Scotland Highlands 1713, Rob Roy is the head of a Highlands clan that herds cattle. Rob takes a loan from the Marquis of Montrose to survive the winter, but Rob Roy's retainer,Alan McDonald, is murdered by one of the Marquis's guests,Cunningham. Rob is turned into a fugitive, and he finally confronts Cunningham after Rob's wife is raped by him. Rob Roy tries to sell the audience another sympathetic, Scottish hero. However, this bravehearted attempt falls short due to various historical inaccuracies within the film and its meandering, convoluted plot. If one assumes the director is an auteur--issues of film auteur theory aside--then the Scottish director of Rob Roy, Michael Caton-Jones, bludgeons the audience with his pronounced nationalistic propaganda. A historical Scottish figure was chosen to create a black vs. white dichotomy of English vs. Scottish as is also seen in Braveheart. Historical accuracy is left dead at the wayside akin to Alan McDonald's fate in the film. This political reimagining of history is exemplified in the rape scene. There is no historical basis that Rob Roy's wife was raped and bore a child from it,
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One does not go to Hollywood to learn. Its goal is to entertain, not educate, and its focus on entertainment is its biggest strength. Its biggest weakness is its one dimensional characters as villains. The lack of complexity of Rob Roy's foes means that it is a rather boring,predictable film plot-wise. More accurate representations of characters(Montrose being allowed to be more than a plot device),setting(historically accurate portrayal including the context of the Jacobite risings), and events (Rob Roy's wife not being raped as the crux of the film) would have helped the overall quality of Rob Roy--the only detriment of these would be that Caton would have had to try harder to create nationalistic fervor and by extension box office
One does not go to Hollywood to learn. Its goal is to entertain, not educate, and its focus on entertainment is its biggest strength. Its biggest weakness is its one dimensional characters as villains. The lack of complexity of Rob Roy's foes means that it is a rather boring,predictable film plot-wise. More accurate representations of characters(Montrose being allowed to be more than a plot device),setting(historically accurate portrayal including the context of the Jacobite risings), and events (Rob Roy's wife not being raped as the crux of the film) would have helped the overall quality of Rob Roy--the only detriment of these would be that Caton would have had to try harder to create nationalistic fervor and by extension box office