Mary, Queen of Scots 1971

Reviews (13)

1. M

   Michael501 📺 8 月 23, 2026

   1971 In Review – December #9 Mary, Queen of Scots (Vanessa Redgrave), teenage wife to the king of France, returns to Scotland after her husband’s death. Elizabeth Tudor (Glenda Jackson), believing her cousin Mary and her Roman Catholic beliefs to be a political threat, creates romantic dilemmas to distract her. Mary’s subsequent marriage to Lord Darnley (Timothy Dalton), her relationship with courtier David Riccio (Ian Holm), and a third marriage to Lord Bothwell (Nigel Davenport) lead to her abdication and exile. This film holds a special place for me, as i remember watching it in history class at school with my first crush. Plus I am a sucker for these kind of Elizabethan historical epics. I mean, just look at…

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2. N

   Niall Urquhart 8 月 23, 2026

   I remember this film having a very high reputation when I was young so, watching it now for the first time, I found it quite disappointing. It compared very badly to A Man For All Seasons, for example. I really liked Vanessa Redgrave but for the most part this film was far too stagey and, frankly, quite silly. In fact, I assume it was an inspiration for Monty Python And The Holy Grail.

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3. L

   Luke Thorne 8 月 23, 2026

   Vanessa Redgrave stars in Charles Jarrott’s Oscar-nominated dramatization of the life of the 16th-century Scottish queen. Glenda Jackson co-stars as her cousin and rival, England’s Queen Elizabeth I. This historical drama directed by Charles Jarrott is made very watchable because it is based on true events, and by viewing this film, you will definitely learn something in the process. Vanessa Redgrave gives a superb performance in her role as the title character Mary, Queen of Scots (also known as Mary Stuart), acting like she was born to play the part. She suits the role very well. Glenda Jackson is also really good in her role as Elizabeth I, who sees her cousin Mary as her biggest rival and all she…

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4. I

   Ian 8 月 23, 2026

   Apex Mountain for Scotland? Need the Sofia Coppola treatment of this story (or was that basically the Mary Queen of Scots movie that already came out sometime this last decade?).

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5. H

   Hannah Lynch 8 月 23, 2026

   It’s not Pride Month without platinum blonde Timothy Dalton acting like a deranged, chaotic, bisexual for an hour “straight” You gotta love the fact that Letterboxd’s plot synopsis for Mary, Queen of Scots covers every aspect of Mary Stuart’s life EXCEPT the parts that are portrayed in this film 😅 An excellent cast of Britain’s finest and some cheekily camp performances prevent this Elizabethan costume drama from being stuffy. Running over two hours, Mary, Queen of Scots never outstays its welcome as there’s always some vengeful backstabbing moving the plot along. Most of the unfolding drama is to the detriment of our lead, whose existence frequently threatens her cousin, Queen Elizabeth of England. As a basic rundown or refresher of…

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6. M

   Merkin Muffley 8 月 23, 2026

   was just wondering if they would get into mary’s husband being gay and the next scene he (timothy dalton) {james bond} was in bed with ash from alien and they were kissing each other’s rings

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7. E

   Ewan Cameron McIntosh 8 月 23, 2026

   Mary, Queen of Scots is a surprisingly great period-piece melodrama from the early-1970s that features strong production design, costume design, and period detail, nice location shooting in England and Scotland, a great Oscar-nominated score from John Barry, and an insanely stacked cast that features Vanessa Redgrave as Mary and Glenda Jackson as Elizabeth I, and Ian Holm and Timothy Dalton in supporting roles. Dalton in particular is having an absolute ball as Henry, Mary’s first husband, and his scenes with Vanessa Redgrave are electric and easily the best part of the film. Considering how great their chemistry is, it’s no wonder the pair of them had an on/off romantic relationship for fifteen years after this film came out.

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8. M

   mrbalihai 8 月 23, 2026

   Radio Announcer: (John Cleese) And that concludes this weeks episode of ‘How to Recognize Different Parts of the Body’ adapted for radio by Ann Hayden-Jones and her husband Piff. And now we present the first episode of a new radio drama series, ‘The Death of Mary, Queen of Scots.’ Part One: The Beginning. (Music) Man’s Voice: You are Mary, Queen of Scots? Woman’s Voice: I am! (sound of violent blows being dealt, things being smashed, awful crunching noises, bones being broken, and other bodily harm being inflicted. All of this accompanied by screaming from the woman.) (Music fades up and out) Announcer: Episode Two of ‘The Death of Mary, Queen of Scots’, can be heard on Radio Four almost immediately.…

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9. T

   Tim Brayton 8 月 23, 2026

   Clearly weaker than the same production team’s undervalued Anne of the Thousand Days, to which it unofficially serves as a sequel. Like that film, it strains and slows down in its scenes of politics and diplomacy. Unlike that film, it doesn’t have very much else besides those scenes. Still, the production value is off the charts, and the cast ranges from solid to exceptional. Oscar nominee Vanessa Redgrave is on the lower end of that range: she suffers from a screenplay that insists on rendering Mary Stuart as an earnest romantic, too good and pure to have any of the unspoken layers of all the best Redgrave characters. But she acquits herself well enough within those limitations, particularly during the…

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10. W

    Will Steele 8 月 23, 2026

    Fun fact, Glenda Jackson wasn’t acting. She’s just a queen.

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11. B

    Brandon 🕸️ 8 月 23, 2026

    Glad I watched this instead of the Super Bowl… Vanessa Redgrave got the Oscar nomination here but… Glenda Jackson and Timothy Dalton are the performances that will stay with me. Jackson chews up and spits out every single piece of scenery and has so many literal yas queen moments. And Dalton is a treat, too—so vain and toxic and pathetic all at the same time.

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12. C

    Cinema_Snobb 8 月 23, 2026

    Mary, Queen of Scots (Vanessa Redgrave), teenage wife to the king of France, returns to Scotland after her husband’s death. Elizabeth Tudor (Glenda Jackson), believing her cousin Mary and her Roman Catholic beliefs to be a political threat, creates romantic dilemmas to distract her. Mary’s subsequent marriage to Lord Darnley (Timothy Dalton), her relationship with courtier David Riccio (Ian Holm), and a third marriage to Lord Bothwell (Nigel Davenport) lead to her abdication and exile. The movie is fairly long and is padded a bit. I prefer it, however to the 2018 film starring Margot Robbie and Saoirse Ronan. The performances are top notch. Vanessa Redgrave as Mary received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress, and Glenda Jackson makes a commanding Elizabeth I. Some theatrics are thrown in, but the is quite accurate.

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13. C

    CinemaSerf 5 月 29, 2023

    This is a superb portrayal of the troubled late 16th century Scottish Queen from Vanessa Redgrave. Forced to return to an unwelcoming Scotland following the death of her French husband, Catholic Mary arrives to barely disguised hostility from her largely Protestant subjects. Added to her problems, her cousin Elizabeth (Glenda Jackson) is making things difficult for her from south of their border. The story is well known, but the two ladies’ performances demonstrate both the flaws and the strengths of each, well. Trevor Howard is great as the manipulative Burghley; as are Timothy Dalton as Mary’s dissolute husband Henry Darnley; Ian Holm as the seedy David Rizzio; Nigel Davenport as Bothwell and Patrick McGoohan as her ambitious, plotting, half-brother. The attention to the detail of the time – locations, costumes and a lovely John Barry score all add to the quality of this – broadly – authentic historical drama.