BEFORE: We've reached the part of August where everything seems to slow down just a little - many people are on vacation, and nobody expects that much to get done at work, with so many people out of town. I've got one boss out of town all next week, so I just have to keep things like e-mail running and sort a big pile of receipts from 2018, so his accountant can finish his taxes.
At the other job there's a feature in production, about half-animated, and I usually don't have much to do with that process, but since the summer interns are leaving and the fall interns haven't started yet, I've been taught how to composite scanned drawings into animation with a program called AfterEffects, and it's really the first time I've used any kind of digital program in animation production. Back when I took animation courses at NYU in the late 1980's, such programs didn't exist, digital filmmaking wasn't even a thing, so everyone was still drawing and coloring on cels, or moving around little bits of cut-out paper (my chosen technique, which was easier to me than drawing, or messing around with clay). But even a dinosaur like me can learn a new computer program if I have to, even if I'd prefer not to - but getting the film closer to completion takes precedence over me being stuck in the past.
My goal every day is the same - get through the day as best as I can, so I can come home, have dinner, and stay up much too late watching a movie. After a whole week of Britfest movies, there will just three more after tonight, and then I'm on to another topic. Steven Cree carries over from "Churchill".
THE PLOT: A true David vs. Goliath story of how the 14th century Scottish "Outlaw King" Robert the Bruce used cunning and bravery to defeat the much larger and better-equipped occupying English army.
AFTER: It seems like a while since I fired up the PlayStation to connect with Netflix, and I guess it has been nearly three weeks since I watched "Enemy" - I'm just not going to be making much progress on reducing what's in my queue this way, and that means I'm also in danger of having movies taken down from Netflix before I've had a chance to watch them. But since I'm juggling between what I have on DVD, what's on my DVR, what's in that pile of Academy screeners, not to mention Hulu and iTunes, it's like fighting a war on multiple fronts, and falling behind on all of them. The only thing I've really made much progress on is that pile of screeners, because if a film becomes available on one of the other formats, I usually move the disc from the two stacks I haven't seen to the much larger cabinet with all the screeners I have seen, or have no interest in watching. And I'm hoping to reduce those two small stacks to ONE small stack before more screeners start arriving at the end of the year. But my main watchlist never seems to get any smaller, it's a constant 160 films, and then the secondary watchlist of films I'd LIKE to add to the main watchlist is usually another 200 to 210 films. But that's what it takes to have enough material to make all these connections.
But speaking of fighting a war that doesn't seem to end, let's get to Robert the Bruce, who took the throne of Scotland in 1306 - yeah, we're going WAY back in U.K. history for this one. The king of England at the time was Edward I, aka Edward Longshanks, the son of Henry III. I haven't made the connection between him and Queen Elizabeth I yet, but there must have been at least five Henrys in between, among others. (Later, when I have some time....). A quick bit of research tells me that he killed the other claimant to the Scottish throne in 1306, but it took until 1314 for him to defeat the English army and be recogized as Scotland's ruler. That's eight years spent in hiding and looting Scottish castles in between battles, but fortunately the movie's under two hours long.
Robert the Bruce was a prominent character seen in the movie "Braveheart", and that film's subject, William Wallace, is mentioned several times in the early part of this film. But we all know what happened to him, right? (SPOILER ALERT if you haven't seen "Braveheart", it's not for people with weak stomachs). This movie shows what happened after that, so it's sort of a companion piece to "Braveheart" the same way that "W.E." is a companion piece to "The King's Speech".
