Extremely well done.

Rating: 8/10 (6 April 1999)

This is one of the best films I have ever seen - and that is a lot of movies. Even if the script doesn't follow the actual story it is very well done and it has no logical flaws - by the way, I read that the clan Wallace in Scotland also approved of this movie saying that this is the best you can get on such a limited time.
Further more the music written by James Horner - one of the top movie composers - is so perfect that you can almost feel the "highland spirit" flowing towards you, especially in the first seen with the camera going over the Scottish-highland and the music makes it all very vivid.
The actors and actresses are all so good that they all deserved an Oscar - but that would bee impossible. Mel Gibson is perfect as William Wallace - even if he in fact isn't as tall as the character he is playing was and his accent isn't perfect - but he acts with all of his body and really puts his heart and soul into the caracter. Patric McGoohan acts with such brutality that one can understand why his character got the nick-name "hammer of the Scots" and Sophia Marceau shows her acting qualities.
But even if I think that this is the best movie ever it has some downfalls:
1) I don't approve with the sub-plot about his love affair with Murron and the princess - they are so different to the rest of the movie and therefore they doesn't fit in the movie; they tend to feel a bit greasy and lecturing.
2) I think that some of the historical flaws should have been made in the way they really happened - like the battle at Stirling bridge that actually occurred on a bridge and not on a field as it's done in the movie.
I just have to mention one more actor and that is Brendan Gleeson who makes a humoristic and splendid performance as Hamish - and even if he never did exist the movie wouldn't have been the same without this character.