Outlaw King (2018)

   

 The outlaw king is a recent movie depicting the struggle of Robert Bruce to establish Scotland's independence from England (a country ten times it size) in the early 14th century.

Some good aspects of OK:

• Costumes and armor look good
• The landscapes are AWESOME (in the proper sense of the word)
• It's been a while since I studied up on Scottish history. but there don't seem to be any gratuitous anachronisms.

But the movie lacks:

• In depth characterization
• sufficient explanation of the political situation of Scotland 

 The result was that I didn't  care about the main characters and their motives (such as they were). Robert Bruce was completely flat. The Prince of Wales (Edward II) was a character out of melodrama.  Why did Edward I want to conquer Scotland anyway?

I think the movie-makers tried much harder than most to get the history right, but they
would have done better if they had inserted maybe three scenes of explanatory material.  If you go into this movie without any background except the notion "England bad, Scotland good" you

will no get no more than that.  Of course there is a sizeable audience for just that sentiment...


Image: The Bruce family on vacation