History Resurgent – The Rise of the Streaming Services

You’re reading part 5 of our Historical Epic series. Read part 1 here!

Despite no longer finding a mass appeal in Hollywood proper, the Historical Epic genre may be finding a new place on streaming services. Many ambitious projects have been withheld by American studios because they no longer see the profit in Historical epics. Other large projects found financial backing from the Chinese market that often came at the cost of the director’s vision as the Chinese censors often influenced the production. Removing elements such as characters fighting for “freedom” for example, you only have to look at what happened behind the scenes with Mulan to know what I’m saying.  

Box office expectations have often kept large-scale historical epics back. Steaming services operate differently in that they are boosted by subscriber counts – and subscribers aren’t necessarily attracted to just one film or series. Because of this system, movies no longer have to make a profit directly for the producing studio to make money. As a result, we’ve seen a relatively newfound sense of trust from companies like Netflix, Starz, and HBO giving directors greater freedom to push their vision and produce new opportunities for historical films. 

Netflix’s Scottish Surprise – Outlaw King

One surprise hit to come out was Netflix’s Outlaw King (2018). In many ways, this film was a sequel, remake, and throwback to Braveheart but still gave us a story different from its predecessor. there’s much more focus on making it accurate with the costumes and rituals. None of the Scots were kilts as that wouldn’t be invented for several centuries.

What these more recent movies took to their advantage was that they only focus on one specific moment in time. Earlier films like Alexander suffered because they tried to put too much history and events into a single film. This often comes at the cost of pacing. Films such as Outlaw King only focus on one specific moment in time and that’s the one-year point to where the first months as the Robert The Bruce became an outlaw until his first victory against the English at Loudoun Hill. They didn’t need to culminate with the Scottish victory at Bannockburn, as that was 8 years later. When you’re making a movie about a historic figure like Robert the Bruce It is always important for directors to pick their battles, and director David Mackenzie did well.

Recent films have also tried to take into account public consciousness. Braveheart was in modern terms a propaganda piece that has nationalistic leanings, in fact, this film was partially responsible for Scotland’s push for greater autonomy occurring in the 1990s. To this day many Scots still echo independence by quoting Braveheart‘s anthemic “Freedom!” call, regardless of their personal motivations for secession.

However, Outlaw King was not built as a romanticized depiction in the Scottish Wars of Independence was the bloody truth of how ugly this medieval period was. Unlike William Wallace, who was revered as somewhat of a messianic-type character even before his Braveheart portrayal, Robert the Bruce was a more shrewd, ruthless character who acts decisively. For example, Robert straight-up murders his political rival Jon Comyn. Later we see one of his lieutenants Black Douglas, straight-up massacre defenseless English soldiers during communion. At the ending, there’s a text that appears acknowledging that Roberts’ descendants, The Stuarts, would eventually assume the kingship of both Scotland and England, the same line who are still Britain’s royals today. No doubt this movie wants to poetry the ugly truth to the Wars of Scottish Independence then present the glamorized messianic story that Braveheart was.

Hail to “The King”

Another Netflix history epic was released in the year following Outlaw King: The King (redundant I know).

Henry V (“the fifth”) was one of the most celebrated kings in history because of how he was able to lead a divided England away from the turmoils of his father to a great victory over France. Being a somewhat based Shakespearean tale of Henry V, The King attempts to be more accurate to the time period. A perfect example of this is with its battles when characters wear full armor. Not only does it work this time, but it’s also exhausting after long periods. 

Personally, I did not like this movie as much as Outlaw King. It was too dull to look at and I didn’t like the casting of Timothee Chalomet’s scrawny bones to play this character. Nevertheless, The King has gained much more attention, leaving more opportunities for directors to pursue their passion projects on streaming services.

The Box Office’s Last Hoorah? The Last Duel

Even as COVID-19 shut down the world there were still productions that go out of their way to ensure that their passion projects come to life, among them was Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel. We’ve recently reviewed this film in-depth (it’s good) but if you want me to quickly sum it up: it’s Rob Roy meets Gladiator with a bit of a dark Young Women twist.

It has received praise from critics and audiences, and I agree it’s one of Ridley Scott’s best films thanks to its ingenious writing by Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and especially indie film director/writer Nicole Holofcener. Unfortunately, despite theaters slowly opening up once again The Last Duel bombed as it was released during Halloween season where people were looking for horror films. Although given the subject matter this movie was already trending on borderline horror territory.

