Line #1 YMMV/Elizabeth


1	* AmericansHateTingle: Both movies did very poorly in Catholic majority countries, due to the films both having staunchly and colourfully anti-Catholic biases. Spain in particular was not happy with the second film’s portrayal of the country and UsefulNotes/PhilipII, with a critic calling him "a cackling, Spanish [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Doctor Doom]]."
2	* AwardSnub: A famous example. This was the year of ''Film/ShakespeareInLove'' at the UsefulNotes/{{Academy Award}}s, where Creator/{{Miramax}}'s campaign led to several other films being snubbed in favour of it - such as ''Film/SavingPrivateRyan'' for Best Film. Creator/GwynethPaltrow won for Best Actress over the then relatively unknown Creator/CateBlanchett, something that is still bemoaned by many people over 20 years later.
3	* EsotericHappyEnding: Elizabeth's choice to rule alone pretty much doomed the House of Tudor, a house with no cadet branches, to extinction.
4	* EvilIsCool: In the sequel, many Spaniards were skeptical about portraying UsefulNotes/PhilipII as basically a 16th century [[ComicBook/{{Batman}} Arkham Asylum]] patient, but even some of them found him quite entertaining and with a great soundtrack in his dedicated scenes.
5	* SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments:
6	** A very dark moment as well, but when the heretics are being burned alive at the start of the film, the people watching are clearly sympathetic and struggle with the guards to throw more kindling on the fire, helping them to die quicker.
7	** The moments before Elizabeth's AwesomeMomentOfCrowning. Her ladies-in-waiting - who are clearly her friends too - run in excitedly saying "the Earl of Sussex is here". Elizabeth for a moment realises that she is safe and she has become ''Queen''.
8	** One of the conspirators in the plot to overthrow her is the man who gave her his cloak in the Tower of London. Before his execution, she tells the man "all your many kindnesses are remembered".
9	* HamAndCheese: Creator/JordiMolla is a great actor, but he doesn't fool anyone if he claims he was not having a blast playing the film's psychotic, irredeemably evil King Philip.
10	* HilariousInHindsight: Who plays one of Elizabeth's would-be assassins? [[Creator/DanielCraig Ballard. John Ballard.]].
11	* IronWoobie: Elizabeth herself. If you know her backstory, she was declared illegitimate at the age of three, her mother was put to death before she even knew her, and her sister grew distant from her. The film opens with her sister trying to have her killed, and she must fight other assassination attempts throughout her reign. She powers through and becomes the powerful queen everyone remembers her as.
12	* JerkassWoobie: Despite the brutality of her reign, Mary Tudor is shown to be slightly sympathetic. She has a phantom pregnancy, her husband takes off to Spain because he can't stand her and she comes to accept her mortality.
13	* MagnificentBastard: Sir Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth's ruthless chief [[TheSpymaster spymaster]], is introduced bedazzling a young assassin with flowery words of God and the world's beauty to sway him from his path before slashing his throat. Seeking to secure Elizabeth's throne, Walsingham assassinates Mary of Guise to turn France's anger to the throne so he may ferret out traitors and strengthen Elizbeth's hold. Torturing a priest for the list of traitors, Walsingham organizes their complete annihilation, [[UndyingLoyalty remaining loyal to Elizabeth for the remainder of his life]].
14	* {{Narm}}:
15	** To people who know their history, the bit about Elizabeth not knowing Robert Dudley was already married being used as a WHAMLine. Especially since Elizabeth knew full well about his wife in real life, and actually was at his wedding! You'd also think a queen would know such details about members of her court.
16	** The super-serious sequence of John Ballard walking stone-faced towards Elizabeth, making the sign of the cross in front of her. It's so dramatic it's hilarious.
17	** So much in the sequel. Example would be the part where Bess Throckmorton spins in place for no reason at the end of the battle against the Spanish Armada.
18	** In the sequel, King Phillip in general, as the HistoricalVillainUpgrade and LargeHam performance makes him nearly impossible to take seriously. Solely his utterly strange gait, which makes him resemble a puppet or some kind of disabled person, destroys the character's gravitas whenever shown unobscured.
