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Mary, Queen of Scots [VHS]

Vanessa Redgrave (Actor), Glenda Jackson (Actor), Charles Jarrott (Director) Rated:
PG-13
Format: VHS Tape
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 333 ratings
IMDb7.1/10.0
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April 18, 2000 		—
1
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Mary, Queen of Scots — —
Format NTSC, Closed-captioned, Color
Contributor Katherine Kath, Richard Marden, Trevor Howard, Tom Fleming, John Hale, Christopher Challis, Hal B. Wallis, Daniel Massey, Beth Harris, Nigel Davenport, Charles Jarrott, Patrick McGoohan, Timothy Dalton, Andrew Keir, Vanessa Redgrave, Ian Holm, Glenda Jackson See more
Language English
Runtime 2 hours and 8 minutes

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

As costume dramas go, this is a passionate and feisty one, keyed by the ever-luminous Vanessa Redgrave in the title role and the sharp-edged Glenda Jackson as her jealous cousin, Queen Elizabeth I (who knew a thing or two about palace intrigue). Mary, who was raised in France as a Catholic, claims the Scottish crown from her mother upon her death. But she runs up against religious prejudice, both from the Protestant Elizabeth (who had encountered anti-Protestant bias before she took the throne) and from Mary's Protestant half-brother James Stuart (Patrick McGoohan). Elizabeth, whose own reign is shaky (given a strong Catholic presence in her country), is nervous about her Catholic cousin--and made more so by Mary's seeming inability to appreciate the political niceties of the period. Redgrave received an Oscar nomination for her performance. --Marshall Fine

Product details

  • Is Discontinued By Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ No
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Package Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.32 x 4.19 x 1.12 inches; 6.08 ounces
  • Director ‏ : ‎ Charles Jarrott
  • Run time ‏ : ‎ 2 hours and 8 minutes
  • Release date ‏ : ‎ April 18, 2000
  • Date First Available ‏ : ‎ September 29, 2006
  • Actors ‏ : ‎ Vanessa Redgrave, Glenda Jackson, Patrick McGoohan, Timothy Dalton, Nigel Davenport
  • Studio ‏ : ‎ Universal Studios Home Entertainment
  • Producers ‏ : ‎ Hal B. Wallis
  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00004REFE
  • Writers ‏ : ‎ John Hale
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 333 ratings

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
333 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Terry J. Hunt
5.0 out of 5 stars Great movie!
Reviewed in the United States on January 8, 2024
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Very entertaining, fast paced & electric!
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Yoshio the Caveman
5.0 out of 5 stars Mary, Queen of Scots - KL's Blu-ray quality is superb
Reviewed in the United States on December 3, 2022
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I'm not a history buff, so do not comment on the accuracy of the story.

What I want to mention is the outstanding Blu-ray quality of the KL's issue. Such crisp picture quality in BD have I seldom seen, if ever. I viewed 3 films of Redgrave on BD in a row: Isadora, this one, and Camelot, of similar vintage. And this one is astoundingly sharp!

Risking being scorned by wise reviewers, I wish Elisabeth was played by an actress who was beautiful. If her portrait painters did not lie, Elizabeth was no less beautiful than Mary.
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Nuka Shroom Soup
4.0 out of 5 stars This is a venerable old school Hollywood epic
Reviewed in the United States on January 23, 2024
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featuring an all star cast, of course, and the star who shines most brightly is Glenda Jackson.
Ms. Jackson shone even more brightly in her BBC portrayal of Elizabeth I than she does in this big screen production. She was a brilliant and dynamic actress, now sadly, long forgotten.
This gets only gets 4 stars because the production pales overall by comparison to it's peers of the same era, such as Beckett, A Man For All Seasons and A Lion In Winter, just to name a few.
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Busee
5.0 out of 5 stars It's a time capsule.
Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2023
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Beautiful scenery of castles and palaces as they stood in 1972, before falling prey to pollution & social austerity. Magnificent story telling, acted with genuine warmth, sympathy, and point of view on the real people. Glenda Jackson is the best Queen Elizabeth the First, and Vanessa Redgrave's expressive face gives some understanding to the historical Scottish Queen Mary's great charm & wit, but narrowly experienced youth. Highly recommend for the above.
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Cody Young
5.0 out of 5 stars Perfection
Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2023
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I cannot speak to the historical accuracy, but if it strays in any way then that is the only fault which can be laid upon it.

The characters are wonderfully complicated and generously examined, the writing is artful, and the performances equal to it all. No expense is spared in production, from the rich costume design to the lovingly selected settings nor was any bit of it wasted.