Improvements in Writing Female Characters

We’ve mentioned before in our first article that our chief complaint with these older movies is the complete sidelining and “fridging” of their female leads. More recent pieces have also tried to fix those remedies and female characters in a greater capacity. Some have started adopting the Game of Thrones formula; many heroines like Danearys and Vikings‘ Lagertha were given a large amount of depth to the point we route for them in some ways more than the men.

Sometimes they even play with cliches usually seen in other period dramas. One part that surprised me with Outlaw King is that it’s one of the few period films that depicts an arranged marriage without the tacked-on tropes. Arranged marriages were very common those days, but they often have the Titanic or Taming of the Shrew effect – where the woman who is married or betrothed to another man, goes for another guy or constantly argues with the husband about gender roles until they suddenly decide to fall for each other. It’s a constant cliché we see so often in period dramas that can get tiring and predictable. Fortunately, this film doesn’t go that route, both characters took their time to know each other well enough to where there is mutual trust and respect.

Part of what really worked was that Robert The Bruce’s wife Elizabeth is a good example of a strong female character without sexualizing her or giving her a sword. She’s intelligent but not power-hungry, she’s loyal to her new husband, but never quiet about being left out of Robert’s plans. Elizabeth wants to support her husband in any way she can, even when being imprisoned and offered the chance of freedom of annulling her marriage she declines. Elizabeth is almost like a young Catelyn Stark, being very motivated by duty. Elizabeth is not cowardly either as she’s not afraid to let people know that she has strong noble connections to her father when calling out bullying soldiers to back off. While she’s not a complex character compared to the others mentioned, she’s a character that leaves a strong mark in every scene she’s in.

The Last Duel is another example of giving stronger women roles as the main plot revolves around the wife of a knight accusing another knight of assault and so they have to duel for her honor. What’s interesting to me is that Margaret really seems like a woman who knows is trapped in a world of patriarchs despite being a victim, she never lets her stop seeking justice despite almost no support. Unlike other similar films, her drama evolves as the central focus of the story subverting the male-driven tropes of the past. Many of the other characters mentioned in these movies, their personal lives are only glanced over as more times are focused on the male protagonists. but here it’s been reversed thanks to its Rashomon-style storytelling.

Despite these films still having masculine characters as protagonists, they still take the time for each character, especially the ones most vulnerable in that time.

• 

• 

That said there are some films that have tried to bury these old offensive stereotypes of the perfect women with new stereotypes that can be just as denigrating. One example that comes to mind is the depiction of Catherine of Aragorn in Starz’ The Spanish Princess. Because the writers feel that a devout Catholic being married to Henry VIII in the midst of starting Protestantism just to divorce her isn’t engaging, they decide that she’s now a warrior princess who’s sidelined Henry in ruling England – history be damned! All of this culminates with her actually fighting at the Battle of Flodden against the Scots in full armor while 8 months pregnant. Needless to say, we know this is impossible and in no way was accurate to who Kathrine was as a Queen. Am I supposed to take this seriously? Don’t get me wrong, I desire female characters in stories that are more than emotional support. Just make sure they’re real people with personalities and flaws and not just objectivized eye candy or masculine traits forced into female bodies.

COVID and Conclusions

What modern Historical Dramas ideally should do is focus on a specific moment in time is what more recent films historical films have done with success. Not every point in a historical figure’s life needs to be told, just the moments that mattered. If more filmmakers learn this lesson then i will look forward to other projects in the future.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, however, it is uncertain to what extent large-scale productions like these could be seen again. Now scenes like these can be done by limiting scenes to a handful of people and maybe a dozen extras, but scenes where large armies where you need several hundred people in a crowded scene are still yet to be time yet.

However, that didn’t seem to stop filmmakers from trying. The Last Duel, despite the challenges in the middle of the pandemic, was able to put together a film praised by audiences and critics. Unfortunately despite critical appraise, it has severely underperformed box officewise.

 As effects get more and more advanced there may not need to be extras, or thanks to The Mandalorian, even real sets. Here’s a quick behind-the-scenes clip from the last duel it’s amazing how they visually put these scenes together in spite of COVID looming high.

Historical films are still being produced and there’s no shortage of directors who want their passion projects to be made. Thanks to more recent films and shows it is possible to produce large-scale movies on a smaller budget and be successful. Ridley Scott himself has not stopped working as Apple has agreed to finance his upcoming Napoleon film set to star his old gladiator friend Joaquin Phoenix. There are still plenty of stories throughout history that have yet to be told. It’s just a question of finding the right people and the right talent to make that vision a reality.