British history is a particular passion of mine, and i watched this film when it was released in theatres way back when. The gorgeous Vanessa Redgrave, and the incomparable Glenda Jackson! Who could resist viewing a film with these two actors? i felt compelled to write this very late review because i have an opinion about history recording that Mary and Elizabeth never met. Elizabeth had access and motive to meet secretly with her cousin, who's parents gave her father Henry fits. She could also control royal scribes. i personally don't believe that the two never met. And if they had, o what a scene it must have been. This film is remarkable in that. The movie was rather harsh with Elizabeth; she had passion plenty, but she put her crown and her head first. Looking at how close she came to death herself, and how improbable her accession to the throne was, i don't blame her. Technically, she was illegitimate, and Mary was a legitimate descendant of Henry VII. But Elizabeth had the sense to surround herself with loyal, political geniuses, as she herself was. Mary did not. She most likely knew about the plan to murder her husband, her cousin who shared the same grandmother.That might explain her son James and his short of divine character and physique. But he did become king, and he did unite Scotland and England in his way, despite centuries of feuding. So in spite of herself, Mary lost her head but was victorious in the end. So far, i think this is the best Mary of Scots film to date. Even after all these years, the music from this film still moves me...ever notice that the music from films about Elizabeth and Mary are usually beautiful?..and Nigel Davenport! I'm staying tuned for the hopeful 2008 release with Scarlett Johansson. It's interesting to speculate about whom they enlist as the director...

I love period films, I love late legendary John Barry's music and I like Glenda Jackson, Vanessa Redgrave and Patrick McGoohan a lot. Mary, Queen of Scots was a truly wonderful film, true some of the history is suspect but I was past caring because everything else was done so brilliantly. First and foremost, the film does look gorgeous, the costumes are elegant with many touches of authenticity, the cinematography is crisp and the scenery is lush. The script is literate, thoughtful and poignant, the direction efficient and the story well paced and compelling. The acting is a marvel, Vanessa Redgrave is a very convincing and regal Mary, and Patrick McGoohan an excellent James, but Glenda Jackson who embodies Elizabeth is a revelation. The real heart of the film comes from John Barry's score, which for me is not only his best but also one of his most beautiful and moving. All in all, wonderful. 10/10 Bethany Cox

The tragedy of Mary Stuart of Scotland is that she never could put boundaries between her heart and her needs and the necessity of sacrificing those for the realm you rule. This is the contrast that so many writers have been fascinated with, the contrast between her cousin and rival Elizabeth of England.

Mary, Queen of Scots has the story start where it properly belongs in France where the Queen Consort of the sickly Francis II has two deaths happen to her which forever alter her life. Her husband the king and her mother Mary Of Guise who has been ruling Scotland as regent for her daughter. At the same time Mary attains her majority and decides to rule in Scotland as her mother-in-law Katherine Kath playing Catherine DeMedici really doesn't want her around.

Her brothers the Duke of Guise and Cardinal Guise belonged to a family that was described as more Catholic than the Pope. They were real big on stamping out the Protestant heresy which was growing on the British Isles. Her mission was bring back the old religion.

Like John Ford's Mary Of Scotland the film turns on the performances and rivalries Vanessa Redgrave as Mary and Glenda Jackson as Elizabeth. Katharine Hepburn and Florence Eldridge played Mary and Elizabeth in the Ford film and Redgrave and Jackson are every bit their equal. Jackson in fact probably made Elizabeth I her career role because this same year she starred in a six part mini-series for the BBC, Elizabeth R. The story of Mary and Elizabeth is part of that as well.

Mary made her decisions impulsively and was as likely to consult her hormones before her gray cells. She married three times first to Francis (Richard Denning),then Lord Darnley played by Timothy Dalton, and finally and most impulsively Lord Bothwell played by Nigel Davenport who threw his own wife out. Each was a different type of man, but all the marriages ended disastrously. With Darnley she gave birth to James who became James VI of Scotland and eventually James I of England.

Elizabeth on the other hand had her passions, but her realm always came first. Glenda Jackson is quite the calculating machine, her scene with Trevor Howard as her chief minister William Cecil where she sends both Dalton and her lover Daniel Massey as Robert Dudley later Earl Of Leicester to Mary and explaining how if Mary chooses either, she Elizabeth will wind up a winner. We call it a win/win situation six centuries later, but Elizabeth was a tough survivor and was lucky to be Queen. That took an incredible combination of circumstances and to get an idea about that one should see the Jean Simmons film, Young Bess.

The smartest guy in the film is Patrick McGoohan who plays the Earl Of Moray. He was Mary Stuart's illegitimate half brother, a tried and true Protestant, but knew how to play the religious and political game which blended so often in that and the next two centuries. If Mary had listened to him, she'd have died a Queen although maybe without all the royal prerogatives.

Mary, Queen Of Scots's story has been told on stage, screen, and even the grand opera. It's one about human frailty and losing all for love and every human on planet earth can identify with that. This telling of the story of Mary, Queen Of Scots is a good one, but by no means will be the last.