Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Outlaw King’ on Netflix Is a Bloody Good Epic

Netflix jumped onboard with director David Mackenzie, hot off of his Best Picture nomination for Hell or High Water, for his next film about the legendary Scottish revolutionary, Robert the Bruce, who united the warring clans in defiance of the English crown.

OUTLAW KING: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: In the early 14th century, after the period known as the Great Cause, where the Scottish rebellion led by the wild-eyed revolutionary Robert the Bruce was put down, the Scottish clans had been once again forced into subservience to the English crown and the cruel authority of Edward I (Stephen Dillane). It didn’t last long, particularly with the king and his wild-card son (Billy Howle) putting their boots on the necks of the Scots, whose tribes had historically been plagued by in-fighting and feuding. And so the only way the Scots could rise up was by uniting under one king, Robert the Bruce (Chris Pine).

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: This is by far the most epic undertaking of David Mackenzie’s career, though his most recent, best received films — the battering Irish prison drama Starred Up; the American western Hell or High Water — have been building up to something this size. The opening scenes in particular are absolutely ravishing visually (to the point where you’re going to wish you were sitting in front of a massive theatrical screen), and put to shame even the very best production values in a Game of Thrones, for example.

You’re also definitely going to think about Braveheart, the Mel Gibson-directed 1995 Best Picture winner that told the story of William Wallace’s rebellion that mostly served as prelude to this tale. Braveheart is by far the inferior movie, something you’ll be reminded of again and again — the lack of homophobic violence against the prince, for one thing! — and which was underlined when Robert and his allies came across a wild-eyed and possibly insane William Wallace in the middle of the woods, though that scene was lost to the cutting room floor when Mackenzie re-edited the film after its Toronto Film Festival premiere in September.

There’s also a lightness to Outlaw King, and you’re going to come back here and call me crazy when you see just how much insane violence is going on in this movie. But I mean it. This kind of grimy, violent, down-in-the-mud movie could so easily have been presented as a dour war of attrition. Mackenzie does his best to keep things at the very least energetic. Robert’s brothers and allies feel like real family. And there is a particular spark to Robert’s relationship with his wife, Elizabeth Burgh, who is played with an almost unnecessary amount of captivating screen presence by Florence Pugh.

Performance Worth Watching: Let’s pick up where we left off about Florence Pugh. The story of the film ultimately doesn’t have enough for Elizabeth to do, boxed in as it is by history and the role of women at the time. But Pugh effortlessly commands the screen every time she’s on, whether she’s flirting with her newly-met husband-to-be or proudly refusing to renounce her husband for the prince, or hanging in a birdcage off the side of the castle, which, honestly, give us that one-woman Rosencranz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Hollywood.

That said — and due credit to Chris Pine, who is very solid in the lead role, and Stephen Dillane, whose weariness at having to put down yet another rebellion is perfectly pitched — I’m giving best-in-show honors to Billy Howle as the Prince of Wales, whose bowl cut and bratty nature have him poised to be a figure of ridicule. Or would, if his cruelty weren’t overcompensating at all times. But in the hands of Howle, who starred as one of the boys in Dunkirk before being saddled with a pair of truly regrettable flops opposite Saoirse Ronan, On Chesil Beach and The Seagull, the Prince is a wild-eyed, petty, insecure, cruel villain who eagerly steals every scene he’s in. Again, a movie about a bloody rebellion for sovereignty in barbaric times can get pretty unpleasant to watch, so these moments of levity are certainly appreciated.

Memorable Dialogue: After James Douglas (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is dismissed from the king’s court after petitioning in vain for his father’s lands back, the King decrees that the name “Douglas” is not to be spoken in the kingdom again. So when James, who’s played by Taylor-Johnson in a style that could be best described as “feral old-timey prospecter,”sets about his rampage through the various castles in the north lands, “DOUGLAS!” becomes the defiant battle cry.

Single Best Shot: Again, when Mackenzie isn’t busy filming graphic disembowelings, he and cinematographer Barry Ackroyd (The Hurt Locker; Captain Phillips) put together some breathtaking compositions. And it’s not just all those fields of heather that the Bruce clan marches through. Early on, the camera urgently moves all around the royal encampment where the Scots are to pledge their loyalty to the king. In order to seal that pledge — and to demonstrate the English military might, a new and fearsome weapon is deployed against a nearby castle. It’s a majestic culmination to a bravura series of camera movements. Just, you know, don’t expect that weapon to be important later on, because it is not.

Sex and Skin: Ah, yes. What you came here for. Let’s talk about that Chris Pine nude scene, shall we? For one thing, it’s not the only time we see the quirkiest Chris in the buff. (If the Chrisses were a boy band, Chris Evans would be the Cute One, Chris Hemsworth would be the Bad Boy, Chris Pratt would be the Old One, and Chris Pine would be the Quirky One.) His wedding-night sex scene with Florence Pugh is seriously hot, and you get a couple lingering looks at his butt. And it’s a very good butt.

Unjustly, though unsurprisingly, the butt didn’t get the press attention when Outlaw King opened at Toronto. No, it was the scene where Pine jumped out of a frigid Scottish lake (so a loch, I guess) and flashed the audience with some floppy peen. You guys, it goes by so fast. But damned if an entire theater of premiere-goers didn’t all lean forward in their seats when it happened. If you’re looking for how to quickly and easily find that headline-making D, have at it.

Our Take: After the TIFF premiere, Mackenzie cut 20 minutes of the film, getting it down to a more manageable 117-minute runtime. It certainly helps, as overlength was one of the chief concerns with the original cut. Still, the brutality of the violent clashes and sadistic villains do weigh on the film, even as Mackenzie works hard to counteract it. At some point, honoring the barbaric ways that humans waged war becomes an impediment to entertaining an audience in 2018. Still, Outlaw King is a grand and often rousing affair, the kind of movie your dad will end up watching and telling you about, months later, as he fails to remember the title. There is a spark of life to the film, from Mackenzie’s vision, down the line through the cast (Pine, Pugh, Howle, and Dillane all stellar), down to the settings. It’s sometimes a movie at war with itself, but when it works, it really works.

Our Call: Stream It. Netflix’s fall slate is positively bursting with prestige offerings, and the temptation will be to bypass this one that didn’t get great reviews out of the gate. But give it a shot, power through the disembowelings, and keep an eye out for the year’s most famous phallus.

Stream Outlaw King on Netflix