Braveheart

Rating:
Summary: Doesn't get old even after the 100th viewing.
Review: This movie is just awesome in every aspect of the story, from the love and drama to the war, betrayal, and politics. Battle scenes were grizzly accurate to the type of warfare that took place in those days, and the love story was one of few in movies that emotionally hooked me. Excellent soundtrack, breathtaking scenery, and quality acting define this film.

OK, so this film isn't ENTIRELY accurate in the portraying the liberation of Scotland. No, it's doubtful that William Wallace could've impregnated the princess while she was still a child. But at least the gist of it was true. At least it wasn't a blatant fabrication like "The Patriot" or "Platoon" were. I can accept it if a small amount of historical truth gives way to Hollywood sensationalism, as long as it's within reasonable limits. Other war films much more recent than Braveheart's days are just as innacurate in the small details while adequately portraying the conflict as a whole.

Only a direct descendant of Edward the Longshanks himself would not find this movie to be, if anything else, highly entertaining and suberbly directed, regardless of a few historical innacuracies.

Lighten up, and enjoy this Oscar-worthy movie!

Rating:
Summary: Absolute perfection!!!
Review: For those who don't know the story behind the film, it is a simple but affective one. Mel Gibsion plays a Scottish commoner named William Wallace, who leads an uprising against the cruel and tyranic king of England named Edward Longshanks (Patrick McGoohan)to free Scottland from English rule.

Very few films come close to Braveheart. It is perhaps one of the most inspiring and powerful films ever made. Mel Gibson could not have done a better job. He not only took on the difficult task of directing this film, but he also played the lead character. The passion and energy that he brought into the character of William Wallace is incredible, and watching him act out the role will amaze you. The rest of the cast was filled with talented actors who nailed their roles as well such as Angus MacFadyen ( Robert the Bruce), Patrick McGoohan ( Edward Longshanks), and Sophie Marceau ( Princess Isabelle). However, the performances given from the entire cast, is not the film's only strong point. The battle scenes are incredible. The sheer violence and authenticity of each battle scene is unreal. It is so realistic looking, that you will be made to flinch at times. The film also features a powerful soundtrack filled with beautiful bagpipe scores that really add to each scene. Last but not least is the film's ending. It is perhaps one of the best I have ever seen, and it brought the film to a thrilling and satisfying conclusion.

Overall, Braveheart will go down as one of the best films ever made in my opinion. There are very few films that match its intensity, authenticity, and inspiring story. Mel Gibsion should be proud because he created a masterpiece. The DVD is definately the way to go in this case. First of all, the whole film is captured on one disk, and you do not have to worry about switching tapes. Secondly, you get a behind the scenes featurette on the making of the film and commentary from Mel Gibsion. The picture and sound quality is excellent as well.

A solid 5 stars...

Rating:
Summary: overrated garbage
Review: Oh, please. This movie isn't as good as people say it is. Mel Gibson is the sickest puppy in Hollywood, and if you don't believe me, then go check out "The Passion." Back to this movie: it's just three hours of Mel running around in a skirt and a wig talking about "freedom." If this is your idea of fun, then buy this mess. For the rest of us mature, sophisticated, and intelligent people, get anything else.

Rating:
Summary: Scotts on the rocks
Review: Mel Gibson has reached an acting pinnacle, at least so far, with Braveheart. It is an epic movie that is loosely based on historic events in Scotland. All the performances were great and the cinematography was superb. And what a story, so inspirational.

The film covers the life of William Wallace from the time he is a small boy, when his Father dies, to his own death. Set mostly in 13th Century Scotland, the story's backdrop is the Scot's struggle against the unjust rule of the English King, Longshanks. The film gradually grows in scope from a small boy's tragedy, to a National conflict spanning generations.

After the death of his Father at the hands of the English, William is raised by his uncle who, being a great believer in education, takes William across the world where he learns Latin, French and the manly arts of war. Eventually, he returns to his homeland, a fully mature man, ready to settle down with his childhood sweetheart and raise a family. The concerns of his countrymen over English rule take second place to his pursuit of the beautiful Murron.

Due to the half-hearted opposition of Murron's Father and the English noble's rights to take a bride on her wedding night, Wallace is married in secret. The honeymoon doesn't last long before their joy is shattered by the results of an English soldier's attempted rape of Murron. While Wallace is able to beat back the soldiers from his wife, she is captured as they flee in separate directions. The local Lord then decides to bring Wallace into the open by executing his woman in a particularly brutal scene. She is tied to an upright pole and her throat is cut.

So starts William Wallace's life long battle against the English to free the people of Scotland. This common man is able to successfully organize the villagers to overthrow the local fort and slaughter the magistrate responsible for the death of his wife. Then, with the help of an adjacent clan, Wallace goes on to tear down the local Lord's temporary castle, and allow one of the cuckolded husbands to take his revenge.

Meanwhile King Longshanks is distracted by his war with France and allows his week son an opportunity to prove himself by bringing Wallace to English justice. The Son's ineptness soon leads to full scale battle. A situation that requires the support of the Scottish Lords, an infighting self interested bunch of old men. On the occasion of the first major battle, Wallace is able to maneuver three Lords into helping while stealing the hearts of their levees. Through the use of some brilliant tactics he successfully defeats the English forces and his legend grows to new heights.

