Elizabeth I, a Glittering Sapphire amongst the crown jewls.

Elizabeth I of the house of Tudor had one of the more noteworthy reigns in the history of Monarchy. Reigning from November 17, 1558 until her death March 24, 1603, her rule has been highlighted in TV and film. This recent film "Elizabeth the Golden Age" was a sequel to "Elizabeth". "Elizabeth" was an intriguingly dark, and reveling portrait of late 16th century England. This second film is a flop in comparison. As a bibliophile and novice historian, I walked out of the theater personally hurt.
What did they do to my Elizabeth?

My emotional response isn't to the main character or any character in particular. It’s all the characters in play with their situation and the era. Like a classical painting, the reign of Elizabeth I has a fantastic Deus Ex Machina to it. It fits wonderfully in a frame of artistic expression. Step back from the historical factoids; appreciate the elaborate art, music, & poetry, it was a remarkable time to be alive. It was an era of exploration across the globe and into the human consciousness.
These were real people with an unfettered passion for God, Queen, & country. It’s that passion and the terrific timeline that drives TV and Film.
But they got it Wrong.
Shekhar Kapur, you screwed-up.

Shekhar Kapur was the director of "Elizabeth the Golden Era", in this blog I aim to iron out the films portrayed history, and My understanding of what happened. I will also highlight the points he was trying to make, but turned into aesthetic fall-outs. To profile Elizabeth I we have to go back to the first movie. It portrayed her childhood as picturesque, when it was anything but.

Daughter of a King that declared her illegitimate, and executed her mother on charges of treason and witchcraft (miscarriages and failure to produce a male heir), banished from court, never to know her father King Henry VIII. She was raised by a series of care takers and tutors, charming them all, she displaying the wit and intelligence of a political prodigy. This painting at age 13 shows her page marking a book, noting her education and intelligence as a theme throughout all her portraits. She was 13 when King Henry VIII died, he was succeeded by her 9 yr old half brother Edward VI. She was moved within the ranks of the new house, and continued her education. She mastered 6 languages (later a 7th). There was a rumored relationship and seduction between young Elizabeth and Thomas Seymour, Edward VI's uncle from his mother’s side. He was arrested and executed for attempting to kidnap the king, perhaps to marry Elizabeth and claim the thrown himself. Elizabeth was proclaimed innocent from such a conspiracy, quoted on his execution day:
"Today died a man with much wit and not much judgment". The first movie had to hit the ground running and portrayed her as never desiring the crown. In truth even as a child she aimed to rule. Glossing over her turbulent childhood progressed the movie to her ascension to the thrown.

1553 Edward VI died from tuberculosis. Lady Jane Gray, Henry VIII grandniece, came to the thrown. John Dudly hastily arranged a marriage between her and the older of his two sons, Guiliford Dudley. The younger son, Robert Dudley, was rumored to have an intense relationship with Elizabeth I. This relationship was highlighted in the first movie, "He is a traitor like his father before him." Jane Gray was deposed within two weeks for Mary Tudor, Elizabeth’s Catholic half sister. This is where the first movie "Elizabeth" begins.

"Bloody Mary" persecuted heretic protestants, and urged Elizabeth to convert. Elizabeth delicately showed her allegiance to the concern of her people and her conscience. November 1558 Mary Tudor I died, possibly ovarian cancer, and there was rejoicing in the streets of London.
When news reached Elizabeth and pronounced Queen, she quotes Psalm 118:
"This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes".
She was crowned at 25 yrs old.

The film was marvelous, also directed by Shekhar Kapur.
Not every detail is historically accurate.
For example she never actually met Henri, Duke on Anjou and the marriage proposition came from his younger brother. But the films' presentation of this plot thread is absolutely hilarious; it works itself seamless into the film and history. Suitors from all over Europe were asking her hand in marriage, wanting to be King of England. At the same time it is an opportunity to show the humor, wit, and personally of these Royal players. Even with these artistic liberties All of the Major historical events are there, the significance of each recorded fact is played with gripping suspense and drama. The casting of every single character, even the minor ones, stunningly resemble the historical portraits. The religious and political intrigue is portrayed with frightening substance. All in all it is a moving work of art, as Elizabeth journeys from young woman with the crown to The Virgin Queen, unquestioned ruler of England

