Review of Elizabeth: The Golden Age
In a world of mindless films about super heros and comic book characters, it’s nice to see that every once in a while Hollywood gets it right.
In a world of mindless films about super heros and comic book characters, it’s nice to see that every once in a while Hollywood gets it right.
When I first heard that Oliver Stone was planning on making a movie about George W. Bush, while he was still in office, I didn’t think it was a good idea. Now that I’ve seen the film, I still don’t think it was a good idea. This movie is weak in every way, except for the performance of Josh Brolin and even here I had some issues.
I can see the problems the marketing people had with this film. Who wants to see a film about the guy who invented the intermittent windshield wiper? But this film is every bit as interesting as two of last year’s best picture nominations: Frost/Nixon and Milk.
It all starts with the excellent script by Michael Stracznski. He acurately walks the viewer through the details and shows exactly how the arrogance of the police and doctors and their unwillingness to admit their mistakes led them to make such egregious errors.
This is the true story of how a group of skilled printers and artists were used by the Nazis to forge documents, passports, and foreign currency including the British pound and the American dollar. All of this took place within the compounds of a concentration camp.
The filmmakers try to make the film as fair and balanced as possible. But by simply portraying the truth it becomes apparent that everything was leaning in Bush’s favor. Still, that doesn’t take away from the drama. Everytime it looks like one side would prevail, another decision is handed down by some court giving the adavntage to the other side.