The best war movie ever made

Rating: 10/10 (22 June 2008)

Mel Gibson's sophomore foray into directing was a triumph of epic film-making and seems more timeless every year. The story of Sir William Wallace and Scotland's wars of independence against England from 1297 to 1314 is based upon a combination of history and the epic poem about Wallace by Blind Harry the Minstrel.
At the start of the film, we see the roots of the conflict between England and Scotland. This conflict kills the father and brother of the young Wallace who subsequently travels throughout Europe and becomes an educated man. He returns to his home years later, hoping to live in peace despite the presence of occupying English forces. He secretly marries his love, Murron, and for a short time everything seems hunky dory. Then Murron is attacked by an English officer who says perhaps the creepiest thing you can possibly say before trying to rape someone: "You remind me of my daughter back home." This leads to Murron's death and Wallace subsequently goes berserk, killing all the English there and setting off a nationwide rebellion.
The film really takes off from here with lots of battles, heroics, victory and defeat. The film's depiction of the Battle of Stirling Bridge (minus the bridge) is perhaps the most spectacular battle sequence in cinema history. The entire film displays Gibson's very Catholic penchant for gore, but it is totally appropriate for the subject matter. And this is much more entertaining than The Passion of the Christ (a film I greatly admire, but have no strong desire to see again soon). Gibson does an excellent job of portraying the brutality and dirtiness of the middle-ages (though characters still seem to have far better dental care than one might think) and on both sides of the camera he is the main force behind its greatness. He was only allowed by the studio the make the movie if he starred in it as well and one gets the impression from his recent works that had he made it today with his current influence, it would have starred unknown actors and been done in Gaelic and Middle-English.
There is no doubt that historical accuracy plays second fiddle to entertainment in this movie. We see intimate interactions between Wallace and Princess Isabelle (Sophie Marceau) who never could have met in real life. We know that Robert the Bruce (Angus McFayden) was very much a politician and had shifting loyalties in the early part of his life, but was he really physically with the English at Falkirk? What is that black stuff that everyone uses to burn things with? (though certainly the real Wallace WAS fond of setting things on fire; it was said that he always "smelled of smoke"). The God-conversing Stephen of Ireland is a great comic relief character who may or may not have been a real person. And on the subject of Ireland, we see that the hard-luck Irish were, even back then, used as cheap cannon fodder by the English - though in this film with an exhilarating twist.
The point of all this is: it is sometimes necessary to change details of history or to modernize motivations to make an entertaining film. Back then, there was likely no concept of what we would think of as "Freedom!" today, nor even a well defined sense of Scottish nationalism. Braveheart is a translation of difficult medieval concepts into something regular people can understand. If you don't do this, if you attempt to portray ancient cultures as they were, then you get something else altogether - the best example of which would be Oliver Stone's 'Alexander' (I greatly admire this film as well, but there is no denying that it is grossly misunderstood and unappreciated by the majority of people).
There is a strongly religious feeling that permeates this film, and in the end Wallace becomes Christ-like as a martyr in several ways. But you do not have to be religious to enjoy it, nor do you have to have Scottish ancestry (as I, years after first seeing the film, discovered I did) to feel pride in the heroes portrayed. It is the universal human strength in the defiance of tyranny and oppression that we may take to heart, and that makes Braveheart perhaps the greatest war movie of all time.