shakespeare is a an illiterate inarticulate actor who battles to thank the actors and audience at the closure of a play and a young queen Elizabeth who has a number of sizzling affairs the product of which is an illegitimate son, Edward, who is adopted by a nobleman.

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Elizabeth – the Movie

By Dean McCleland in Movies & DVDs 0 Comment

Summation: Lush production highlighting the intrigue, politics and religious conflict during this era

Rating: 5 out of 5

This was certainly not a carefree period for a monarch to reign in England let alone a woman. By breaking with the Catholic Church when the Pope would not grant him a divorce, King Henry VIII had formed the Church of England. This had caused a rift with the Catholic Church. Queen Mary 1, Elizabeth’s half-sister was fiercely Catholic whereas Elizabeth was just as committed religiously but as a Protestant. As such Mary despised Elizabeth and attempted to convert her to Catholicism. Mary’s advisors, chiefly the Duke of Norfolk, attempted to have Elizabeth executed for treason. Mary agreed to her being send to the Tower but relented and instead put her under house arrest. Before she can again be convinced to execute her, Queen Mary 1 dies of ovarian cancer.

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