Honour made him a man, history made him a legend... (Rob Roy (DVD))

Member Name: steerpyke

Product:	Rob Roy (DVD)
Date:	27/12/04 (122 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Tim Roth, stunning visuals, lots of action

Disadvantages: historically inaccurate

The problem with making a historical tale into a film is that it is always going to be a compromise. What makes a good tale is not often what makes a good film and vica versa. It is easy to take the main subject and polarise it so that the characters are either good or bad, heroes or villians and history portrayed in terms that are too clear cut. Films such as Braveheart and The Patriot were guilty of this only American Civil War saga Glory managed to lay out some balance in its undertaking. Rob Roy would always be a difficult subject to make into a balanced film. In an age when alleigence and politics was the road to success, the historical Rob Roy MacGregor was an enigmatic player of this game and changed his camps as it suited his own ends. But the historical reality does not make for a hero, which is a shame as a realistic portrayal of the philosophy and attitude of the man would have made for a much more interesting film, but this is Hollywood and unfortunately the industry would rather give us a black and white clear cut view of the times than admit that the audience could deal with something a bit more in depth.

With the Historical rant behind me, I have to say that I did however enjoy the film, once you detatch yourself from historical reality, you are left with a good historical adventure with an all star cast and plenty of action. The premise is this, Rob Roy (Liam Neeson) is the head of the MacGregor clan, guardian, leader and all round hero to the community. To provide for their future he undertakes a trade mission using borrowed money. Unfortunately a young libertine in the form of Archibald Cunningham (Tim Roth) hijacks the mission for his own gain leaving Rob Roy in debt to a powerful and ruthless nobleman (John Hurt). Rob Roy becomes a fugitive and has to go on the run whilst trying to clear his name.

As a period piece it is very eye catching, the lush costumes of the well-to-do contrasting nicely against a backdrop of the stunning beauty of the Scottish landscape and the harsh life of the clans and their sparse existance counters the decadence of the nobility. Jessica Lange plays a good support to Neeson as his loyal wife, but the honours have to go to Tim Roth as the foppish Cunningham. Any scene that he is in he manages to steal with out resulting in over acting or upstaging the rest of the cast.

There is something in this film for most people. Its a film of love and loyalty, to family, clan and lord, a film of revenge and doing the right thing. There is enough action to keep the film running at a good pace and the costumns of this early eighteenth century setting are convincing. One historical point that makes the film more believable is that all of the power play and intrigue is set amongst the Scottish nobilty themselves, in the hands of another scriptwriter it would have been easy to turn this into the standard poor Scottish locals verses the wicked English overlords. The film is all the better for avoiding this easy option and paints a more realistic picture of the times.

So its not a historically accurate portrayal of an enigmatic Scotish hero, but then it probably never wanted to be. It is a good action story, lots of intrigue action and drama, as well as the underlying love story which is what actually drives the events of the film. A stunning look to the film makes up for its other failings and as long as you can view the film as a fantasy story in a historical setting, which is how you need to view most of these types of film, you will not be dissappointed. Rent it or wait for the reruns on TV.

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