So a movie came out on Netflix, I’m sure we’ve all heard, and my assumption of most of us history buffs have watched it. ‘‘Outlaw King,’’ with Chris Pine as Robert the Bruce.
Now while the movie itself takes place during the Scottish Wars of Independence circa 1296 to 1357, split into two separate wars, the First and the Second, which lies outside of Kingdom Come’s timeline and place of 1403 Bohemia, I thought a discussion of what the movie did right and what it got wrong seemed suitable for us on this forum.
Personally I enjoyed the film, however, no movie is perfect, and neither is, ‘‘Outlaw King.’’
Anybody who has not seen the film, I suggest you watch it, for further on this topic be filled with spoilers.
To begin, the use of riveted maille (there was some butted, which I can forgive, cause riveted is BLOODY EXPENSIVE) is used in spades. Everybody has some sort of viable historical armour, whether it be a gambeson, maille coif (which I didn’t like much given most men are JUST wearing the coif, though again I can give some forgiveness as they did have pelarines underneath and may have had cervellies underneath (secret helm in English)) The English side had some…faults, when it came to helms and whatever the hell Edward II was wearing (what are those little gold flowers going to do? Is it a sort of lamallar?) A majority wore great helms, maille coifs, and kettle helms. Really good, but there were some shown with visored bascinets which I’m sure did not exist until the 14th century. As for leather gloves/maille gauntlets, they are seemingly nonexistent.
The story seems to stick true, with some liberties made. It’s understandable they chosen Loudoun Hill over Bannockburn due to it being Robert the Bruce’s turning point in the war, but I heard rumours of, ‘‘Outlaw King,’’ being a trilogy, so to rush so many things seems ineffective.
As for inaccuracies of the film, there are three that stick out heavily to me that I can’t seem to get over.
1 Black musicians at the port. This one is obvious for why I have problems with it.
2 Edward II’s armour. What the literal fuck was that gold flower stuff supposed to do? And it was bracers and gauntlets too, not just pauldrons.
3 The final duel between Robert the Bruce and Edward II. Edward is cut off, surrounded by Scots, defeated soundly by Robert in single combat and. They just…let him go. Just, he walks away, no harm, no foul. THE FUCKING KING OF ENGLAND IS AT YOUR MERCY, AND YOU LET HIM GO WITHOUT RANSOM. Which makes no sense given the next scene Robert’s wife is released. Why? She’s a political prisoner. Did Edward just do a 180 and said, ‘‘release her for plot reasons.’’ Now, historically, Edward was never captured nor ransomed, however that scene could’ve been made to have it be an exchange of Robert’s wife for Edward II. I don’t now, this sticks with me above all else.
How did you feel about the film? In all, I’d give the film a 8.7/10 due to it being the best medieval film available on the large scale market (YouTube and freelance films are always better, but don’t have the budget to compete)