"The Heads and Tails of the Kingdom": Mrs. Brown and Devolutionary Scotland

Abstract

This paper takes as its subject the 1997 film Mrs. Brown, an indigenously produced Scottish film that was nominated for several major awards and found audiences around the world. Despite this popular success and critical acclaim, the film has yet to find an adequate place in histories of Scottish cinema. The paper argues that the film mobilizes the generic practices of the so-called heritage film to construct a national allegory about Scotland and its relationship to the United Kingdom. This reading of the film is then situated against the film's historical backdrop which saw the passage of the second devolution referendum in Scotland, a measure that would lead to the nation's political devolution from the United Kingdom. The paper then concludes by arguing that such an understanding of its relationship to these larger generic and historical contexts means that Mrs. Brown is indeed a very important Scottish film that deserves greater consideration within the emerging canon of Scottish cinema.