Bullet Points: Outlaw King
From the outset, Outlaw King has had me torn. I love a good historical war epic but I haven’t been the biggest fan of Chris Pine. Maybe it was his time as Capt. Kirk in Star Trek or ….ok, it was his time as Capt. Kirk. Chances are that Pine has done a bunch of movies that I would love and I’m hoping that Outlaw King might be the one that opens the flood gates for me to his filmography. Let’s find out…
Synopsis: A true David v Goliath story of how the great 14th Century Scottish ‘Outlaw King’ Robert The Bruce used cunning and bravery to defeat and repel the much larger and better equipped occupying English army.
- A bit of background: Even though Braveheart was an incredible masterpiece of storytelling, on screen combat, and crazy Mel Gibson eyes, it wasn’t the most historically accurate film to every grace the screen. Any number of YouTube videos could show you the 50 times that it was just straight up making stuff up. Regardless, it was a fantastic movie and still a good starting point for Outlaw King. This film picks up just at the end of the war depicted in Braveheart. Wallace’s rebellion, which Robert Bruce was involved, has just ended and Robert and some of the other Scots are returning home in hopes of peace. If you don’t know or care about the real history behind the war and you loved Braveheart then you will have no trouble stepping directly into Outlaw King with a pretty good idea of what is going on.
- Someone arrange me a marriage, please: It seems like characters in movies who get marriages arranged for them always end up with a gorgeous wife or husband. Chris Pine’s Robert Bruce gets a new wife named Elizabeth played by Florence Pugh. I’d say they both struck the jackpot on that one. Elizabeth steps right into the role of Queen shortly after they’re married when Robert’s elderly father dies and he soon finds himself the self-proclaimed King of Scotland (sorry Forest Whitaker).
- Costumes and whatnot: You won’t see any kilts in Outlaw King. Those didn’t historically come into play for a few hundred years and this film does a pretty marvelous job in terms of accurately depicting costumes, armor, and weaponry. We get to see England’s King Edward I and his massive trebuchet and we’re present for a number of straight up brutal battles. The fighting in Outlaw King is crazy. Limbs are hacked off and horses are impaled, men’s heads are cleaved, and dude’s bodies are tossed from ramparts. It’s very reminiscent of the battles in Braveheart, to be honest. I expected it to be good but it far exceeded anything I imagined. They’re also extremely plentiful. Just when you think the movie might slow down a bit so we can get to know a few of the characters they get ambushed by some random force.
- Chemistry: Chris Pine and Florence Pugh have good chemistry as the new King and Queen of Scotland. They don’t have much time to spend with one another before they’re separated by war but I felt like they connected enough in the short amount of time that you could imagine them being in love with one another and not giving up on their relationship due to the circumstances. Queen Elizabeth is a tough lady, too. You’re not going to see any women running around with battles axes in this movie but she clearly is no push over.
- Sunglasses at night: Chris Pine totally has the same haircut as 80’s powerhouse Corey Hart and he must have been wearing his sunglasses at night for too long because he gets ambushed by the enemy far too often. Someone teach this man how to send out scouts or post sentries!
- The Prince: Edward, Prince of Wales is portrayed a bit differently in this movie than in Braveheart. You might remember him as Edward Longshanks’ gay son who was a complete pushover but Billy Howie plays Edward as a sociopathic killer who grows obsessed with taking out Robert no matter how many innocents he has to kill. I hope that we’re all not naïve enough to think that atrocities like burning down castles and villages didn’t really happen in war but I would venture to guess that “the bad guys” in these movies weren’t the only ones killing non-combatants. Hell, Robert Bruce killed an unarmed guy in a church!
- Back to the battles: Just like Braveheart, Outlaw King doesn’t leave us with a clear stopping point to the movie. It almost feels like that intermission point in the movie where you have to put in the second VHS tape (remember those?). The final battle in the film combines all the coolness of medieval combat in one superbly brutal showdown. The Scots throw up some traps that the English fall right into and then the men just slash and cleave their way across the lines for a good ten minutes. Pine and Howie each play pivotal roles in the battle and Pine gets to finally earn the crown that was placed on his head earlier in the film.
Any movie this killer deserves some bonus Bullet Points:
- Outlaw King has a cameo by William Wallace. Well, not so much William himself but part of his dismembered body.
- Director David Mackenzie also made Hell or High Water with Chris Pine.
- Ben Foster was planning on being in the film was ultimately replaced by Aaron Taylor-Johnson.
- James Cosmo played the Scotsman Campbell in Braveheart and played Robert Bruce Sr. here in Outlaw King.
The Verdict: Hot damn, this was a good movie! It might be my favorite Netflix production to date. I was always a big fan of Braveheart but secretly wished they had attempted to make it a little closer to reality. This film does just that. Chris Pine doesn’t deliver a performance that will knock your socks off but he’s so busy swinging a sword for most of the movie that he doesn’t have that many lines. I think of this movie as an excellent companion piece to Mel’s William Wallace epic and even better in some respects. It’s certainly fantastically shot and the CGI never feels fake. If movies like this are the reason that Netflix is borrowing $2 billion then I hope that keep on begging for me. This was a home run!