In the second movie enters with suitors Still trying to court her. Shekhar is trying to thread this movie to right where we left off at the previous. In reality 30 years have past by. Elizabeth is in her 50's. Still fiery and in absolute control, but no longer to be courted.
Then Elizabeth begins acting nutty, and commenting on her age, it flashes back to her youth in the previous movie. Shekhar is flipping right around and trys to give a sense of those years past. Shes paranoid, snappy.
Crowns only sit on troubled brows.
This lack of plotline coordination leaves the audience confused. From the start you feel these actors play acting history, you can't believe any of it from the start.
OK, Mary Queen of Scots from House Stewart was next in line and ploting with the Catholic underground to assassinate Elizabeth. Fine, on with the story. Mary of Scotland was executed for treason 1587, great now we have a sense of time. The conspiracy feels like a game of ping pong. we bounce from the Elizabeth's' court, to Marys' house arrest, to the Catholic underground back and forth so much with similar dialogue. And then at the climax, the divine right of Elizabeth's reign, shes suppose to survive the assassination plot, OK. The assassin pulls out a pistol that is 50 years ahead of the time! Ok the scene was still cool, you get that it was an act of god...Ok.
Enter Sir Walter Raleigh, again great casting. Clive Owen was a big IF when I saw the preview, but the the guy does look and act like the Nobel rascal.
He gets a lot of screen time, and they played up his pirate ties. In truth he suppressed a rebellion and earned some 40,000 acres in Ireland. He readily took up his knighthood and court life. Hardly an outlaw. Found Virginia, Potatos, recited poetry, all nice accurate details. They missed the one where a servant saw him smoking a tobacco pipe and threw a buck of water on him. Smoking being a new novelty.


The film fails to lead up to the Spanish launching its armada. It seems to be all talk and gossip until the last minute crunch of war preparation. Raleigh asked to return to the New World, Elizabeth orders him to stay. The film seems to lead you that she wants him close as a emotional lap dog of sorts, In truth she was demanding every capable sailor to stay put in England, The Spanish will invade any moment now.
The drama completely eclipsed Elizabeth's' tactical forethought.

Again I was let down by the actual battle. I wanted to see hull splintering cannon balls let fly. Volleys of musket fire. Tactical maneuvers being crafted, and risks being calculated.

No, we get a hasty panic of mobilized defences, Some big wigs below deck say were losing were losing were losing. And in a desperate attempt, set one ship on fire and ram it into the enemy formation. The winds pick-up an Cate basks in her divine right as ruler while modeling a cotton commercial on an Irish cliff side, all with in an hour.

Let me straighten out my understanding of what happened.

First the tactical goal of the encounter. The Spanish wanted to destroy or drive away English warships from the channel, securing it for safe passage for army barges. The English just needed to keep ships from landing. The Spanish tactic was to use heavy Gallons loaded with Marines to board and capture ships. These Marines would also be used as the initial landing force. The English depended on their sailors wits and skill with cannons, thanks to Henry the VIII obsession with modern weapons. Their smaller ships were faster, and they kept the mobility advantage by staying up wind. The English knew the enemy strength was boarding with marines, and kept their distance. Also having to fire into the wind, armada ships would heel (tip) exposing below the waterline sections of their hull as targets.

The Spanish had to sail into the English defence formations. Their men taking too long to reload, the English could sail with several small formation groups into weapons range, fire a volley and sail out of range as the Spanish would reload. The Spanish also did not have standardization of their equipment, shot would often not fit the cannon.

Over a week there was only two engagements with the Spanish losing only two ships. Fearful of rocky shores and hidden sandbanks the Spanish armada went north wanting to engage in open seas.
The English had a the homefield advantage of being ably to sail where the Spanish had no idea if it was safe.

With no friendly harbors this far north the Spanish set anchor and spent the night in a tight defencive formation.

At midnight the English sent fireships. Now in the movie portrayed this as a last desperate effort. In actually it was a staple of naval tactics, old or heavily damaged ships were set on fire and set adrift toward the enemy. The movie shows Raleigh steering the ship until the last minute and jumping off. The movie got it wrong again; the idea of a skeleton crew piloting the ship until the last minute is suicide. If the choppy waters didn't drown you the hypothermia would kill you. The movie shows the entire Spanish armada caught ablaze, lighting up the night sky. In reality the Spanish were well aware of this tactic. Two ships were intercepted and simply towed away, and many ships ditched anchor and avoided the collisions, only one Spanish ship was lost.

