History Buffs: Outlaw King

In its role as the unofficial sequel to Braveheart, lets find out if Outlaw King does a better job of accurately portraying Scottish History and Robert the Bruce's mission to liberate Scotland from England.

[kriegaffe]

I worked on Outlaw King for 5 months. Armour was slowly added to our costumes after each battle, suggesting it was looted.
There is a 4 hour cut including the spider in the cave scene. There were talks of making a mini series but sadly, I don't think we'll ever see it.
Great video

[alexdavey]

As a Scot and a Fifer I can fully empathise with the horse that would rather throw itself off a cliff than go to Kinghorn

[o.mcneely]

Just a quick note for History Buffs! The popular yellow dye for clothes at that time didn’t come from horse pee, but from weld, an extremely common weed. Stale urine was a common mordant (dye fixative) but it DID NOT color the fabric! Between weld (yellow), woad (another common weed that produced vivid blue and even certain shades of green with copper added) and madder (also a weed, whose roots produce bright reds and pinks), medieval Scotland was extremely brightly colored 🌈
Sincerely,
A historical dye nerd 😅

[hardticket]

I would watch a 5-10 hour Robert The Bruce historically accurate series starring Chris Pine and Florence Pugh. No question.

[YouTube]

the true royalty of historical movie reviews 👑

[mladenkulic]

I love when History Buffs comes back with a new episode, at the right time.

[michaelhenderson]

My favourite thing as a Scotsman is they used actual scottish castles and scottish Highlands which help with the magic and beauty of the landscape

[TheStrategos]

Robert The Bruce’s life was a great example of a man who was mentally tough and overcame tremendous adversity. He was also an exceptional military commander. A fascinating figure.

[GallowglassVT]

Fun note that the film leaves out that I just remembered: Robert's younger brother, Edward (called Ewan in the film), later attempted to claim the title of High King of Ireland at his brother's behest and he held the title for a bit before he was killed in battle by Anglo-Irish forces. That makes him the last person to hold the title of Irish high king.

[Cinemallennials]

The accuracy of material culture in this film is unreal, look at the armor, the swords, the weaponry, the finer Celtic/Gaelic details are so great

[CZProtton]

As a reenactor of an early 14th century Bohemian noble, I can tell you, the armour they have is extremely well done. The english are sometimes wearing wierd things on top of their chainmail, like Edwards golden plates which I have never seen anywhere, but the scots with their early bascinets, mail, aventails and early coat of plate are extremely spot on. Its not as well tailored as it should be, but I guess when creating a movie, you need to have the chainmail loose so you can use it on many people in different scenes, as its quite expensive to make even today. It might be the best depiction of armour I have seen in a movie since Arn the Knight Templar. I would expect a lot more greathelms... but I understand that acting in a greathelm is absolutely impossible as you cannot see the actor or out of the god damn thing :D

[darthsilversith]

I enjoyed this movie honestly. I wish Netflix would do more movies like this and “The King”. There’s so much potential for good stories in this time period.

[abasicyoutubeviewer]

History Buffs is such a great platform. For one, it frames its lesson around a movie which helps tell a story, and if the movie has in accuracies it addresses them. I watched ‘1492’ in middle school history class, and this channel totally showed why that’s wrong. Great work, keep it up!

[xHawkx]

Outlaw king was a massive improvement on braveheart. Indeed it had some errors, but overall it was a decent film. I really hope to see Das Boot reviewed someday.

[heffatheanimal]

So love Aaron Taylor-Johnson's depiction of James Douglas in this film. Such an underrated actor

[ashleywetherall]

A couple of years ago I went to the Bannockburn museum. (Great place to visit) They said that contrary to Braveheart and Outlaw king, Edward II was not incompetent or a wimp. He was in fact badly advised and was actually very brave and a very accomplished Knight. Reports concur that he was dragged from the battlefield of Bannockburn by his bodyguard. He wanted to fight to his inevitable death..

[o.mcneely]

Dude, I’m SO HAPPY you got to this one! I reviewed it (in written form) when it came out and honestly the only inaccurate thing that made me as furious as all of Braveheart was putting Elizabeth in a cage. In reality, if the English had done that, her extremely powerful father and all his forces probably would have defected to the Scottish side. In reality it was Bruce’s female relatives suspended in cages (one of them dying as a result), apart from Marjorie because of her age. She and Elizabeth still underwent solitary confinement, which is equally horrible, but I guess it wasn’t as ✨DRAMATIC✨

[christopherclark]

I loved this movie. At the end when Robert The Bruce was giving his pep talk. The part where he says I don't care who you fight for as long as you FIGHT!!! Cold chills

[cormorant]

I always appreciate that you analyze these films as both a representation of history and a form of entertainment. It is so difficult to take real world events and put them neatly in a dramatic and engaging movie script without making alterations or jumbling events to help make a cohesive narrative.

You do a great job pointing out historical inconsistencies while explaining why this might have been done. Its a nice balance. Looking forward to your next one.

[karebushmarebu]

The spider is also on our £20 bank notes alongside Robert the bruce, so even though the spider story isn't historically accurate it is still an important part of the mythology.