Outlaw King.

On the eve of Scotland’s Referendum in 2014 it was alleged that the then UK Prime Minister David Cameron banned the showing of Mel Gibson’s movie Braveheart on British TV. The reason was said to be that the showing of this movie with evoke even greater support for Scottish independence, something that this proud nation had been trying to win back for over 300 years.

 

The Crowning of the King of the Scots.

After watching the TV premier of Outlaw King on Netflix I would think this movie, far more than Gibson’s 1995 inaccurate portrayal of William Wallace and the Battle of Stirling Bridge, would evoke a far greater feeling of national pride and would be just the right evenings entertainment on the eve of the next Independence Referendum which is sure to follow the Brexit debacle by the English Tory government.

David Mackenzie’s adventurous and well acted movie movie tells how in 1306 Edward 1 of England laid a blanket of persecution across Scotland and its nobility including the future King of the Scots - Robert the Bruce. That was until the news that Wallace’s had been hung drawn and quartered in London. This horrific news again lit the spark of revolution into the minds of the Scottish people. Following the murder of John Comyn it fell to Robert, after being crowned at Scone, to lead his people once more into battle against their evil oppressors. There followed the Battle of Loudoun Hill in May 1307.  The battle is depicted on screen with no regard for the squeamish.

 

Robert the Bruce still stands guard outside Stirling Castle.

Although not the turning point in the Scottish Wars of Independence it led on to the landmark victory at Bannockburn in 1314 that in turn gave Scotland freedom to rule itself following the Declaration of Arbroath in 1320. That was until 1707 when this basic right was again taken away. The rebirth of the Scottish nation is now well overdue.

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit.

Tom Clancy’s character of Jack Ryan has appeared in nine novels and now a total of five screen adaptations but the latest is not based on a novel but an original story, and even judged on its own merit does not reach the mark.  Sometimes complete nonsense can be fun like the Bourne franchise or even some of the Jason Statham or Liam Neeson action thrillers but Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2013) commits the greatest sin in the action genre: it was dull!  

 

The latest Jack Ryan.

Taken in by the American dream after 9/11, economics student Jack Ryan (Chris Pine) joins the US Marines and consequently gets blown out of the sky while invading Afghanistan narrowly avoiding being permanently paralysed. He is then recruited by the CIA in the form of a very dapper looking Kevin Costner and charged with going undercover on Wall Street and investigating suspected ‘anti American’ bank accounts. Ten years passes when his work eventually lead’s him to Russia (who you will notice from the media are the baddies again) where arch ‘comic book’ villain Kenneth Branagh, sporting a real dodgy Russian accent, is trying to bring down the American banking system. Obviously nobody told him that the Americans are quite capable of bring down their own financial institutions without the help of a foreign power! 

 

The latest Russian villain.

Branagh is not only responsible for one of the least believable villains on screen of late, but also the poor man is to be blamed for the films direction. Considering he has been acting since 1981 and directing since 1989 he should have ‘done a lot better’ as they used to say in school reports! Chris Pine, who is probably best known for his role as James T Kirk in the two new teenage reboots of Star Trek, is completely emotionless as Jack Ryan and gives the character no depth.  I hate to say this but Keira Knightley is also completely wasted as Ryan’s love interest.  To add to the misery the plot suffers from a muddled and unimaginative story line.