They did have to scatter and may have made a navigation error trying get back in formation, again English homefield. With the battle taking longer than expected and a whole invasion force to feed below deck, the Spanish were running low on supplies and had to head back. They thought going around Scotland and Ireland would be safer than turning back into the English defensive formations, not knowing the English were out of ammunition to re-engage.

An unusually strong storm system developed in the northeast Atlantic. Climatologists suspect this was the Gulf stream coupled with the late 1500s' accumulation of polar ice off the coast of Greenland. England believed it was the hand of God; it devastated the Spanish armada. Having earlier ditched anchors, the ships had no way to prevent being smashed against the rocky shores of west Ireland. The storm has since been called The Protestant Wind.

You can pick apart this military victory and the political aftermath until you call it a tactical draw, but that doesn't matter. What matters is the English were out numbered, out gunned, and condemned to Hell by the Pope himself. What matters is that Elizabeth did ride her horse to the defensive lines waiting on shore and said:

"I have come amongst you as you see, at this time, not for my recreation and disport, but being resolved in the midst and heat of the battle to live or die amongst you all, to lay down for my God and for my kingdom, and for my people, my honour and my blood, even in the dust. I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too."

Till all are One ?

Till all are one? I am baffled by this motto from the Autobots. How do you interpret that? It begs the question, what are the motives of the Autobots? This motto is reminiscent of other slogans such as: "Workers of the world, unite" or "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need". A bone chilling idea that the Autobots may be promoting an Un-American ideology. The Autobots were the labor class, the proletariat, oppressed by another class. The purist of Bolshevik theory was inevitable one world union of socialists.

Lets explore this idea of the Autobots as proletariat revolutionists.

Pulling modern parallels, 1984 was an intense time for our Bolshie Bots. IRA bombing, Chemical weapons, USSR boycotts Olympics, political unrest in India, crack epidemic, Palestinian hijackings, US trade deficits, homeless vets, AIDS. We didn’t start the fire, but it certainly wasn’t dying down when Transformers debuted.

After the third Cybertronian war the Decepticons do own the means of production, leveraging the labor class’ skills and hard work for their own personal gain. Yet this is not as straight forward as the Russian Revolution of 1917. Autobots were not oppressed by the education, and wealth of a bourgeoisie Decepticon class, it was through blatant violence and Tyranny. To put a model on Decepticon governing policies and principals, it has been brought to my attention that a Shogunate system overlays nicely. Samurai philosophy has often been inspirational literature of the aggressive CEO.

If not the oppressive elite of late 19th century capitalism, could the Decepticons represent the malevolent nature of the modern mega-corporation of the late 20th century?

Transformers G1 was an American show, and at the forefront of American foreign political concern was The Cold War. Both sides of the superpowers standoff anticipated a battlefield of technology, and their modern war-machines became inspiring symbols for each nation. Starscream and his seekers transformed into F-15 Eagles, still today an engineering marvel.

Where did that massive stockpile of American military hardware go anyway?The Mig 29 and SU 27 are both kickass jets as well, but clearly the Depticons are sporting American technology. Being the bad guys of the show, Decepticons can't possibly represent the American people, but of the modern aggressive corporations that flourished under Reaganomics.

As small business markets being dominated, and the government bent to the will of the military industrial complex, do the Autobots rekindle Bolshevik theory.

It seems the transformers struggle parallels American domestic issues. Was Transformers ever about the superpower stand-off of the Time? With historical perspective The Cold War officially ended in 91, but the stand-off really was thawed by the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty of 1987. The USSR stirred the motivation of reform from within, regardless of United States military escalation. By 84 containment was working, sort of. Today we still have Taiwan and South Korea.

If not with Lenin, why are the Autobots chanting "Till all one"

The leader of the Autobots is a red, white, and blue 18-wheeler; easily an American symbol as well.

