Movies with a Scottish theme

Here are a couple of movies related to Scotland that I watched recently.

"Rob Roy" (1995)



I finally watched "Rob Roy" yesterday for the first time. For OUTLANDER fans, I think this is a much better film than "Braveheart". I really enjoyed it. The acting is superb, the costumes and scenery are fascinating to look at, and there are so many things that remind me of Diana Gabaldon's books. In no particular order:
  • standing stones
  • men in kilts (yes, lots of them!)
  • Highland cattle
  • sword fights
  • maggots (briefly)
  • dirks and sgian dubhs
  • a tall and handsome Scottish hero (played by Liam Neeson) who has some very Jamie-like views on honor (see below)
  • a Gathering (of MacGregors, not Frasers or MacKenzies, but still....)
  • love between husband and wife that endures despite hardship and tragedy
  • a villain almost as despicable as BJR
Here's the trailer for "Rob Roy":



And here is a scene from the movie where Rob Roy explains honor to his young sons:



"Stone of Destiny" (2008)



I heard about the movie "Stone of Destiny" several years ago from Cathy MacGregor on Compuserve. It's not a very well-known movie, and rather hard to find on DVD, but worth watching, in my opinion. This Canadian film tells the story (based on real events) of four Scottish university students in 1950 who plotted to steal the 9th-century Stone of Scone from Westminster Abbey in London and bring it back to Scotland. Read the review here if you're interested.

"Stone of Destiny" is a rather low-key movie with a sweetly innocent feel to it ("What could possibly go wrong?" says one of the conspirators). Not a very long movie, either, only 96 minutes, and it moves pretty quickly. I found the Scottish accents a bit hard to follow at times, but that may just have been because I'm not used to hearing them. The movie was well-acted and I would certainly recommend it to OUTLANDER fans.

You can find it on Amazon Prime here.

If any of you know of any other films with a Scottish theme or filmed in the Highlands that are worth watching, please let me know. "Mrs. Brown" is one, although I haven't seen it in years. "Braveheart", of course (although I personally didn't care for that movie). Any other suggestions?

11 comments

Amie said...

We LOVE Rob Roy!

I looked for the other one on Netflix and it says the it has unknown availability? Don't really know what that means - we will see if they send it?

Karen Henry said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Karen Henry said...

Amie - I don't know why Blockbuster and Netflix don't list "Stone of Destiny". Try the sites I linked to above, that's all I can tell you. It's a shame that it's not more widely available.

Karen

Julie at Outlandish Dreaming said...

I have Rob Roy and I found and it definitely scratched my Outlander itch. In fact, I used to make a lot of Outlander icons at LiveJournal, and found the screen caps from Rob Roy made very nice Outlander icons with the proper amount of manipulation and text added!

PMitch said...

I'm glad you mentioned Mrs. Brown. It's one of my favorites.

Ron said...

Hi, this is a very nice review. i just love movies with liam Neeson in it...

He's acting is just no other.

Specially when hes doing an action movie...

Cheers!

Anonymous said...

Don't forget the movie "Highlander". Haven't seen it in years but it's got an element of time travel and men in kilts.

Shoney said...

Rob Roy is def a fav film of mine. I actually dont like Braveheart.

There is a film called Local Hero which was filmed in a place called Pennan which is only about an hour or so from my home town of Peterhead. Ive been to it a few times.

Lisa said...

Love Rob Roy!

A movie with a Scottish theme I watched recently was called The Flying Scotsman, about a Scottish cyclist (played by Jonny Lee Miller). It was pretty interesting and I love hearing the Scottish accents.

I'm going to check Netflix Instant for One More Kiss, mentioned above by Jennifer. A verra young Gerard Butler speaking with a Scottish accent? That's my kind of movie!

Rhona said...

I agree shonaduthie3 about Local Hero. My husband and I saw it when it came out in the 80's and we have watched it several times since.

Wanda said...

I just watched Rob Roy for the first time and loved it. It really gave that Outlander feeling with the kilts, stones, accents etc.. I didn't realize Liam Neesan was so tall and he looked verra handsome in a kilt!

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