Movie Review

Review:

     Modernity - Modernity is a term used to designate an ensemble of particular socio-cultural norms, attitudes, and practices. In the movie Elizabeth: The Golden Age many characters and events show a clear push towards modernity and occasionally a push away from modernity. The movie shows certain events such as the construction of a naval fleet at the cost of an entire forest. This is clearly a push towards modernity in the form of modernizing warfare. In the same sense the movie also shows several pushes away from modernity. For example the movie stresses the intensity of the “holy war.” This intensity involves hanging and torturing people because of their religious views. It is also important to think in terms of perspective. In many scenes countries like Spain would be actively moving towards modernity. That being said countries like Great Britain might not see Spain’s advancement as a push towards modernity. Other aspects of modernity are the advancement in science and the idea of exploration. We see the advancement of science in the form of astrology. Instead of basing all of the known world off of religion, we see the beginning of science taking over as a much more realistic idea. As for the movie plot, my personal opinion is that Elizabeth’s underlying desire for adventure is one of the most key points. Elizabeth consistently brings up her desire to explore. The importance of exploration during the renaissance was tremendous, and Elizabeth's desire to partake is important to the film. The movie was able to capture our attention relatively well however at times it was a bit difficult to understand. The costumes and scenery were amazing and in our opinion accurately captured the time period.