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A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Friday 9 November 2018
Chris Pine and David Mackenzie reunite for 'Outlaw King'

By JAKE COYLE through things."
Associated Press After "Outlaw King" pre-
TORONTO (AP) — If you miered to largely poor re-
want to see an exhausted views in Toronto, Macken-
Chris Pine, meet him after zie cut about 20 minutes
he's spent a day answering from the film, which he
questions about his penis. had rushed to ready for
Following the September opening night at TIFF. The
premiere of David Mack- 52-year-old filmmaker co-
enzie's "Outlaw King," in wrote and produced the
which Pine stars as the film, which follows a pair of
Scottish hero Robert the acclaimed releases from
Bruce, conversation at the the director — the father-
Toronto International Film son prison drama "Starred
Festival focused largely Up" and "Hell or High Water"
on Pine's instant of full- — that likewise analyzed
frontal nudity in the film. masculinity.
That such a brief moment "It needs to be decon-
should arouse such curios- structed, doesn't it?" Mack-
ity — and not, say, anything enzie says. "At this point in
else in the two-plus hours of time, it feels like masculin-
historical-epic savagery in ity is coming under a lot of
the 1300s-set film — was for In this Sept. 7, 2018 photo, David Mackenzie, left, director of the film "Outlaw King," and actor Chris questions and it seems ap-
Pine a sad but telling com- Pine pose during the Toronto Film Festival at the Shangri-La Hotel in Toronto. propriate, as males, to be
mentary. Associated Press dealing with the subject of
"The fact that visions of nu- masculinity, try to find some
dity, genitalia, making love tion it." sional warrior but a man experiences making any- nuance in there, try not to
are somehow the main at- The irony is that Pine's Bruce riven with internal conflict. thing." demonize or heroize."
traction," said an exasper- — like his supporting role Scenes with his wife (played While they were still making In the 65-day shoot in Scot-
ated Pine in an interview in Patty Jenkins' "Wonder by Florence Pugh) are sen- the publicity rounds on "Hell land, Mackenzie and Pine
alongside Mackenzie. "All Woman" — is a negotia- sitive and tender. or High Water," Mackenzie hoped to recapture some
of us go 'Oo oo!' like fifth tion with traditional gen- When it's pointed out that slipped Pine the screenplay. of the freewheeling spirit of
graders. Literally, it's like der roles, even amid all his performance — and When the two sat down their quicker, lower-budget
talking to a bunch of 14 the blood and guts. Pine even that flash of nudity — in London to talk about it, production in West Texas.
year-olds, whereas be- plays the 14th century King seems intended to decon- Pine acknowledges he had That Bruce was a contem-
headings and all that kind of Scots, who won Scottish struct traditional masculine some issues with the script porary of William Wallace
of violence we're so inured independence from Eng- archetypes, Pine immedi- but that they quickly found has led to frequent com-
to that we don't even ques- land, not as a one-dimen- ately brightens. common ground in the parisons to Mel Gibson's
"I've been dying to talk desire to make a film not "Braveheart," though Pine
about this stuff all day and overwhelmed by Scottish says they were seeking to
we've gotten just myriad, nationalism but about, as make a very different sort
mind-numbing questions Pine says, "a rich man who of Scottish epic.
about nonsense," Pine re- decides to throw it all away "How do you make the
plies. "I do think there needs to do something selfless." anti-'Braveheart'? How do
to be a rebalancing of the "I mean, I pretty much you make the movie that
world. The underlying bass wanted to do it the mo- hits all the tropes of the
note that we should be ment he said 'historical genre without — and I say
hearing is: That is precisely epic,'" Pine adds. this with all due respect —
what we're all used to and Pine, with his shining blue being manipulative?" Pine
isn't it kind of interesting that eyes and a filmography says. "'Braveheart,' I love.
it's so skewed that way, that littered with blockbusters, But how do you make the
any notions of tenderness might not be the first ac- non-movie movie?"
or lovemaking on screen tor one would think of for a Pine saw Bruce "nebulous"
becomes uncomfortable? bloodied, mud-caked Rob- and "opaque" — someone
I think that's probably the ert the Bruce. But Macken- who could be politician
masculine and the femi- zie saw something of Bruce and warrior, hero and cow-
nine out of whack in this in Pine's desperate bank ard. "You cannot pin the
big, wide universe." robber in "Hell or High Wa- guy down," he says. Before
"Outlaw King," which de- ter," a performance that departing to shake off the
buts on Netflix and in se- seemed to unlock Pine's full day's questions, Pine re-
lect theaters Friday, is the power as a movie star. peatedly mentioned Yuval
streaming service's first big "There's something about Noah Harari's "Sapiens: A
swing at that classic big- both characters: people Brief History of Humankind"
screen thing: the historical struggling, people deal- as a source of inspiration.
epic. It reunites Pine with ing with uncertainty and "To me, the primal aspects
Mackenzie two years after not sure whether or not to of the film are almost like
"Hell or High Water," a high- act," Mackenzie says. "One men and women of the
water mark for both the thing Chris brings brilliantly mud and of the dirt. It's
Scottish filmmaker and for to the work he does is the almost like you see them
Pine, who calls the Oscar- capacity to handle that in this amoebic form. The
nominated neo-Western uncertainty and a charac- earth that we come from,"
"one of my most cherished ter who's working his way says Pine. q