I won't describe the film much further as it is long and richly detailed. Wallace's successes continue often hampered by betrayal from the Scottish Lords and the treachery of the English King. He finds love again, loses many good friends and eventually finds peace at the hands of the English interrogators. But despite this, Braveheart has a hopeful tone at its end. It makes you feel proud and strong even if you don't have any Scottish heritage.

Rating:
Summary: "Go back to England and tell them Scotland is free!"
Review: BRAVEHEART focuses on the historic tale of Sir William Wallace of Elerslie, Scotland's greatest hero and patriot. During the 12th century the brutal King Edward I of England, otherwise known as Longshanks, ruled Scotland. After returning to his childhood home William Wallace had simple plans of becoming a farmer and raising a family but after English soldiers have murdered his wife his attention has focused on the English's brutal occupation of Scotland. United together with other Scottish warriors, Wallace bypasses the traditional path of negotiations and fights the English on his own terms. What follows are several well-crafted battle scenes which reveal the cruelty of war before the invention of guns that are guaranteed to either make you cringe or fascinate you. Until the capture of Wallace and his public torture and beheading his lived and fought for his beliefs, a Scotland ruled by Scots.

The DVD special features succeed in adding supplemental knowledge to this historical narrative. There is no doubt that director and leading actor Mel Gibson took fictional liberties with this plot as admitted in his interview. While BRAVEHEART provides a service by bringing this story to a worldwide audience, it certainly should not be interpreted as 100% truth of the life of William Wallace and the Scottish battle against Longshanks.

I have been a big fan of BRAVEHEART since it's theatrical release eight years ago. Not only because it portrays a little known segment of history but also because of the splendid cinematography involved. It reminds me of the beautiful landscape of the Scottish Highlands I visited around the time of this movie's release and urges me to revisit each time I watch this film. BRAVEHEART is a wonderful addition to anyone's DVD collection.

Rating:
Summary: Awsome movie!!!
Review: This movie is great. As we all know, It's about Willaim Wallace battling the English for the Scot's freedom. A must se film.

Rating:
Summary: Every man dies, not every man really lives.
Review: This luscious story follows Scotsman William Wallace, a reluctant freedom fighter. He single-handedly stands up to tyranny and thus inspires a people to fight for their freedom. Filled with colorful characters, aggressive direction, a wonderful musical score by James Horner and incredible action scenes.

Gibson's performance of the warrior Wallace is very sturdy with a Scottish Brogue. But the biggest surprise is the 'soft stuff.' Even with the terrible injustice's served to Wallace, he still finds time for levity and it adds an unexpected entertainment to the film. Catherine McCormack portrays his wife who offers him peace even in death. Another ally of his comes in the ironic form of the Princess to the crown of his enemy. Beautiful Sophie Marceau embodies the role and adds strength and a nice sense of revenge to the film. There are enemies galore and you never know who should be trusted. But, you can be sure that any relation to the English King (Patrick McGoohan) is on the dark side.

As Director Gibson has compiled wonderful flowing photography of Scotland and the musical score helps to capture the culture of the land. The most successful element of his direction comes within his handling of huge, gritty, bloody battles where thousands take up arms. You can almost smell the bloody field. Very fresh in approach, he makes great sense out of the warrior experience. The film has something for both the action and romantic film fans throughout the world.

"Freedom!"

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Epic Drama
Review: I watched Braveheart again over the weekend and this is truly an excellent epic drama. But let's get one thing off the table first. I do not view this movie as an accurate portrayal of William Wallace or Robert the Bruce - nor is it what the rating is based on. Obviously plenty of liberties were taken with history. The movie is great because it's a good story well told.

Braveheart is about the war for Scottish independence in the 13th century and the historical William Wallace who led the initial phases of the revolt. Wallace is portrayed as a man of deep principle who wanted peace but wanted freedom for his countrymen more.

The large battle scenes and the leadership of Wallace are awesomely portrayed, as is the untenable position of Robert the Bruce. Bruce is caught between the Scottish nobles who prefer land, wealth, and favoritism from the British crown to freedom and safety for their Scottish brethren, and William Wallace, whom he could ally with to fight for freedom, but at the potential cost of his life, land, and status. Robert the Bruce's internal struggle was well captured on screen.

The only problem I had with the movie and story - but a minor one really - is the unlikely liaison between Wallace and the Princess of Wales. Even in a fictional account of William Wallace, this seemed like a terribly unlikely event. But in the scheme of things, this is a minor quibble.

Rating:
Summary: A decent movie if you forget the historic license
Review: Mel Gibson's movie, Braveheart did extremely well in the box office and had a huge following. It is an uplifting movie with a lot of positives. This includes music, cinematography, and a well crafted story. A lot of actors did a superb job. These include Patrick McGoohan (Edward Longshanks) and Sophie Marceau. Like other movies in the recent times, this movie suffers from a not-so-good screenplay.

