Elizabeth Cert. 15 Director: Shekhar Kapur
You could watch this film merely as a political thriller dressed in doublet and hose, but as a Christian, if you do, you've been taken in.
A young and vulnerable woman ascends the throne in a time of religious controversy, low morals and political instability. The nation is divided, ill-defended and far from prosperous economically. The film depicts the unseemly scrabble for power behind the throne. There are plots and counter-plots, alliances and misalliances, lies and dissembling.
No wonder Elizabeth I is confused; so is the audience. She plays one suitor off against another, and finally literally cuts off all this wrangling and scheming in a bloody purge. She survives to reign supreme over a golden age of which she becomes quite deliberately the figurehead, thus uniting a divided nation.