Roger Ebert’s High Praise for Liam Neeson’s Rob Roy Fight Scene

In Roger Ebert’s eyes, one of Liam Neeson’s movies – Rob Roy – sports one of the best action sequences ever put to screen. Thanks to movies like Taken and so many others released in the 2010s and 2020s, Liam Neeson has developed a reputation as one of the best action stars of this era.

But while it was Taken that kicked off this particular phase in Liam Neeson’s movie career, the actor already had a tendency for action-oriented roles, albeit in genres different from the types of movies he’s made in recent years. Liam Neeson has been saving the world and fighting bad guys in all sorts of different genres, from sci-fi to fantasy.

One of his many fight scenes came in a film that was less of an action film and more of a historical biopic. In 1995, Liam Neeson played the starring role in Rob Roy, which includes a sequence that received significant praise from Roger Ebert, one of the most well-respected movie critics.

Roger Ebert Believes Rob Roy Has One Of The Best Fight Scenes Ever

Set in 18th-century Scotland, the 1995 period piece saw Liam Neeson step into the role of Rob Roy McGregor, a Scottish folk hero involved in the fight against the British invaders. At the end of Rob Roy, Rob Roy gets into a duel with Cunningham, with both characters getting to choose their weapons for the battle, which lasts about six minutes and ends with Rob Roy emerging victorious.

Discussing the fight in his review, Ebert called it “one of the best of its sort ever done.” He contrasted it to other movie sword fights that call for the combatants to “leap about effortlessly, their blades shimmering and clashing,” explaining how in Rob Roy, you can get “the sense of the deadly stakes, and the great physical effort involved.”

Ebert went on to talk about how the weapon choices even “reflected the personalities” of the characters, and discussed how the pauses and thought made the fight mirror a ‘”chess match.” To Ebert, it’s “one of the great action sequences in movie history.”

Rob Roy’s Big Battle Isn’t Liam Neeson’s Only Incredible Sword-Fighting Scene

Interestingly, Rob Roy’s duel between its titular character and Cunningham isn’t the only all-time great sword battle in Liam Neeson’s career. Another stems from the ending of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, where Neeson’s Qui Gon Gin and Obi-Wan Kenobi get in a heated, two-on-one showdown with Darth Maul.

The Phantom Menace may not be perceived as being on the lower end of the Star Wars spectrum, but it does have some positive elements, not the least of which being the edge-of-your-seat, back-and-forth lightsaber duel. It’s the highlight of the movie, and arguably Liam Neeson’s second-best sword fight after Rob Roy.

Source: RogerEbert.com

Rob Roy

Release Date

April 14, 1995

Runtime

139 Minutes