Films such as this will make you ache for what cinema once was.
4 people found this helpful
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Ron Blachman
5.0 out of 5 stars Glenda Jackson's Elizabeth I anticipates and surpasses Kate Blanchett's!
Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2023
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This 1972 film retains quality and freshness. Redgrave plays Mary as a romantic heroine and carries it off nobly. Jackson is supreme as Elizabeth. Hal Wallis' version of Elizabeth is sharper than Shekhar Kapur's and Glenda Jackson is at the very peak of her considerable powers. Parliament's gain was our loss. Magnificent!
3 people found this helpful
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Patrick Selitrenny
4.0 out of 5 stars 4 good stars... for 2 Greater Stars
Reviewed in the United States on July 17, 2002
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Although the figure of Mary Stuart has always been distorted by Hollywood, this is a good movie which is actually an attempt at giving us a glimpse at the women, not the Queens, in their historic context.
Unfortunately, even this one is a bit sweet with Mary and goes on hard on Elizabeth.
The players are all first class, starting with a Clash of Titans between Vanessa Redgrave and Glenda Jackson. Two female screen giants fighting out in front of our own eyes. What a feast.
Then come the other giants: Trevor Howard, Ian Holm, Patrick McGoohan, Harry Andrews and many more othe British Screen legends. A real treat in Stardom and a who's who in this movie.
Just for that it is highly recommendable.
Now two points of woe.
First: in all these years (the movie dates back to 1971) do you think that Universal Pictures could have released at least one Widescreen version of it? Noooooh, the Gentlemen went on producing other insignificant stuff, but never cared on re-releasing this one in Letterbox format.
Second: although I liked it when it was released, especially for its cast and more than beautiful music scored by John Barry, why wasn't an attempt made at remaking it in a more true to history perspective?
After all Mary was not as innocent as depicted by Katie Hepburn or even Vanessa Redgrave. This is Folk Lore not History!
Mary was raised in France in exile, but pretty soon took a keen interest in politics and started plotting all by herself to take possession of the English Crown.
These were not the figments of the imagination of Elizabeth, but a hard and harsh reality that the English Crown and the Parliament both took immediately very seriously.
Mary tried it with whomever would have listened to her and would have granted her protection in doing so. She tried to drag the French on her side at first. When this didn't work, she tried the Italians, through the Pope. then came the Spaniards and ultimately the Scots. And they all fell for her.
The reasons for her mad conviction of being the only true Queen of England were inculcated into her by her family due to some contentions they had already back in Henry VIII's Reign.
All this though was certainly not enough to make her the legitimate Queen of England and she should have contented herself by already being Queen of the Scots.
Anyway, she remains a pathetic and sad figure in History and well deserves a movie such as this one as a remainder that at times it is better to be happy with what one already has, rather than wanting the whole pie.
In this instance Mary truly was too immature and too arrogant to admit defeat even if it loomed right in front of her eyes.
And arrogance as we all know, gets so often repaid with a harsh punishment. In her case she lost her head over it.
Some may say that she fought for religion's sake. Is any religion a valid justification for human sacrifice? Especially of other people, rather than your own. Of course not, and yet Mary never hesitated in sending innocent people to be slaughtered in her name.
Some may pity her, some may condemn her, but the fact still remains that she was an intriguing figure wonderfully portrayed by Vanessa Redgrave. And right or wrong, she did exist and should therefore be depicted in at least one movie.
Between Katie Hepburn and Vanessa, I still prefer Vanessa. Glenda Jackson reprises her role Elizabeth R in this one and she's one strong butch of a woman, a hard nut to crack. No wonder that men lost their heads (in more than one way) for her.
Anyway, this one with Elizabeth and Elizabeth R, should be movies to be bought and cherished dearly like good wine. After all it is seldom they make movies like these.
And if you're interested by more Tudor Lore, try also "Henry VIII and his Six Wives", "Anne of the Thousand Days", the filmed Play by Robert Bolt "A Man For All Seasons".
The King is dead, long live the Queen...
46 people found this helpful
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A Francesca
1.0 out of 5 stars Incredibly Inaccurate
Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2024
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Wow, and I thought Braveheart was historical inaccurate. This movie takes the cake. It is all about the audience-pleasing drama and nothing about the actual history. Don't waste your time on yet another historical story destroyed by Hollywood for the sake of ratings.
One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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G. Alarcón
4.0 out of 5 stars La caja llegó rota
Reviewed in Mexico on April 27, 2023
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No sé si ya venía rota o sucedió en el trayecto al destino.
Pero bueno, fuera de eso, todo bien.
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G. Alarcón
4.0 out of 5 stars La caja llegó rota
Reviewed in Mexico on April 27, 2023
No sé si ya venía rota o sucedió en el trayecto al destino.
Pero bueno, fuera de eso, todo bien.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Great film, with a little historical licence taken in terms of entertainment.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 11, 2024
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First saw this film in the cinema on its release. This Blu-ray version does it justice. The cast incl. Vanessa Redgrave, Glenda Jackson, Timothy Dalton, Ian Holm Nigel Davenport, Trevor Howard and many more familiar faces. Newly restored it looks fantastic and sounds great too. And they have loaded it with extras; A commentary track with film historian & critic Sergio Mims, Isolated score track with film historians Nick Redman & Jon Burlingame commenting, Riding high (6 min. of Frances White recalling the shoot), The Guardian Lecture: Glenda Jackson (1982, 77 min.), Now and Then: Vanessa Redgrave (1968, 30 min.), Trailer and Image Gallery. A feast for film buffs!
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Frances L. Arsenault
5.0 out of 5 stars Vanessa take the throne as Mary
Reviewed in Canada on March 11, 2009
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I love a historical film...hmm...because after watching the movie, you can research online or in a book, and compare differences between the film and what really happen back then.