But it's a bloody chain of events - once it gets to the battle scenes, they're some of the goriest and harshest ones I've ever seen - but hey, that's warfare with broadswords and battle axes for you. This film would also have you believe that Robert the Bruce came up with trench warfare, as a way to use the geography of the Scottish highland bogs to their advantage over the English. I have no idea if that's true, but I also can't say that it's NOT. I still have one question, though, what happened to the trebuchet? Early in the film, as King Edward is ruling on Scottish people's claims over losing their land (most end up getting the royal "Sorry, not sorry" in response) he then makes a point of demonstrating this wonderful new gadget that can launch a flaming bucket of something to hit a castle a few miles away. It's so prominent (and so costly, whether it was a practical effect or a CGI one, either way) that I was SURE this would be important later in the film. When the Scots were ambushed by the Brits late at night, this would have been a PERFECT time for them to use the trebuchet, but nope, they used other weapons. So if it didn't factor back into the story, why was it so prominently used in that early scene?
Instead, Robert sends his new wife and daughter (from his first marriage) into hiding - why he brought them with him to the battle in the first place is a little questionable - but the Prince of Wales catches up with them at Castle Kildrummy, and takes them prisoner. Thankfully, this was still a time where even soldiers had a problem with killing women and children, but the prince did kill Robert's brother, and all the men who were hiding Robert's family. His wife was held captive, and his daughter was sent to some kind of religious training with nuns - so I bet she only WISHED that the soldiers had killed her.
Since the prince can't seem to close the deal and capture Robert the Bruce (why the prince didn't offer him the chance to turn himself in, to save his wife, I don't quite understand, either) King Edward appears on the scene - hey, if you want something done, sometimes you have to do it yourself. But Edward dies soon after arriving in Scotland, so the prince leads his forces at the battle of Loudon Hill, and though the Scots are outnumbered six to one, the Clan MacKinnon shows up, then Clan MacDougalls, the MacDonalds, the MacDuffs, and a bunch of other Macs. Then this trench warfare comes into play, and it's a whole new (bloody) ball game. The Scots defeat the British, the Prince of Wales (later Edward II) duels with Robert the Bruce and loses, and an epilogue tells us that though Robert let him live and he became King of England, at some point he was killed by his own lords. Seems about right.
Meanwhile, Robert the Bruce's descendant was James, the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, who would eventually, one day, reunite England and Scotland under one king. So that sort of brings me around to where I was near the start of the week. As for that succession thing, Robert the Bruce was followed by his son, David, but then the throne went to Robert's daughter Marjorie's son, Robert II. Then came Robert's son Robert III, followed by James I through V, and James V was the father of Mary QOS. It's simple enough, but I'll never remember it.
Fun Fact: Apparently, this film is the reason that we don't have a new "Star Trek" movie coming out any time soon, Chris Pine chose to appear in this film instead of re-signing up as Captain Kirk.
Also starring Chris Pine (last seen in "A Wrinkle in Time"), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (last seen in "Nocturnal Animals"), Florence Pugh (last seen in "The Commuter"), Billy Howle (last seen in "Dunkirk"), Tony Curran (last seen in "Race"), Lorne MacFadyen, Alastair Mackenzie, James Cosmo (last seen in "T2 Trainspotting"), Callan Mulvey (last seen in "Avengers: Endgame"), Stephen McMillan, Paul Blair, Stephen Dillane (last seen in "Zero Dark Thirty"), Kim Allan, Sam Spruell (last seen in "Defiance"), Rebecca Robin, Jonny Phillips (last seen in "The Death of Stalin"), Ben Clifford, Duncan Lacroix, Kevin Mains, Jack Greenlees, Chris Fulton, Jamie Michie (last seen in "The Snowman"), Gilly Gilchrist (last seen in "Rob Roy"), Daniel Jackson, Duncan Airlie James, Victoria Liddelle, Gemma McElhinney, Stephen McCole, Meg Fraser, George Docherty, Robin Laing, Laurie Ventry, Matt Stokoe, Ron Donachie, Niall Greig Fulton, Rab Affleck (last seen in "Layer Cake"), Jenny Hulse, Frank Gilhooley, Jamie Maclachlan (last seen in "Maleficent"), Benny Young (last seen in "Out of Africa"), Clive Russell (last seen in "The Young Messiah"), Josie O'Brien
RATING: 6 out of 10 flaming arrows
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