Good

Rating: 8/10 (10 August 2008)

And that's the problem really. The battle scenes are well directed, but Gibson seems to revel in making it as gory as possible. Gibson, while not doing a bad job as Wallace, looks like a straggly Kevin Costner from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves who's lived away from civilisation for a while. Mind you, he conveys the wild side of the Scottish rebel's character well, and gives a good performance. There are several historical inaccuracies in the film, such as the ban on playing bagpipes stated near the beginning (about 450 years early). The affair with the queen is ridiculous, but serves as a plot device. After all that, you're probably wondering why I gave this an eight. Despite all its faults, Braveheart is beautifully filmed, attractively scored and the acting of the majority of the cast is positive. I would not go out of my way to see this film, but if it's on television and you aren't busy, I would recommend you seeing this film.