Revealing: At the scene where Mary of Guise is found dead by her nephew, he lays down on her and puts his head on her chest. As he comes down, her eyes slap shut! If she were dead, they would remain open.
Movie news
Great sites
Trivia
The film rolls two conspiracies against Elizabeth into one. The first was the Ridolfi plot of 1571, in which the Duke of Norfolk was executed and Arundel arrested. The second culminated in 1586 when a priest named John Ballard was sent by the Pope to coordinate an English Catholic rebellion that would clear the way for an Italian invasion. As far as we know, Sussex and Dudley were not involved in any treachery as alleged in the film. Importantly, the film makes scarce mention of Elizabeth's cousin Mary, Queen of Scots (as a Catholic it was she who the rebels wished on the English throne and she played a central role in all the conspiracies). See more...
Movie Mistakes blog
Popular blog posts:
15 biggest Harry Potter mistake pictures
Elizabeth (1998) - 8 major mistakes
Directed by Shekhar Kapur, starring Cate Blanchett, Christopher Eccleston, Geoffrey Rush, Richard Attenborough (add more)
Factual error: Sir William Cecil was only 38 at Elizabeth's accession, hardly the old man portrayed. Actually created Lord Burghley in 1571 (the film must end in the mid-1560s, as at the end it states that Elizabeth reigned for another forty years; she died in 1603), he was never retired by Elizabeth, but remained her chief minister for the rest of his life. He died in 1598.
Factual error: Lord Robert Dudley was created Earl of Leicester in 1564 and remained in favour with Elizabeth for the rest of his life, although she did refuse to marry him.
Factual error: Another one of the blindingly obvious historical inaccuracies of this film - Elizabeth was perfectly well aware that Dudley was married. She only distanced herself when his wife died in possibly suspect circumstances and rumours that she died so Dudley could marry Elizabeth emerged.
Continuity: When the guards come to take Elizabeth away in the beginning, before she is queen, Lord Dudley has his back to the camera and is saying goodbye to her. You can distinctly see the clasp of a necklace on the back of his neck, but in the next few shots, there's nothing there.
Factual error: Sir Francis Walsingham was only a year older than Elizabeth.
Factual error: Elizabeth was arrested and sent to the Tower in 1554, but was then placed under house arrest at Woodstock (not Hatfield) for four years.
Factual error: Although King Phillip II did send an ambassador to congratulate Elizabeth while Mary was dying, he did not propose marriage until a year later.
You may also like: Elizabeth: The Golden Age | Final Destination | Star Trek: First Contact | The Last Samurai | Van Helsing
Message boards
No discussions yet
Register as a member to post a message
The message boards are meant for discussing things with other users, rather than making submissions/corrections. By all means feel free to post what you like here, but for anything to be looked at properly and entered into the "official" section please use the "submit something" link in the navigation bar. Any members who post offensive content will have their accounts blocked. This is also not the place to contact Jon (who runs the site (although the members who help him check are a BIG help)) - for that, please use the contact form.