How accurate was the movie Elizabeth?
A question I dread answering — not very. The portrayal of costumes, customs and the interiors of buildings was absurd. I spied a lady in waiting with a chin length bob, acrylic fingernails on Cate Blanchett, men with razored off “rapper” haircuts. Dress styles spanned decades. The notion that Elizabeth I would have had sex with Robert Dudley in full view of a harem of giggling ladies in waiting is asinine. The interior of the “castle” was completely off, and looked like a cross between the Alhambra and a bad 1930s monster movie. What all those bishops and archbishops were doing wearing black hats like Russian Orthodox priests, I don’t know. Lots of historical events were exaggerated, misrepresented and fictionalized. All in all, the film came off as a desperate attempt to be arty and daring, and I personally just found it inaccurate and absurd. However, it has done a great deal to spark interest in the Tudor rulers, and people want to find out more, so the inaccuracies don’t do a lot
