A big, bloody mud-and-honor epic,Outlaw Kinghardly feels like it was designed or destined for a small screen.
But in this era of Netflix uber alles, it will premiere there in November and was also chosen to officially open this years Toronto International Film Festival with a first-night gala premiere.
If Hollywood does not exactly need another tale of a Scottish warrior with a brave heart and a medieval mullet, Glasgow-based filmmaker David Mackenzie is at least a good man for the job even if the director of 2016s excellent neo-classic WesternHell or High Waterhas also taken the blasphemous risk of casting a non-Scotsman as his lead, reuniting withHigh Waters Chris Pine.
Credit: Netflix
As 14th-century Gaelic nobleman Robert the Bruce, the sunny Los Angeles native manages to look surprisingly right in chain mail, hiding his California jawline beneath a tangled beard and adopting a convincing-enough Scottish burr.
Hell need at least some of that wooly gravitas to inspire his countrymen to rise up against King Edward I (a great, casually imperious Stephen Dillane) and take back their land and pride from the English.
Bruce finds his loyal tribe, including Aaron Taylor-Johnsons fiercely endearing Lord of Douglas and a lovely, independent-minded bride (Lady Macbeths Florence Pugh).
He also has a mortal enemy in Edward (Billy Howle ofDunkirkandOn Chesil Beach), a mad-eyed prince with a bowl cut to match his psychopathic tendencies.
(William Wallace also appears briefly as secondary character, though hes made of something much darker and more feral than Mel Gibsons imagining).
Mackenzie falls a little too in love with his battle scenes; by the fourth clash of blood and swords it all starts to feel like deja vu, with different horses.
At nearly two and a half hours, theres clearly room to trim (though one chaotic escape scene near the end may be the best river nightmare sinceRevenant).
But he also films it beautifully in the natural light of candles, torches, and overcast skies, and theres a solidness to the old-fashioned conventions of his storytelling.
Unlike Bruces scrappy band of rebels,Outlawnever really has the element of surprise: It just comes in blazing, like a king.B+
