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When I received this DVD package, the shrink wrap had a "Made in Mexico" sticker on it, a fact that appears not at all to have affected the quality of these excellent film prints. This film leans more toward the latter view, so the correctness of the history here is somewhat called into question. This film was more difficult for the writers in that Mary Stuart was looked at, and is still viewed, differently by various people and factions some still consider her to be conniving and evil while others see her as a heroine and a heraldic victim of Elizabeth I. This film runs for 2 hours, 12 minutes. Mary returns to Scotland from France where her husband (the king) had died and so she accedes as the rightful heir to the Scottish throne. These two DVDs (in a single package) are high-up amongst the treasures of my ever-expanding film collection and I highly recommend them.
The focus of this 1969 film is centered on how Anne, having seen her own older sister's mistake of becoming Henry's mistress and receiving nothing, learned to exploit her own sexual power over the King to entice him into marriage. Still, he married Anne who produced yet another female child, Elizabeth. Secondly, all the scenes are brightly lit and colorful, thereby overcoming a frequent problem with films such as these.
Still, "Mary Queen of Scots" seems a natural sequence for this movie package. Perhaps if the distributor would have included Cromwell (1970, Richard Harris) it would have been the ultimate CD package ever, (considering the great price in this instance). Vanessa Redgrave plays Mary Queen of Scots (Mary Stuart) and Glenda Jackson plays her cousin, Elizabeth I. . was composed by Georges Delerue. You get two DVDs packaged in a single case, each individually labeled.
This film was directed by Charles Jarrott and the original music (very good). The scenes, sets, scenery, and casting are all excellent here. The tale is a complicated one but this film yields the story in a coherent and comprehensible manner. (So do you see why the next film in this package is "Mary Queen of Scots"). Both movies are Universal releases and they are beautifully conveyed in color, letterbox format. She is portrayed as both evil (in her power-monging) and good (as a devoted mother). I'll stop there to avoid a spoiler but most folks are aware of the conclusion of this sordid tale.
In order to rid himself of Catherine and marry Anne, Henry had to proclaim himself to be head of the church of England, thus the Pope had him ex-communicated. You probably know what happened with Anne as a result of her failure to produce a male heir for Henry but I'll stop there anyway. Her half-brother becomes her advisor but he clearly has his own agenda. At one point, she is forced to meet with her cousin Elizabeth face-to-face in England (a "fact" which many astute historians still assert never happened) and the meeting does not turn out to Mary's benefit. She had a child, Mary, but produced no male heir which Henry desperately desired. It was directed by Charles Jarrott and the original music was by John Barry and Sidney Margo (the latter being uncredited).
The story is a well-known one about the first failed marriage of Henry VIII of England and his solution to rid himself of this unwanted wife so that he could pursue his lust with a second, the lovely Anne Boleyn (circa 1525 C.E). It runs at an epic length for a full 2 hours, 26 minutes. You can tell which way the wind is going to blow in the film, though, because Elizabeth is made up to LOOK mean and evil while Mary's appearance is lovely. The second film of the package, "Mary Queen of Scots," is of course a follow-up to the first movie, albeit Henry VIII had many wives after Anne Boleyn and a great deal of politics transpired in the period between the two. This is a pretty fair rendering of the actual story. "Anne of the Thousand Days" is the superior of the two entries for a couple of reasons. Henry was initially guided to marry his recently dead older brother's wife (Catherine, a Catholic), a princess of Spain whom was said to have not consummated her marriage with Henry's brother.
Mary makes some missteps in love and in marriage which is mostly what led to her ultimate demise. Again, this is a fine film and while it's not quite as good as "Anne of the Thousand Days," it still fully earns the five stars. First, it stars Richard Burton whom, as expected, plays his role brilliantly. Here we have two terrific films, appropriately packaged together. The cinematography in this 1971 feature is excellent and the brisk writing moves this one right along, again a frequent complication with such films.
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The movie also suffers from the admittedly difficult task of telling the long life story of a person without losing dramatic effect. But as it does, it unfortunately shortchanges the the most dramatic and important episodes of Mary's lifenamely, the allegations of consipiracies that led to her execution and the trial. No, I'm referring to the depiction of Mary's relationship with Lord Bothwell.
It backfired with the very lords who consipired with Bothwell turned against him, and eventually against Mary. Complicated, yes. In the movie she falls in love with the bawdy Scottish Lord who killed her husband, Darnley. But not only true, but more interesting than the love sick Queen falling for a Scottish hunkas it is depicted in the film. She married Bothwell only to accomodate the lords and to bring peace. I am not referring to the typical charge that Mary never met Elizabeth, which is a mistake made not only in "Mary, Queen of Scots," but in other movie treatments of Mary (such as the recent British television series on Elizabeth). Again, understandable for a movie, but if you want the truth about Mary, read Fraser's book.
Bothwell actually kidnapped and raped Mary. That is how she lost her crown. He then told her all of this was done at the request of her powerful lords.
In reality, as you would see from reading the definitive biography of Mary by Antonia Fraser, Mary was actually a victim of not only Bothwell's treachery, but that of the other Scottish lorders who plotted with Bothwell to kill Darnley. Therefore, I'm going to be tiresome.
Mary completely lost her head in love only once, and it was NOT for Bothwell, but for the hapless Darnley whom he murdered. The movie rushes through Mary's life in a bewildering blur of changing scenes and costumes. The movie "Mary, Queen of Scots" was very nice to look at, but it fell into the movie industry's natural temptations to sensationalize at the expense of historical accuracy(why that was necessary is beyond me, since her life was sensational enough as it was).
I realize it can be tiresome for reviewers to expect popular history movies to be on the spot when it comes to historical accuracy, but frankly these movies are sometimes all the general public has to make historical judgements. Some of the very people who should have been protecting her (including her half brother) then concocted conspiracy theories to defame her good nameall to make way for them to rule in her absence.
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