I have always thought the defeat of the Spanish Armada to be one of the best stories of history. This movie gives us a dramatic visual portrayal of that event, and also an inkling of what the political climate was at the time. It seems a bit skewed in some ways, for modern audiences, because females seem to hold the power here. The film struck me most visually– the hairstyles, clothing, interiors really point out how differnet life was lived and how different everything looked. It sets up how far removed the world of Elizabeth I is from our own time and yet how political situations are eternal. Interesting to note that Elizabeth is shown wearing all manner of wigs but everyone else in the film had relatively contemporary looking hairstyles. The film also played around with varied levels of lighting. Almost every scene had candles flickering away in the background. And water was a motif throughout which I think it would be fun to examine more carefully, but then I enjoy that sort of thing.
Of course it was not all intellectual because as the credits were rolling the guy sitting next to me in the theater was confused as to why Mary, Queen of Scots had been executed. “Was she Spanish?” he asked.