19	** Philip's dialogue in Spanish is equally hilarious. As if many of his lines didn't sound like a awkward translation of some language that is neither English nor Spanish ("Impossible is not God..."), Mollà's performance, in an agonizingly slow tone marked by all sorts of random pauses and ups and downs, just finishes it.
20	---> '''Philip:''' ''Una dulce señora cristiana... y martirizada por una impía... sin hijos. AHORA LA SANGRE! PAGARÁ! La sangre. Isabel... Bastardaaaa...''
21	** An intentional example:
22	---> '''Sir Walter Raleigh:''' Potatoes. You eat it. Very... nourishing. Tobacco. You breathe its smoke. Very... stimulating.
23	* NightmareFuel: One critic described the first film as "a horror movie masquerading as a historical pageant". Some examples:
24	** The movie opens with a very graphic scene of a woman's head being crudely shaved, drawing blood, before she and two others are burned at the stake for heresy, writhing in agony as the flames envelop them. All the while the woman is reciting a prayer like a MadnessMantra.
25	** As Elizabeth is moved from the Tower of London to her audience with Mary, there are riots in the streets. Someone even jumps onto Elizabeth's carriage, begging her to save them.
26	** Elizabeth is nearly shot with an arrow right as she's having a romantic moment with Robert Dudley in a gondola. It's so sudden [[MoodWhiplash and comes out of nowhere]].
27	** The fate of poor Isabelle - she wears a poisoned dress and dies screaming. As noted under Paranoia Fuel, it's a considerably more crafty way to try and assassinate someone.
28	** Walsingham's assistant being bludgeoned to death at the beach with a rock.
29	** The torture of John Ballard - hung upside-down by the waist and beaten with a flaming torch. By the time we see him, he's visibly in utter agony, bloodied and covered in burns.
30	* OneSceneWonder: Kathy Burke is only in the first act, but her scenes as Mary are some of the most powerful in the film.
31	* ParanoiaFuel: The dress that was given to Elizabeth as a gift, that her hand-maid wore when she went to meet with Dudley. It turned out to be laced with poison. The contrast of her crying in pleasure to screaming in agony as the poison first began to itch and then kill her was a creepy one. That she could do nothing but whimper and die... and her body afterward. ''shudder'' You are left to wonder did she scratch herself till she bled, or was that the poison itself that cause her skin to blister and burst? Either way, it gives one pause when receiving clothes.
32	* RetroactiveRecognition:
33	** Creator/DanielCraig has a small role in the first film as John Ballard, the priest involved in a plot to overthrow Elizabeth.
34	** Though the role was after her debut in ''Film/{{Trainspotting}}'', which is still probably her most iconic performance, Creator/KellyMacdonald is still pretty young as Isabelle, the lady-in-waiting who dies in the poisoned dress.
35	** This was Creator/ChristopherEccleston's first big-budget film role as Norfolk.
36	** Creator/EddieRedmayne is an assassin in the second.
37	** Creator/EmilyMortimer as Kat Ashley, in her fourth film role
38	** Creator/AbbieCornish had one of her first major roles in the second film.
39	** Music/LilyAllen is a lady-in-waiting, while her brother [[Creator/AlfieAllen Alfie]] is Arundel's son. Their mother was a producer on the film.
40	* {{Sequelitis}}: The second film got lower critical reviews than the first, and less awards love. Most people in general feel the first is the stronger of the two.
41	* TearJerker:
42	** The climactic part of the first film where Elizabeth undergoes an ImportantHaircut as a way of removing her femininity and becoming the IronLady her people need her to be. Kat Ashley is in tears as she cuts Elizabeth's beautiful hair.
43	** The conspirators shown sympathetically include a mother of two. She says goodbye to her sleeping children before she is taken away. In her audience with the queen, Elizabeth gives her some relief by saying "you mustn't think we care not for your children".

Context YMMV / Elizabeth