History?

Rating: 1/10 (10 September 2005)

Did Mel Gibson actually read any books on William Wallace? A brigand that ransacked and raped his way across the borders is turned into a matinée idol that fathers the future King of England. His lack of historical fact turns what could have been a dark and gruesome tale into a over dramatised love story. Character development is poor; you meet card board cut outs of people but you never seem to connect with any of them. He has all the Celtic nations represented with the thickest accents they are able to muster splattered in woad and draped in fur but little is mentioned about their motivation they meekly follow offering nothing. The battle scenes while well done, don't leave you routing for them, they just wash away in to the back of the battle scene. Although Gibson seems to take particular pride at portraying any English man as either twisted and evil or weak and effeminate, what happened did the Queen forget to send him a Christmas card? The real shame is he had the actors, the money and the potential of a real story and all he did was botch it.