Bloody Battle Scenes and Gutsy Heroes Come Together in a Visual Feast.
Medieval Scottish History gets the Hollywood Treatment Yet Again.

Outlaw King neatly sums up the adage that one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. The eponymous king is Robert the Bruce, a thorn in the side to the English but a hero to the Scots, having finally succeeded in driving the English out of Scotland in the 14^th century.

As Bruce, Chris Pine does a very convincing job as the dour, taciturn Scot, but it’s no one-note performance. Thanks to Pine’s portrayal, we see that still waters do, indeed, run deep and there is much more to the man than his gruff exterior. Every now and then Pine lets us glimpse the emotions that bubble under the surface and which Bruce has to bury away to carry on the good fight; in the process we get to understand how much Bruce is willing to risk for the sake of his kingdom. Pine is also convincing as a born leader of men, softly spoken for the most part; Pine doesn’t need to prove he is an alpha male: he is one.

As for the battle scenes, they are outstanding achievements in cinematography, direction and editing. However, in a rather unexpected move, the showpiece finale isn’t Bannockburn. Hopefully this means there may be a sequel on the cards. If there is then that particular military encounter will be something to behold because the battle that does dominate the last 20 minutes or so of Outlaw King, the Battle of Loudon Hill, is both breath-taking in its scope and imagery, wonderfully choreographed and shot, as are the ambush at Methven and the follow up attack on Bruce’s men by the MacDougalls.

And when it comes to showing medieval warfare, Outlaw King doesn’t shy away from the sheer brutality of hand to hand fighting.  All the more kudos to the character of Bruce who not only talks the talk but walks the walk; a born leader of men, he is always to be found in the middle of the fray, taking his chances alongside everyone else. By the battle’s end, just like the men around him, Bruce is exhausted, covered in blood and mud.

The one off-kilter note in the scene comes at the end when Bruce and the new English king (Billy Howle) fight in single combat. I’m guessing this is a case of pure poetic licence on the part of the writers but as an image, it neatly encapsulates what’s just happened: the routing and humiliation of the English.

As for historical accuracy, Outlaw King comes across as a more realistic version of events than Mel Gibson’s Braveheart which is the most obvious film to compare it to, dealing as it did with Bruce’s sometime ally and compatriot, William Wallace.

For starters, there’s no bonking a Queen of England à la Braveheart for our Robert. Instead Bruce is set up in an arranged marriage by his (then) English overlord, Edward I (Stephen Dillane in excellent form), to an English noblewoman and Edward’s goddaughter, Elizabeth, played by Florence Pugh who excels in the role. Elizabeth proves to be a woman of spirit and intelligence, brave and astute and deeply loyal to Robert and his cause. I don’t know how historically accurate the portrayal of their marriage is but here their relationship is tentative and endearing and allows us to see a more human side to the Warrior King.

Although that’s not to say that some historical events haven’t been truncated or amalgamated in order to make the storyline cleaner. For instance, Bruce had decamped to the English long before other Scottish nobles submitted to Edward in 1304. Not that you would know that from the film. Here our first view of Bruce is of him as a rebellious Scot, on his knees to the English King, Edward I, swearing fealty but most decidedly not happy about it. As an opening scene, however, it sets up Bruce’s character and the pervading political situation – Scotland under English control – perfectly.

Similarly Bruce’s wife wasn’t captured at Kildrummy nor was Lord Fraser summarily executed there, but Bruce’s wife was captured soon afterwards and Fraser was later executed in London. Clearly in the name of expediency the filmmakers are getting the main historical points across without it turning into an Open University programme on Scottish Medieval History. And for those wondering about whether the real Elizabeth being hung in a cage, dangling from the castle walls was down to some writer’s vivid imagination, well kind of. Margaret herself didn’t suffer such an ignominious fate but presumably in the film she’s representing those other female Bruce supporters who weren’t so lucky such as Bruce’s sister, Mary and the woman we see crown Bruce at Scone, Isabel, Countess of Buchan.

And, let’s face it; the writers do have a hell of a lot to pack in. Medieval Scottish politics was messy. And it’s fair to say, the average viewer’s knowledge (unless they are Scottish of course) of the personalities let alone the times they lived in is quite possibly minimal. Nevertheless, the writers do a good job at setting the scene; the divisions among the Scots; the brutal occupation by the English; and Bruce’s military genius in fighting a guerrilla war against a much stronger army and using the land and his own cunning to his advantage.

Of course this being Scottish Medieval history it’s hard to sometimes know exactly what did happen as, for example, when Bruce kills John Comyn (Callan Mulvey) in a church. In Outlaw King the murder is depicted as an unpremeditated attack by Bruce after Comyn foolishly threatens him. This version of events definitely puts a better gloss on what happened than the alternative of depicting Bruce ruthlessly removing his main rival to the Scottish throne.

And the murder of Comyn is not as black and white as it might seem to a modern audience. Living in far more secular times, it’s difficult for us to appreciate how horrific desecrating a holy site in such a way would be regarded in the Middle Ages. By killing Comyn in a church, Bruce was in danger of undermining his own cause, his credibility and standing. The film tries to underline this in the following scenes where we see Bruce dash immediately to the church fathers to gain absolution and to make a deal with them so he can be crowned King before he can be excommunicated by the Pope.

However, one of the most famous episodes from the mythology surrounding Bruce is missing – Bruce, the spider and the cave though the film makes a couple of nods in its direction. As Bruce plans to face the English head to head, against the advice of his trusted right hand men – Angus Og (Tony Curran) and James Douglas (a very frightening Aaron Taylor-Johnson), Bruce points out “We’ll be like the spider and its web.” And to underline the point, just before the battle of Loudon Hill there is a shot of a spider’s web, all rather appropriate considering that the English are about to fall into Bruce’s trap.

As for James Douglas, that is probably one of the stand out performances of the film. Think a cross between Rambo and the subtlety of Brian Blessed and you have some idea of the character.  Hopefully this means that the Black Douglas will be the next Scottish hero to have a film made about his life.

As for those going on about the penis scene, get a life. I’m not sure why there was such a hoo-ha. For starters, you can hardly make it out. That’s no comment on Pine’s appendage, by the way, but it’s a very long shot, and it’s over in a flash. You would need 20-20 vision, a large HD screen and your finger on the pause button to make anything of it. And as someone whose parents convinced her in the 70s that Broughty Ferry was a beach resort and has swam in Scottish waters, I was more impressed that they got a Hollywood movie star to swim outdoors in Scotland in the first place rather than the fact he was naked.

As with Outlander, Outlaw King is also another great advert for the Scottish Tourist Board. There are some great aerial shots of the Scottish countryside even if it seems our heroes are always walking around in mud.

What’s interesting is why the film was made and why now? At one point in the film when referring to Wallace, John Comyn says “He wasn’t a man, he was an idea”. The same could be said of Bruce: proof positive that one man can make a difference.

Perhaps in the current times we live in when it seems as if we are all being dragged towards the precipice by those in power, strings being pulled by faceless corporations, and when individually we seem unable to do anything about it, maybe that’s a message we all badly need to hear.

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