Mary, Queen of Scots (1971)

reviewed by
Brian Koller


Mary, Queen of Scots (1971)
Grade: 71

Religious warfare threatens the British Isles. Elizabeth (Glenda Jackson) is the protestant Queen of England. Mary (Vanessa Redgrave) is the Catholic Queen of Scotland. Both nations have Catholic and Protestant princes and lords with ambitions to be King. There is little tolerance on either side: Protestants are heretics, Catholics are papists. Catholics consider Elizabeth a bastard since she is not the daughter of King Henry's first wife. The politics are labyrinthian.

Mary lives happily in France with her husband. Unfortunately, her husband dies a dramatic death. Her Catholic advisers push her to go to Scotland to claim her title as Queen. She does go, but it is not as planned. Elizabeth takes her stable of horses, denies her entrance to England, and Mary makes an ignomious landing in Scotland. There, she is surrounded by hostile Protestant Lords who tolerate her but despise her Catholic court. She is to be a puppet ruler, with real power in the hands of James Stuart, her Protestant brother.

Crafty Elizabeth sends Lord Darnley (Timothy Dalton) to Scotland, to woo and wed Mary. Her plan succeeds, and we soon learn that Dalton is unstable, bisexual, controlling and grasping. Mary finally sends him away, but not before becoming pregnant. Dalton is kidnapped by Scottish lords. He begs like a coward for his life. He signs a death pact against Mary. The lords take Mary's castle, killing her Catholic minister, but spare Mary since her child can be the future King unifying England and Scotland, raised as a Protestant.

Mary converts Dalton back to her side, escapes the lords, and somehow ends up back in control of Scotland. Mary gives birth to a son. She takes loyal subject Lord Bothwell as a lover. Meanwhile, Dalton's sexual escapades have given him the pox. He is denied the Queen's bedside and ends up wearing sheets over his black-spotted face. Meanwhile, the Scottish lords seek vengeance on Dalton since he betrayed their blood pact. They try blowing up his castle, but Dalton escapes, only to be strangled. Bothwell has arranged the murder.

Bothwell also has a wife, but she has conveniently died also, freeing Bothwell to wed Mary. This is quite a scandal, giving the ever-ambitious Scottish lords the needed excuse to campaign against Mary and take her castle. Mary is forced to abdicate, exiled to England, where Elizabeth imprisons her "for her protection".

Mary spends many years in prison. She makes the mistake of joining plots to murder Elizabeth, with the King of Spain and the Pope as co-conspirators. Elizabeth's advisors want Mary executed. Elizabeth is reluctant to execute her cousin. She has a private meeting with Mary (they never met in real life). Elizabeth wants a written apology, but Elizabeth refuses, preferring to be a martyr. There is a trial, which the director chooses to skip over, the sooner to get to the execution scene, which Mary meets bravely.

One can complain that of the two characters who are bisexual men, one of them is an incredible jerk, and both meet their death cowardly.

"Mary, Queen of Scots" is not historically accurate. It doesn't have to be. It is a movie and not a documentary. "Schindler's List" wasn't accurate either, according to his still-living ex-wife. The cinematography is superb. (Do you ever wonder how the post-Medieval English court kept their lawns so well manicured?) The costumes are great, and the acting, while often hammy, is entertaining. It is a two hour soap opera laden with plot and action. The two queens have all the power, but are surrounded by men who want to take it.

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