Mary, Queen of Scots (VHS, 2000)

This movie was made in 1971, staring a young and fetching Vanessa Redgrave as Mary and Glenda Jackson, fresh from her PBS series as Elizabeth, Both are splendid actresses, quite believable, in their respective roles.

The movie, naturally, compressed many historical events, which results in numerous minor historical inaccuracies. However, it gets the major events right, and follows the course of Mary's fluctuating fortunes, ending with her execution by Elizabeth.

As a flim, the movie is sufficiently dramatic. Vanessa Redgrave, wonderful actress that she has always been, does a great job, demonstrating Mary's flaws; especially Mary's impetuous and naive charcter, which ultimately led to her demise. There is something positively erotic about Mary's vunerable and barely hysterical charcter, as played by Redgrave, qualities amply documented by comtemporary historicans, (Elizabeth, ten years older than Mary, called the later a wily seductress, but apparently not wiley enough, since she ended up on the chopping block). These qualities, erotic vunerability, hysteria, poor politicaql judgement are wll documented by historians, most recently by Alison Weir in her book, 'Mary, Queen of Scots, and the Murder of Lord Darby', (2003).

There is a strong supporting cast that includes Ian Holm, as the "little" Italian, murdered by the Scotttish Lords and Darby. (Is there any role that guy can't play? What a marvelous actor). Patrick McGoohan plays Mary's bastard half brother, Moray, and Nigel Davenport is Mary's third, last, and only powerful husband, the Scottish border lord Boswell.

The plots drags a little at certain moments, by watching a young Vanessa Redgrave more than makes up for the slow moments.

One snag: every movie and t.v. documentary-drama, most recently the HBO two part series "Elizabeth" with Helen Mirren, protrays a face-to-face meeting between Mary and Elizabeth, as does this movie. If there is one fact that all of Mary's and Elizabeth's historians agreed on, it is that the two Queens never met, not even once. For some reason, script writers and directors can not resist the "drama" of Mary and Elizabeth's fabled personal confrontation. It never happened, but seems to good a scene for movie "people" to past up.
Well, that is why Mary, Queen of Scots is a good movie, and worth watching, and owning, but slightly suspect as history.