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the audience applauded

Great Film overall

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Nice castles. Nice scenery. Pity about the phony accents, acting, writing, direction. The story of the wretched and unfortunate Mary is one ghastly never-ending muddle and mess, end to end. I never did manage to sort out the ramifications of her dealings with the Catholics and Protestants, the King of France, Darnley, Bothwell and Rizzio, not to mention her half-brother, and this screenplay is no help. It is talkative, and presumably this is why Mary and Elizabeth are presented as meeting not once but twice, but very little is made clearer by these silly, pointless, fictitious encounters.The actors come across as puppets pulled around by strings, spouting unconvincing artificial dialogue. Vanessa is far too physically angular, and unsympathetic, to play Mary; Glenda looks unwell throughout. McGoohan seems unusually constipated. None of these characters, Darnley, Bothwell, and so on seem at all real, let alone royal. Anyone less likely to go mad than Nigel Davenport is difficult to imagine. This is not a good film. Five Oscar nominations ? Incredible. Trevor Howard wasn't too bad. All the other Tudor film histories are better than this one.

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

Surely it's not historically accurate, but who cares? It's great fun. In fact it has the slyness & humor that THE LION IN WINTER buried beneath its pretensions. Vanessa Redgrave is excellent as Mary, the Scottish queen who married the King of France only to be drummed out his country by his rotten family...unwelcome in England, she returns to Scotland intent on remaining on the throne. A lot of people around her (as well as England's Queen Elizabeth) have other ideas. There are scoundrels everywhere and the movie plays like a game of chess with real people! Mary faces one trial or tribulation after another, dealing with her turncoat brother and bisexual (second) husband as well as the local holy men. Redgrave's performance is matched by the great cast: Patrick McGoohan, Timothy Dalton, and Ian Holm (who steals his scenes as the "little Italian"). Glenda Jackson plays Queen Elizabeth and she's dynamite. Yes, the two Queens have a couple of confrontations and yes, historical purists will argue that they'd never actually met, but it doesn't matter...it's an extremely well made, well-written and even suspenseful film. This is the second film (after ISADORA) that helped to show off Redgrave's immense talent and versatility.

Even though Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I, Queen of England never met, this is a brilliant film. Vanessa Redgrave is perfect in the role of Mary. She is such a wonderful actress. She plays the Scottish Queen in all her arrogance and deviousness. She looks and sounds magnificent throughout. Glenda Jackson is magnificent as Elizabeth I. She is so powerful and such a clever actress. What a great loss it is that she became a politician. Her great scene with Redgrave must be one of the classics of acting between two great actresses. Timothy Dalton is great as the devious and weak fop Lord Darnley and Nigel Davenport is incredible as the rugged Earl of Bothwell. The casting gets better with Trevor Howard as William Cecil, Ian Holm as David Rizzio and Patrick McGoohan as the half-brother James Stuart. Katherine Kath is suitably odious as Queen Catherine de Medici and Vernon Dobtcheff is highly suitable as the Duke of Guise, Mary's manipulative Uncle. Robert Fox is absolutely right as John Knox. The script is very clever, the scenery magnificent and the costumes incredible.