ROB ROY, Liam Neeson, 1995
Episode 10 of The Frontier Partisans Podcast is up. Access it here or on Spotify and other places where you get your podcasts.
When it comes to Rob Roy, here’s a pretty wide gap between the man and the legend, but the legend lives on. For, as Captain Jack Rackham told us in Black Sails:
“A story is true. A story is untrue. As time extends, it matters less and less. The stories we want to believe, those are the ones that survive, despite upheaval and transition and progress. Those are the stories that shape history.”
We WANT to believe the stories of the honorable, noble outlaw. We need them. I’ve spent considerable time with the “historical” Rob Roy, or as close as we can come, and I still “believe” the legend. Such is the power of story.
Matthew says
Great podcast. I never actually seen the movie and did not know much about Roy, so this was real interesting to me.
The Noble Outlaw is truly universal. Even in Japan, probably the most law abiding nation in the world, there are examples of it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishikawa_Goemon
I do wonder about why we do this. I understand your opinion, but at the same time it makes heroes out of very bad men. Think Jesse James or John Wesley Hardin. The best example in modern times is probably Che “The Butcher” Guevara.
JimC says
That’s the fascinating element. I can’t quite grasp the why of it. Surely part of it is the basic attraction to violence and power that I believe is innate. But I feel like there’s something more to it, and I can’t quite get there.
Matthew says
There is a desire for freedom and adventure in it. I think those are as innate as the attraction to violence and power, though that is certainly true.
Also, a lot of people are part of large corporations and feel like ants in a colony. There is anime called Black Lagoon that is about a salaryman who joins a group of modern day pirates (after they originally take him hostage.) He does this because he’s fed up with corporate life.
I was a big fan of the show, which goes to show that I have the same desires even if I believe being a law abiding conscientious citizen is best,