Overblown and overrated

Rating: 2/10 (16 October 2001)

I finally watched this movie after hearing about it for years and I really wish I'd spent my time watching something else. Braveheart ranks right up there with Titanic and Pearl Harbor as prime examples of what's wrong with Hollywood historical epics. They take a rich and complex history or event and dumb it down for the viewing public into a shallow tale of revenge, love and death. Emotions are over-the-top and characters are either good or bad. Strangely enough, considering its reputation among some people as being mindless entertainment drivel, I feel Gladiator is a much better film, despite all the sneers that Gladiator aped Braveheart. Gladiator took the elements that floundered in Braveheart and made it much more satisfying, visually and dramatically. Compare Maximus's quiet death, as he finally reaches his family on the other side, with Wallace's leatherlung scream of "FREEDOM!" delivered on the soaring wave of a pulse-pounding, throat-catching orchestral surge that you would find only in a Hollywood epic. I look at Braveheart as a supreme egotrip by a moderately talented actor. Mel Gibson needs a good director to keep him in line so he doesn't grandstand, and Emmerich succeeded to some degree in The Patriot. Throw in the shameful historical inaccuracies and the blatant gay-bashing (Mel has a few personal agendas) and you have a long film that bores and exasperates.
Still, I gave it 2/10 for the cinematography. The scenery is beautiful. Oh, and the gut-wrenching bellylaugh I got from Wallace's final word made the rest of the movie much more enjoyable. Too bad it didn't come earlier in the film.
If you want to see Braveheart summed up in about 5 minutes, watch the "Starvin' Marvin" episode of South Park. It's infinitely more satisfying.