Wincingly gruesome, but without the woad rage of Braveheart
SINCE 1995, many have pointed out that the ‘Braveheart’ of Scottish history was not Sir William Wallace, but fellow Scot, Robert The Bruce, portrayed in Mel Gibson’s film as a sulky, daddy-dominated noble who tended to side with the English, until given one of Mad Mel’s rough pep talks.
Outlaw King rehabilitates Bruce with a more sympathetic portrait than skulking, sulking Angus Macfadyen in his finery.
Instead, this Bruce is a strapping warrior with messiah blue eyes and a decent Scottish accent – although if Chris Pine really did base it on a Scottish rugby captain, it doesn’t sound like he was listening to cheery Gavin Hastings.
David Mackenzie’s film is the most expensive movie shot entirely in Scotland. This can be seen onscreen starting with the opening scene, which sets out Bruce’s position in 1304, in a continuous take which takes us inside a royal tent where Robert (Christopher Pine) and his fellow nobles are saving their lands by surrendering to an urbanely cruel Edward I (Stephen Dillane), before sweeping out to a broadsword fight between Bruce and his former childhood friend, England’s Prince of Wales (Billy Howle).
Finally, Edward I flings a fireball into Stirling Castle, even though it has already capitulated to his forces. Why not, says the English king. After all, it took three months to build the gigantic catapult – and you can sense Mackenzie’s tacit agreement with this defence of showing off your finest hardware.
The Scot’s two-hour epic is certainly an eyeful, restlessly sweeping through Scotland for heathery hills, burning castles, tranquil isles, public dismemberment, and a 15second sequence in which Pine does a Mr Darcy in a loch, except without the shirt. Or the trousers.
Mackenzie started his career in Scotland with well-regarded indie films such as Young Adam and Hallam Foe, but he came to Hollywood attention with 2016’s western-style crime thriller Hell or High Water, which also starred Pine alongside veteran actor Jeff Bridges.
It was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, but lost out to Moonlight.
Either way, his star is very much on the ascent, which may account for such lavish production values in this movie which, for those of you who can’t face heading for the cinema in the wintry weather, will be on Netflix from next month.
History buffs may nod along to Outlaw King’s more respectful approach to history – there’s no woad and tartan in this broadsword saga – although the killing of Bruce’s rival, the Red Comyn, is somewhat simplified as a brief brutal murder scene, and yet again Edward I dies before his historical time was actually up.
Meanwhile, Sir William Wallace is limited to cameo appearances – or at least bit parts, as a severed arm displayed as a warning in Berwick, and a spiked head glimpsed on the road to another Bruce battle.
Much of Outlaw King is wincingly
gruesome, especially when it comes to portraying the bloody chaos of battle – not only between Scots and English soldiers, but also among the divided Scots themselves.
However Mackenzie has carved some space for romance, as an arranged marriage to Elizabeth (Florence Pugh) blossoms into real passion, consummated with some improper use of thistles.
There’s ambition to Outlaw King, as history, as politics, and the kind of Scottish film we normally simply cannot afford to make ourselves.
A more shaded, nuanced approach to character, rather than admirable King of Scots vs boorish English would have been welcome, but Outlaw King is honourable none the less. There is also a nicely playful tease here regarding Bruce’s patient spider, with a dewy web shown hanging portentously at the dawn of an auspicious day – a knowing shot, aimed squarely at Scottish audiences.