Outlaw King (2018)
Directed by David Mackenzie
Forced into exile by the English after being crowned King of Scotland, legendary warrior Robert the Bruce fights to reclaim the throne.
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Picking up where “Braveheart” left off, “ Outlaw King ” tells the story of Robert the Bruce, the Scottish leader who invoked the memory of fallen rebel William Wallace, “Remember the Alamo!” style, on his way to reclaiming Scotland’s independence.
Many know the tale of William Wallace, the Scottish knight who was a prominent leader in the First War of Scottish Independence, as portrayed by Mel Gibson in a wee film called Braveheart.
It's impossible to watch Outlaw King without comparison to the Oscar winning Braveheart, Mel Gibson's biography of William Wallace.
Forgoing blue face paint and 3+ hour running times, it’s certainly no Braveheart 2. You can decide for yourself if that’s a positive or a negative.
David MacKenzie wants to give you blood, battles, brooding and rousing patriotism with the waters muddied just enough to stop things from going full Braveheart.
If you’ve ever watched Braveheart and thought, “What happened after all that?”, have I got a film for you!
The caging recalls that of Iago, at the end of Orson Welles’s “ Othello ” (1955), and, as “Outlaw King” arrives at its weltering climax, a frenzy of mudbound slaughter, the echo is of Welles’s “ Chimes at Midnight ”(1967).
It looks like a million dollars (or fifty), with Netflix clearly not having skimped on the budget, but Mackenzie also finds a visual approach that’s distinct from the post-“Gladiator” glut of historical epics of the last twenty years, with the Battle Of The Bastards from “Game of Thrones” a more obvious reference point to the film’s (numerous) war sequences.
The portrayal of his character should bring reminders of Commodus in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator, especially during the sword sequence.
It’s quite old-fashioned and classical, but in a pleasing way, reminiscent of “Gunga Din” and particularly Kurosawa in its widescreen images and reveling in mud and rain.
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The artistic superstar of this film is Oscar-nominated cinematographer Barry Ackroyd, a prized regular collaborator of Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker and Detroit) and Paul Greengrass (Captain Phillips and United 93).
But on the whole, it moves at a nifty pace in the new running time, and the technical work, in general, is impeccable (Ken Loach and “The Hurt Locker” DP Barry Ackroyd might do their best work ever here).
El mayor elogio de esta película, no solo por las escenas de batalla, se debe al camarógrafo Barry Ackroyd (nominado al Oscar por "The Hurt Locker").
As stated, as shot by the great Barry Ackroyd (The Hurt Locker) and edited by Jake Roberts ( Brooklyn ) the two primary battle sequences are magnificently staged.
Cinematographer Barry Ackroyd's previous beautiful work includes The Wind That Shakes the Barley, United 93, The Hurt Locker, Captain Phillips, and Detroit.
Working with top cinematographer Barry Ackroyd (“The Hurt Locker” and Ken Loach’s atmospheric “The Wind That Shakes The Barley”), Mackenzie shot entirely in Scotland (according to, the credits insist, the borders of 1320) and as much as possible in remote and beautiful areas.
Cinematographer Barry Ackroyd's previous beautiful work includes The Wind That Shakes the Barley, United 93, The Hurt Locker, Captain Phillips, and Detroit.
Working with top cinematographer Barry Ackroyd (“The Hurt Locker” and Ken Loach’s atmospheric “The Wind That Shakes The Barley”), Mackenzie shot entirely in Scotland (according to, the credits insist, the borders of 1320) and as much as possible in remote and beautiful areas.
The backhanded compliment to his Scottish accent is that it’s better than Christopher Lambert’s attempts in the Highlander films.
The artistic superstar of this film is Oscar-nominated cinematographer Barry Ackroyd, a prized regular collaborator of Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker and Detroit) and Paul Greengrass (Captain Phillips and United 93).
Cinematographer Barry Ackroyd's previous beautiful work includes The Wind That Shakes the Barley, United 93, The Hurt Locker, Captain Phillips, and Detroit.
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Though undeniably bloodier, this standoff comes closer to the inelegant mayhem of Antoine Fuqua’s “King Arthur” (compromised by its PG-13 rating) or Ridley Scott’s “Kingdom of Heaven” (cut beyond all comprehension), with men in muddy chain-mail tunics impaling one another while dozens of horses fall, in wincing close-up, into trenches lined with pikes.
The Verdict: These uprising event films (The Patriot, Kingdom of Heaven, Rob Roy, Spartacus) are a little dime-a-dozen.
It’s about why the Scots would willingly die to be ruled by a king named Robert instead of one named Edward: namely, Scottish pride, but also to not be gutted by taxes, and, to paraphrase a line from “Trainspotting,” to not be colonized by English buggers (via “Prima Nocta,” among other means).