Anne of the Thousand Days / Mary, Queen of Scots (1969)

Great movie

Enjoyed Mary Queen of Scots have yet to see Anne of a Thousand Days, but look forward to seeing it. Wonderful together and a great deal.

September 15, 2008

One more and it would have been a hat trick!

Here we have two terrific films, appropriately packaged together. You get two DVDs packaged in a single case, each individually labeled. Perhaps if the distributor would have included Cromwell (1970, Richard Harris) it would have been the ultimate CD package ever, (considering the great price in this instance).

"Anne of the Thousand Days" is the superior of the two entries for a couple of reasons. First, it stars Richard Burton whom, as expected, plays his role brilliantly. Secondly, all the scenes are brightly lit and colorful, thereby overcoming a frequent problem with films such as these.

The story is a well-known one about the first failed marriage of Henry VIII of England and his solution to rid himself of this unwanted wife so that he could pursue his lust with a second, the lovely Anne Boleyn (circa 1525 C.E.) The tale is a complicated one but this film yields the story in a coherent and comprehensible manner. Henry was initially guided to marry his recently dead older brother's wife (Catherine, a Catholic), a princess of Spain whom was said to have not consummated her marriage with Henry's brother. She had a child, Mary, but produced no male heir which Henry desperately desired.

In order to rid himself of Catherine and marry Anne, Henry had to proclaim himself to be head of the church of England, thus the Pope had him ex-communicated. Still, he married Anne who produced yet another female child, Elizabeth. (So do you see why the next film in this package is "Mary Queen of Scots"?). You probably know what happened with Anne as a result of her failure to produce a male heir for Henry but I'll stop there anyway.

The focus of this 1969 film is centered on how Anne, having seen her own older sister's mistake of becoming Henry's mistress and receiving nothing, learned to exploit her own sexual power over the King to entice him into marriage. She is portrayed as both evil (in her power-monging) and good (as a devoted mother). This is a pretty fair rendering of the actual story.

This film was directed by Charles Jarrott and the original music (very good!) was composed by Georges Delerue. It runs at an epic length for a full 2 hours, 26 minutes.

The second film of the package, "Mary Queen of Scots," is of course a follow-up to the first movie, albeit Henry VIII had many wives after Anne Boleyn and a great deal of politics transpired in the period between the two. Still, "Mary Queen of Scots" seems a natural sequence for this movie package.

The cinematography in this 1971 feature is excellent and the brisk writing moves this one right along, again a frequent complication with such films. The scenes, sets, scenery, and casting are all excellent here. Vanessa Redgrave plays Mary Queen of Scots (Mary Stuart) and Glenda Jackson plays her cousin, Elizabeth I.

This film was more difficult for the writers in that Mary Stuart was looked at, and is still viewed, differently by various people and factions -- some still consider her to be conniving and evil while others see her as a heroine and a heraldic victim of Elizabeth I. This film leans more toward the latter view, so the correctness of the history here is somewhat called into question. You can tell which way the wind is going to blow in the film, though, because Elizabeth is made up to LOOK mean and evil while Mary's appearance is lovely.

Mary returns to Scotland from France where her husband (the king) had died and so she accedes as the rightful heir to the Scottish throne. Her half-brother becomes her advisor but he clearly has his own agenda. Mary makes some missteps in love and in marriage which is mostly what led to her ultimate demise.

At one point, she is forced to meet with her cousin Elizabeth face-to-face in England (a "fact" which many astute historians still assert never happened) and the meeting does not turn out to Mary's benefit. I'll stop there to avoid a spoiler but most folks are aware of the conclusion of this sordid tale.

Again, this is a fine film and while it's not quite as good as "Anne of the Thousand Days," it still fully earns the five stars. It was directed by Charles Jarrott and the original music was by John Barry and Sidney Margo (the latter being uncredited). This film runs for 2 hours, 12 minutes.

Both movies are Universal releases and they are beautifully conveyed in color, letterbox format. When I received this DVD package, the shrink wrap had a "Made in Mexico" sticker on it, a fact that appears not at all to have affected the quality of these excellent film prints.

These two DVDs (in a single package) are high-up amongst the treasures of my ever-expanding film collection and I highly recommend them.
September 14, 2008

Good to look at but not good history

I realize it can be tiresome for reviewers to expect popular history movies to be on the spot when it comes to historical accuracy, but frankly these movies are sometimes all the general public has to make historical judgements. Therefore, I'm going to be tiresome.

The movie "Mary, Queen of Scots" was very nice to look at, but it fell into the movie industry's natural temptations to sensationalize at the expense of historical accuracy(why that was necessary is beyond me, since her life was sensational enough as it was).

I am not referring to the typical charge that Mary never met Elizabeth, which is a mistake made not only in "Mary, Queen of Scots," but in other movie treatments of Mary (such as the recent British television series on Elizabeth).

No, I'm referring to the depiction of Mary's relationship with Lord Bothwell. In the movie she falls in love with the bawdy Scottish Lord who killed her husband, Darnley. In reality, as you would see from reading the definitive biography of Mary by Antonia Fraser, Mary was actually a victim of not only Bothwell's treachery, but that of the other Scottish lorders who plotted with Bothwell to kill Darnley. Bothwell actually kidnapped and raped Mary. He then told her all of this was done at the request of her powerful lords. She married Bothwell only to accomodate the lords and to bring peace. It backfired with the very lords who consipired with Bothwell turned against him, and eventually against Mary. That is how she lost her crown. Some of the very people who should have been protecting her (including her half brother) then concocted conspiracy theories to defame her good name--all to make way for them to rule in her absence.

Complicated, yes. But not only true, but more interesting than the love sick Queen falling for a Scottish hunk--as it is depicted in the film. Mary completely lost her head in love only once, and it was NOT for Bothwell, but for the hapless Darnley whom he murdered.

The movie also suffers from the admittedly difficult task of telling the long life story of a person without losing dramatic effect. The movie rushes through Mary's life in a bewildering blur of changing scenes and costumes. But as it does, it unfortunately shortchanges the the most dramatic and important episodes of Mary's life--namely, the allegations of consipiracies that led to her execution and the trial.

Again, understandable for a movie, but if you want the truth about Mary, read Fraser's book.



September 5, 2008

Less than I'd hoped for

Must admit that I was OK with Anne of the Thousand Days, but the Mary, Queen of Scots film was just drudgery. I was unimpressed with the pace of the film. I have read considerably about Tudor England and the rivalry between Elizabeth and Mary. Glenda Jackson was impressive as Elizabeth I, but Vanessa Redgrave was a snore. Each movie takes poetic license, but I would recommend the 6 disc Elizabeth R for a more comprehensive look at the period or get the Tudors from Showtime. August 19, 2008

Great two-some

Anyone who enjoyed "The Tudors", on Showtime, will enjoy this great two-some. The acting is terrific and the storyline seems true to the subject. Anne of "Anne of the Thousand Days" is a lot more likeable than the Anne of "The Tudors". Glenda Jackson, is, of course, absolutely wonderful as Queen Elizabeth in Mary Queen of Scots, while Vanessa Redgrave seems a bit simpy as Mary. August 10, 2008

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