Bullet Points: Rob Roy
Liam Neeson is more popular now than he was back in 1995 when Rob Roy premiered. I guess we can chalk that up to landing the breakout role in 2008’s Taken. It’s hilarious, to be honest, since Neeson had already done so much amazing work up till then. Movies like Schindler’s List and Nell, actioners like Next of Kin and Darkman, and one hell of a movie in Michael Collins. It still seems like Neeson is remembered more in the action circle as “the guy from Taken“, but it doesn’t take a genius to see that he had already built up 20 years of excellent work before he killed his first man in that.
Synopsis: In 1713 Scotland, Rob Roy MacGregor (Liam Neeson) is wronged by a nobleman and his nephew, becomes an outlaw in search of revenge while fleeing the Redcoats, and faces charges of being a Jacobite.
- Stop stealing my cattle, bro: We meet Rob Roy MacGregor (Liam Neeson) as he and his clansmen catch a group of cattle thieves who are attempting to make a dime off of his beef. Rob Roy can’t stand for it, though, and he kills the ring leader of the group before letting the rest of them go. You can tell he isn’t the type who takes pleasure in the whole dirty business of killing but he sure is good at it.
- The dastardly Tim Roth: There is something about Tim Roth that makes me want to punch him in the face. He’s so good at being smug and villainous. I would rank him up there among my favorite actors to portray a villain. I like to think that he is the non-comedic Tim Curry. In Rob Roy, he’s even less comedic as he plays the ultimate baddie against Neeson’s Rob Roy. From the very beginning, we see that no matter what his family name or worth is, Roth’s Cunningham is very good with a sword.
- New World bound: Eric Stoltz just can’t get a break. He play McDonald, who is a clansmen to Rob Roy, and a man who someday hopes to make it to the New World. Not gonna happen for him, though, as he is tasked with picking up a load of money for the clan to acquire some new cattle and gets offed by Tim Roth. Sorry, bro…
- Vile creatures: Okay, so we already know that Roth’s Cunningham is a real piece of shit but he gets even shittier when he and a group of British soldiers appear at Rob Roy’s house and violate Roy’s wife Mary (Jessica Lange). It’s another one of those scenes in action cinema that is hard to watch but one that we know will bring about its own comeuppance in due time.
- On the run: The story of Rob Roy is very much a love story between Neeson and Lange’s characters. In fact, there are about 3 or 4 different times throughout the film where they bump uglies. Who has that kind of time? Now that Cunninham and the British are after Rob Roy and things have suddenly gotten very serious for him and his family. Mary doesn’t tell him about what happened back at their crib. She knows that it would set him off and almost guarantee that he’d get himself killed while trying to take out Cunningham. Instead, they go on the run.
- Captured: Eventually, Rob Roy is captured, tortured, and about to be hung from the edge of a bridge. In true hero fashion, he wraps the rope around Cunningham’s neck and launches himself into the water below. Neeson finally learns of what Roth did to his wife and
- Duel to the death: Rob gets the Duke of Argyll to arrange a duel between himself and Cunningham. The Brit kicks his ass with his little rapier sword while Rob tires himself out using a heavier sword .Eventually, Cunningham is about to strike the killing blow when Rob grabs his blade and brings him in close enough to deliver a downward slash. The only shame is that he can’t be more dead.
The Verdict: It had been some time since I had watched Rob Roy and I’m happy to say that I enjoyed it as much now as I did when I was young. I went through a phase as a youth where anything with a kilt was cool to me (thanks Highlander!) and Rob Roy became one of those films that I would watch often. Neeson and Lange are tremendous as the tragic couple and the supporting cast with Tim Roth, Brian Cox, Eric Stoltz, and Andrew Keir are just as great. I recently found this blu ray at a Big Lots for just a few bucks and couldn’t be happier.