Fright trucking is the backbone of American and NAFTA economies; transporting billions of tons of freight across all of North America every year. An 18-wheeler is also the means of blue collar entrepreneurship. Trucks being within price range and services always in demand; our red, white, and blue "Chief Optimist" can represents the spirit of the common working class. With the Megacorperation buying and extorting the entire market, small business is reduced to wage slavery. In this light the Autobots become a skilled labor union, fighting to maintain the middle class heart of America.

The timing of this concept is impeccable to the economic situation of the time. In 84 the economy was climbing out of a depression of the mid 70s' stagflation. This is price inflation coupled with low export and consumption, leading to unemployment and recession. A noodle scratchier for the Keynesian economics of the time.

Keynes' model was of a mixed economy, where state and private sector both play a role in market forces. The school of though was total demand for goods and services drove the economy, where demand creates its own supply. The government can price adjust with tax to cool a market, or implement subsidies and spending on infrastructure will heat up a market.

This school of thought had its golden era in FDR's New Deal and through WWII. With the recovery of WWII complete and with each national economy becoming independent, demand for American goods fell. Demand fell and with the oil crisis of 73 and 79 unemployment was on the rise. The Keynesian response would have been government spending, but the USA had never really stopped spending and thus far tolerated the inflation rates.

Government control of particular industries also contributed to supply shortages.

Acknowledging the need for a new economic model there was a swift De-Regulation of thus far tight government controls, one of these being Trucking. The economy was further thrown into chaos as industries forged new standards of wages and prices.

To combat the inflation Paul Volker, the chairmen of the federal reserve in 79, significantly raised interest rates until 83. This time frame called, disinflation session, saw unemployment rates spike since The Great Depression.

This era of desperation and uncertainty was laid on the blue collar class and it is from this we get the creation of the Autobots.

With America in the wake of the Go Go 60s' and the Me Decade 70s', the Autobots fight for the right to work. A return to progress by the sweat from your brow, they fight for fair wages for fair labor, and with every episodes victory shows the indomitable will of the American workforce.

"Till all are one" showed up in the 86 movie, and does not capture their motivations. Blame the writers who also brought you "ba weep gra na weep ninny bom" as the universal greeting.

Robots in Disguise !

With all this new movie Hype I have been reminiscing of the good old days of the classic 1st gen cartoon. And it hit me, Why are the transformers fighting. I don't know, did I ever know. Was all my bot vs. con excitement based on such thin plot that it wasn't even note worthy of my memories? The answer is still inconclusive. Netflix has 1st gen season 1 on the dreaded "availability unknown" list. After a web dive of various site I have assembled a frame work of the motivations behind such an epic battle to span generations, and I am truly impressed.

Back in 84 the plot was quite simple, Decepticons want to conquer the world and frivolously expend our planets resources. Autobots with to share their technology for the good of all humankind in exchange for a launching point to re-take Cybertron. From a collection of various TV series, comic books, and the movie we piece together the full story. The Transformers are pitted in a Civil war.

Their story begins with an original race for framework. Much like the Ancients of StarGate, The Robotech Masters of Macross, our robots in disguise started as slaves from their creator race. The Quintessons twelve million years ago were the original natives of Cybertron, and they liked to build intelligent robots to do everything for them. Robots to labor, robots to protect, robots to entertain. Eventually the Quintessons evolved into cyborgs. Their sentient slaves revolted in a massive war. Eventually a rebel leader arose, A-3. A-3, or Alpha Trion, created a Coda-Remote to shut down the loyalist robot military, The Dark Guardians. The Quintessons retreated across space, and are forever no longer major players in this dimension. After some internal fighting order was established, but the golden age of Cybertron would be brief though. The military and gladiator bots dissatisfied with equality started the Third Cybertronian War, subjecting the labor bots to the lowest of class. A-3 seeing a need to again fight tyranny re-forged a fallen comrade, Orion Pax, into Optimus prime and creating the Autobots.

The Autobots fled Cybertron, found earth, and created a way to transform into native technologies not to disturb the locals. The Decepticons were left with only the most rudimentary understanding of Cybertrons' legendary infrastructure, and energy reserves already spent on nearly endless fighting. Knowing full well that the Autobots if left with some resources and time would easily overtake Cybertron, The Decepticons establish dominance by invading earth.

After all these years I am intrigued by the super-science of this setting, the principles and dynamics of the characters. It has the audacity of 70s' pulp sci-fi, and the vision of late 80s' digital revolution.