Cecil says: Mary Queen of Scots has a dark feel to it. We saw it on a gloomy damp day in Scotland, and many of the scenes were set in similar circumstances although hundreds of years ago, but above all these were dark times, when a view expressed out of place, or a belief that didn’t chime with those in charge could mean losing your head, literally. And of course, Mary ultimately did just that.
It’s a striking film in that the two main characters are
both women – in a period when women didn’t traditionally hold power – and both
Saoirse Ronan (Mary) and Margot Robbie (Elizabeth) are magnificent in their
roles. Of course, ultimately, you get the sense of male power pulling the
strings and scheming for their own positions of influence, and it could be
argued that the men scheming around Mary is what led to her downfall.
Mary is a character talked of a lot even today, and I can
remember when we lived in North Yorkshire that various places we visited laid
claim to being places of refuge for her when she was on the run from Scotland.
I had to look up after the film to work out some of the historical detail –
such as how she reckoned she had a better claim to the English throne than Liz
(basically because Catholics didn’t recognise marriage after a divorce and
therefore didn’t recognise offspring from such marriages).
I was also made to reflect on the ravages of small pox (Mary
got lucky with her episode; Elizabeth less so, and the film shows all too
starkly how the pox pock-marked Elizabeth’s complexion for years to come afterwards).
I personally don’t care about historical accuracy in movies
like this: I believe the meeting between Mary and Elizabeth was fictitious, but
actually great cinema, with the dance-like scenes as the two of them gradually
got closer to seeing each other through the hanging laundry sheets.
The scenery was epic of course, set in beautiful Highland
Scotland. And the performances all round were superb.
But the film didn’t leave me with any positive feelings or
sense of justice done (or undone). None of the characters really came across
sympathetically enough for me to identify with them, or to care overly what
happened to them.
Both monarchs were headstrong and arrogant, as I guess
monarchs needed to be back then to survive, and the lackies around them came
across as just self-serving and ambitious. The only character I felt any actual
sympathy for was the effeminate Rizzo, who ends up being dragged off to a
gruesome death just because Mary was being undermined at that particular
juncture in proceedings.
I would – and maybe should – give this film four stars, but
for the mood it left me in (dark and brooding), I can only give it 3.5 stars.
***.5
Bea says: I was keen to see this as Cecil and I move between Australia and Scotland at present, and as I was educated in Australia my knowledge of the monarchy of Scotland and England is based on films and TV series (although there have been quite a few of those). As a result I can't vouch for the historical accuracy at all, but I did enjoy a film about a time in history where two women were running the two countries
Despite their differences, bitterness and rivalry, I liked how this film portrayed this responsibility as bringing them together. I was aware from previous films/series that there was a lot of intrigue around the thrones and that Mary's choice of husband was perhaps not ideal, so those aspects of the story were familiar to me.
We saw this on a dark, cold February day and it was dark and cold on screen too. Very apt and it set the mood well, although was not uplifting at all.
After watching, I decided a goal (now perhaps for 2020) would be to read one of the many good histories of Mary and Elizabeth available.
****
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