This film is about one of my favorite royal women Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland, who was raised in France as a Catholic, claims the Scottish crown from her mother upon her death. Of course is was after her husband, the King of France had died of an ear infection that spread to his brain, because there wasn't a cure back then...or much of anything. But then she runs up against religious prejudice, both from the Protestant Elizabeth (who had encountered anti-Protestant bias before she took the throne) and from Mary's Protestant half-brother James Stuart. Elizabeth, whose own reign is shaky (given a strong Catholic presence in her country), is nervous about her Catholic cousin--and made more so by Mary's seeming inability to appreciate the political niceties of the period.

In the film, the ever-luminous Vanessa Redgrave (Camelot) takes on the role as Mary, and the sharp-edged Glenda Jackson as Queen Elizabeth, who knew a thing or two about palace intrigue. And Vanessa received an Oscar nomination for her performance. So overall, I would say about this film is that I love it from beginning to end, and I love the original soundtrack in the film, and as I say many times: I love a film with a good soundtrack.
10 people found this helpful
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D J Jackson: Passionate about Film.
5.0 out of 5 stars GLENDA JACKSON AS A FULL-BLOODED ENGLISH LIONESS: 5 DELICIOUS STARS.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 23, 2023
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This is a review of the 2022 Region B2 Blu-ray from BFI. It has several interesting extras and also a very meaty and interesting booklet. The original 1971 film appears in 2.35:1, HD and 1080p, with PCM 2.0 mono audio. It has not been restored, but it looks very clear, colourful and bright, and sounds great.

There are a lot of films about Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland and about her first cousin (once removed), Elizabeth of England. Mary’s paternal grandmother, Margaret, was the older sister of Henry VIII. Her immediate predecessors (King James I to V) had all come to the throne very young and met dramatic ends, dying through assassination, in battle or during sieges. James IV, Margaret’s husband, died at Flodden, when an invading Scottish army was annihilated by the English. James V, king aged 17 months, died aged 30, probably of dysentery, during another war with the English, and Mary succeeded him, aged only 6 days. This background helps to inform the politics we see in this film.

The film was made at a time when the Tudor dynasty was big box office. The BBC had great success with a flagship drama series, about Henry VIII and his 6 wives. They followed that with an even more successful one about his daughter Elizabeth. There were also major book series being written, such as those by Jean Plaidy. John Hale, who wrote an episode of ‘Elizabeth R’ for the BBC, and Glenda Jackson, who won acclaim in the series’ title role, were both plunged back into Tudor machinations and bloodshed, when Hale was engaged to write the screenplay for this film, and Jackson, to reprise her role as the English monarch. Vanessa Redgrave was cast in the film’s title role.

Redgrave and Jackson had both appeared in RSC productions and been directed by the great Peter Hall. They had both already starred in films, Jackson winning an OSCAR for ‘Women in Love’(1970) and a BAFTA for ‘Sunday, Bloody Sunday’(1971). Redgrave had already been nominated for both (an OSCAR twice) and a Golden Globe twice. These were actresses on red-hot form, and now they were given the roles of two of our most interesting and significant female historical figures. Redgrave was duly OSCAR-nominated.

The role of Elizabeth, as played by Jackson, is a full-blooded English lioness, with a mind as sharp as a razor, shrewd, insightful, authoritative, politically astute. Her personal preferences always come second to the needs of her realm. It is a brilliant portrayal, and she is both likeable and admirable. Redgrave’s Mary is a rather paler image, possibly because that is how the film wishes to portray her, but also probably accurate. She is light-hearted, affectionate, but entirely ruled by emotion, and cursed with making immediate judgements and instant decisions. She has virtually no political nous, no instinct for what may be wise, who can be trusted. It also appears (again probably correctly) that Elizabeth was blessed by loyal, clever and supportive courtiers;, Mary lived in a wolf’s lair.

The film provides a fairly clear, and certainly a colourful, picture of the convolutions and complications that made the political map of England and Scotland so fraught at the time. The history is not entirely accurate ~ the Queens never met for example ~ but the flavour is good, and the sets, costumes and visual details are a delight.

This is a richly elaborate and deliciously entertaining 5 Star confection. Ignore the liberties, enjoy the ride.
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Linda Hill
5.0 out of 5 stars Exactly as described
Reviewed in Canada on January 5, 2018
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This is my all-time favourite movie. It has been a long time since I have seen it and it still has a positive effect on me. Wished I had purchased it sooner. It was delivered quickly and as exactly as described.
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