Mary Queen of Scots, a review.

During the Christmas break I watched Mary Queen Scots, having missed the chance to see it when it was in the cinema. To be honest, I wasn't expecting much; films based on the history of the Tudor period tend to be inaccurate at best and nationalist propaganda at worse. I think this tendency to portray the Tudor period as a nationalist golden age is perhaps a hangover of Shakespeare combined with the nostalgia for the Elizabethan times which developed during the Victorian period. Such romanticism has a habit to exaggerate the power and influence of Elizabeth, vilify Mary and distort a sense of identity which arguably had not yet formed into a national consciousness.

However, I was pleasantly surprised by the film, which for the most part avoided unnecessary nationalistic spasms. In this regards it is definitely different to other films on this subject such as the 2007 Elizabeth the Golden Age, which unfortunately falls into this trap. Its portray of Elizabeth as a divinely worshipped absolute monarch and Philip II of Spain as a 16th century Sith Lord, might be entertaining for 'patriotic' English viewers but it has little to do with the actual history of this period. That's where Mary Queen of Scots does well, for the most part it is an incredibly accurate account of the life of Mary until her forced abdication in 1567. It could be argued that the relatively short screen time given to the Babington plot was disappointing. However, I feel that the decision to focus the majority of the film on Mary and her attempts maintain her fragile grip of power over Scotland was the right one. It is a subject which is rarely given much attention in historical dramas, and to see the events, the relationship between Elizabeth and Mary, from a predominantly Scottish perspective was fascinating.

I think the Babington plot does need to be looked into in more detail, and it would be great if we could have a sequel with this level of detail to historical accuracy - preferably also with the same actresses playing Elizabeth and Mary, as they did a great job. That being said, the film was not perfect, and one thing which did frustrate me was that towards the end of the film Elizabeth looked like the mad queen from Alice in Wonderland. While it is true that due to the scarring which her near death experience with smallpox left she did start to wear more elaborate make up to cover it, the film possibly takes this a bit too far. The implication by the end of the film is that Elizabeth has forsaken her cousin in her quest for absolute power, her resemblance to the red queen portrays this dissent into absolutism. Although Elizabeth did sign the death warrant and was increasingly obsessed with maintaining power, this image of her is misleading. Elizabeth was extremely torn on the decision to order Mary's execution, a decision which historians accept haunted her on a personal level for the rest of her reign. Moreover, as a woman ruler in the 16th century Elizabeth, as we saw with Mary in the film, had to constantly battle with her male advisers who would often try to bypass her authority. Throughout her reign she had to tighten her grip of control, I would argue it is unfair to portray as insanely tyrannical - for a woman in the 16th century it was a necessity.

Overall this did not detract too much from what was otherwise a great film, splendid acting and mostly historically accurate. I would definitely recommend, especially if you are a history lover who gets annoyed about historical dramas lack of history.