Film

Outlaw King

Name: Outlaw King
Genre: Action, History, War
Released: 2018
Cast: Chris Pine, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Florence Pugh, Billy Howle, Sam Spruell

War action

A muscular, mud-soaked medieval war film about Robert the Bruce's desperate fight to reclaim Scotland from English occupation. David Mackenzie directs with brutal efficiency, trading Braveheart's pageantry for intimate combat and political grit. It's for people who want their history films visceral and unglamorous, with gorgeous Scottish landscapes and a lean cast of character actors who feel like actual soldiers rather than movie stars.

TMDb rating

3.4

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy grounded, muddy medieval war epics where the battles feel brutal and personal, and you're happy to sit with a slow-building campaign to get there.

Skip it if you want brisk, crowd-pleasing spectacle; this one spends long stretches on politics, travel and waiting, and its violence is graphic enough to be hard going.

What it asks of you: Settle in for just over two hours at a deliberate, unhurried pace, with long stretches of talk and travel before the sharp, bloody action arrives.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Braveheart1995

The essential reference point: Mel Gibson's even more romantic take on similar material, with bigger battles, a clearer enemy, and unapologetic mythmaking. If you loved Outlaw King's subject matter, this is the version most people grew up with.

But Gibson's self-mythologizing direction is heavy-handed by modern standards, and the historical liberties are enormous. It also runs nearly three and a half hours.

The Lion King1994

Another period war film about English-Scottish conflict, with similar aesthetic choices: muted colours, ground-level battle brutality, and a star (Timothée Chalamet) submerged in a grimy historical moment rather than dominating it. Made in the same era, same mood.

But It's primarily about Henry V and the French wars, so the Scottish element is minor. Slower-paced meditation than action film.

19172019

Another film obsessed with the physical toll of survival and movement through hostile terrain. Sam Mendes uses a single-take illusion to make you feel trapped in combat's machinery, much like Mackenzie's intimate camerawork does here.

But It's WWI, not medieval, and the visceral experience matters more than character development or plot momentum. Some find it technically impressive but emotionally distant.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Outlaw King

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas2013

Both chart a man forced into outlawry, building a following through personal magnetism and moral clarity, caught between vengeance and the need to lead a nation. Both ask whether righteous rebellion can remain righteous once it requires compromise.

A German adaptation of a Kleist novella about a merchant wronged by nobility who becomes a rebel leader—the same narrative skeleton as Outlaw King, but as a focused chamber piece about one man's impossible choice between justice and mercy. Mads Mikkelsen in a role of quiet moral weight.

But Deliberately austere, nearly dialogue-free in stretches. It's half the runtime and half the action: a philosophical western, essentially, not a war film.

Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas poster

The Last Duel2021

Ridley Scott returns to medieval warfare with the same commitment to mud, blood, and the specific mechanics of combat. Three perspectives on a single conflict, starring Ben Affleck, Adam Driver, and Matt Damon in unglamorous period roles.

But Nearly three hours, and Scott's repetitive structure—telling the same story three times—can feel like padding. The final duel, despite its buildup, divides viewers.

The Great2020

A period piece about seizing and holding power against overwhelming odds, but in Russian court rather than medieval Scotland. Same DNA of political survival, charismatic leadership, and the gap between myth and reality, with wicked humour instead of solemnity.

But It's a comedy-drama with a stylised, almost theatrical tone—nothing like Outlaw King's grim realism. The historical liberties are deliberate and constant.

Gladiator2000

Ridley Scott's template for the comeback war film: a wronged warrior rebuilding an army against an empire. Russell Crowe's Maximus shares Robert Bruce's arc of loss, exile, and redemption through combat, with similar conviction in its mythmaking.

But Post-9/11 nostalgia softens some of its politics, and the action is more Hollywood-smooth than Mackenzie's brutal style. It's also nearly two and a half hours of largely straightforward storytelling.

Dunkirk2017

Christopher Nolan's masterclass in depicting survival under impossible odds, told without a conventional protagonist. The focus stays on logistics, endurance, and collective human effort rather than individual heroism—a different angle on similar ground.

But Deliberately fragmented narrative told across three timescales can be confusing on first viewing. Not a character study, so don't expect emotional arcs.

All the King's Men1949

A more intimate exploration of how power corrupts and how a leader's personal compromises affect everyone around him. Less about battles, more about the cost of ambition and the distance between public image and private truth.

But Remake of a 1949 film that many prefer. The film is muddled in places, and it's primarily American political drama, not medieval warfare.

The Northman2022

Robert Eggers' Viking epic shares Outlaw King's commitment to authentic brutality and mythic storytelling. Alexander Skarsgård's Amleth is a righteous warrior driven by survival and vengeance, operating in the same historical/spiritual register as Robert Bruce.

But Eggers' visual style is baroque and often slow; some scenes prioritise mood and symbol over momentum. The pacing demands patience, and it's very violent.

Stalker1979

Both films trust silence and landscape. Both are about men carrying the weight of others' expectations and their own compromised ideals. Both understand that reclaiming power—whether a throne or an internal certainty—is never actually a victory.

Andrei Tarkovsky's science-fiction meditation on power, desire, and the burden of leadership through a guide leading two men into a forbidden zone. Sounds nothing like Outlaw King, but structurally it's the same: a journey through hostile terrain where the destination matters less than what the traveller becomes.

But Three hours of philosophical cinema with minimal plot and no action. It moves at the pace of thought, not narrative. Requires active attention and accepts long silences.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford2007

Both films are fascinated by how legends get constructed and how the man inside the myth experiences it as burden rather than glory. Both see kingship—whether of Scotland or the outlaw West—as ultimately a lonely, indefensible position. Both use landscape and small details to suggest interior states.

Andrew Dominik's revisionist western about myth-making and the gap between legend and lived experience, told as a slow-burn character study. Brad Pitt's Jesse James is a paranoid, fading king; Casey Affleck's Robert Ford is the mirror that shows him the truth. Gorgeously shot, deeply unsettling.

But Deliberately paced like a novel, not an action film. The violence is brief and brutal but sparse. Some find it pretentious; others find it essential. Divisive on first viewing.