The story is about a reluctant person who is driven by revenge to rise against the English and try to free Scotland. Since there is not enough written history about that time, Mel Gibson rewrites history. I guess that this is OK in a movie. The film has everything in abundance: romance, patriotism, passion, revenge, heroism, battle - in short, it cannot fail unless messed up.

Whether you like it or not would depend on a number of factors. It has too much violence, especially the battlescenes and the R rating is justified. William Wallace is no Mandela, Dalai Lama or Gandhi, he does not try to fight for ideals but is motivated by sheer revenge when his wife is murdered. So, he is not the quintessential leader. I guess it would be unfair to compare one century with another, but he does come through as a hard, yet passionate leader. Of course, you will not like this movie if you are English too, as it slanders them, especially about a person who is not well documented. One must admit that no one would like that. I guess morality is difficult with such movies. I have read no place about the "Prima Noctes" instituted by the English. Mel Gibson uses such historical license in his next movie, "Passion of Christ" also. So is reality, some of the battlescenes are difficult to believe, especially those of the Irish changing sides and so on. They also do not show the taking of a city like York in detail (which must be pretty hard). This is where the historic license comes in I guess.

Having said that, I must admit that I enjoyed parts of the movie, though some of the movie was too long drawn. There is some creativity in it. I guess the era of directors such as David Lean are gone, so we must make do with the best of what we get. Turn off your rationale and intelligence a bit and you will enjoy this movie.

Rating:
Summary: All passion and no brains.
Review: Braveheart comes with an impressive list of credentials. It is regarded as one of Mel Gibson's best performances. It won five Academy Awarts, including Best Picture. The musical score by James Horner is one of the all time favorites. And it is one of the most popular movies of all time. Billed as an epic historical saga filled with history, love and battle, Braveheart apparently is Hollywood at its best. But is it really worth all the hype, and is the emperor really wearing any clothes?

First of all, the movie takes many historical liberties, deviating substantially from the real account of William Wallace. For instance, both the "prima nocta" legislation, and the suggestion that Wallace fathered a child with Princess Isobelle are fictional. But poetic license in movie making is not new, and can hardly be sufficient reason for trashing a movie - Braveheart never pretends to be a reconstruction of history. But it does pretend to be an epic of cinema, and its success in that regard is debatable.

The basic plot of Braveheart is quite simple: Man loves woman. Woman gets killed by English. Man gets angry and takes revenge on English killers of woman. Man helps lead Scotland to freedom from English. Notice something? While William Wallace is lauded for his efforts to free Scotland, the reality is that he is motivated more by personal revenge and anger over what happened to his wife. His character is ruled more by murderous passion, lust and revenge, than by politics; His actions are more the result of uncontrollable rage than the result of an intelligent desire to liberate his country. In the process, Wallace stoops to commit some of the same evils as his English oppressors. Just like the English tried to take his wife, so Wallace ends up bedding the wife of the English crown prince, rather than honoring her marriage to her own husband (who is admittedly a fool, but this doesn't justify adultery). In principle, Wallace's adultery is just as heinous and dishonoring to her husband as the English's treatment of Wallace's wife dishonored him. But by this point most viewers have already been manipulated to think that this sexual conquest is a good thing; Braveheart clearly presents this adulterous tryst as a delightful thing, and even rewards the adulterous union with a child.

This is typical of the moral confusion evident throughout the entire movie. While it pretends to be an epic about a struggle for freedom, in reality it is little more than a gory action movie with lots of fighting and passion, where the action is governed more by primitive and barbarian feelings and lusts than by reasoned and thoughtful intelligence. The reasons behind the cry "Freedom!" are never explained, aside from the fact that Wallace is filled with rage at losing his wife, and this motivates him to fearless (and at times foolish and unbelievable) acts of "bravery". He's a larger-than-life hero governed by passion without reason; is motivated more by a vengeful passion over his murdered bride than a passion for his country. It's not surprising that Braveheart is nonetheless popular, because perhaps the masses today are largely governed by the same passions. This kind of hero is appealing to those accustomed to the ongoing media spectacle which lauds mindless macho men, and brainless brawn. Despite our advanced technological and educated era, popular culture is largely rendered passive and mindless through the influence of the mass media and thoughtless entertainment. Perhaps then it's little wonder that we find Braveheart so appealing, that we fail to realize that its attraction is no more enduring than the emperor's new clothes. And that today we find a more intelligent movie about a principled statesman and leader like "A Man For All Seasons" rather boring.

Not to say that Braveheart is all bad (although be warned that the violence and gore more than justifies the R rating). I found it appealing that the movie didn't resort to a feel-good everyone-lived-happily-ever-after type ending. The final tragic note is powerful, and is not altogether unlike its imitator "Gladiator" (2000). The battle scenes featuring medieval weapons and hundreds of extras create an epic feel, and have to be admired for what they are - although at times the drama is exaggerated. But when all is said and done, this movie pretends to be more than what it really is. Braveheart turns history into a blood and brainless love story. It's no more one of the heights of cinema than the Emperor's new clothes are the heights of fashion. - GODLY GADFLY