The opening shot- incredible- 8-9 minute long floating tracking shot. There’s staging and choreography with the fighting, mud, in and out of tents, intelligent writing, and it finishes with the catapult set piece
phenomenal 8-minute opening shot
The film never reaches those heights again but it’s an engaging narrative and mostly well-acted (I was impressed with Pine playing Bruce not as a superhero but an everyman)
97% of the film is serious as a heart attack and then we get a few bad awkward attempts at comedic levity including the awful “you know about being too quick in bed joke” 12 minutes in
Period detail, studied customers, banners
Apparently there were 20 minutes cut from the TIFF version that debuted (to weaker reviews)
Bloody, muddy and brutal
Gorgeous establishing shots
Both Billy Howle (playing Prince of Wales) and Aaron Taylor-Johnson are throwing 107 MPH (lots of enthusiastic yelling) and it doesn’t always land for either-
@Harry- I did see Outlaw King around the time when it was released and liked it. I’ve been meaning to watch some of Mackenzie’s other films like Perfect Sense in 2011 or these newer ones like Relay and Fuze if they are good.
Are his newer films Relay (2024) and Fuze (2025) any good?
I haven’t seen them but Outlaw King is stronger than this page suggests, I recommend watching it if you haven’t already.
@Harry- I did see Outlaw King around the time when it was released and liked it. I’ve been meaning to watch some of Mackenzie’s other films like Perfect Sense in 2011 or these newer ones like Relay and Fuze if they are good.
@Malith – I wasn’t crazy about Fuze. I think it can be skipped
@Harry- Yeah. Fuze didn’t look overly promising. Relay seems like a much more interesting film.
Any other Mackenzie films in the archives aside from this and HOHW?
Have you seen his films with Ewan McGregor?
@Harry- Yes, Starred Up is in the archives. I’ve seen Young Adam as well at some point