Rob Roy (1995)

Directed by Michael Caton-Jones. Starring Liam Neeson, Jessica Lange, Tim Roth, John Hurt, Brian Cox, Andrew Keir, Brian McCardie, Eric Stoltz, Vicki Masson, Gilbert Martin, Jason Flemyng, Ewan Stewart. [R]

Robust, rousing tale of love, honor, reputation and revenge set in Scotland, 1713. Neeson’s titular chief of the MacGregor Clan borrows money from an aristocrat (Hurt), but the sum is stolen by Roth’s cunning court dandy, and he becomes an outlaw for refusing to disgrace Hurt’s rival (Keir) as a means to forgive the debt. Full-blooded storytelling enriches a plot that’s structured and spun according to the satisfaction of melodramatic tropes, handsomely-mounted and photographed, boasting a good ear for stylized period dialogue, and capped off with one of the best sword fights ever put on screen. What makes it such strong entertainment, however, is the character work—tall, proud and true Neeson, his fiercely loyal and loving wife (Lange), Cox’s slimy conspirator, and so on; Roth walks away with the whole show as the foppish sadist with unquenchable appetites and avarice to go along with his deadly mind and blade. Bears little relation to the true story of Scottish Highlands folk hero Rob Roy MacGregor, and even less to Sir Walter Scott’s same-named tome.

86/100