In Serious Need of a Good Editor (5/10)

Rating: 5/10 (14 November 2003)

[I saw this on DVD, YMMV]
Weighing in at over three hours this movie is way too long and in need of some serious trimming. I suspect this was a Mel Gibson pet project and no one would stand up to him and tell him to leave large parts on the cutting room floor.
The plot is morally and ethically pure. Wallace is the Good Guy who plays the part of Christ (and just in case you miss the symbolism, Wallace is stretched onto a cross or in a cross-like shape no fewer than three times as he is tortured to death). King Longshanks is the Bad Guy who will stop at nothing to kill and torture all the poor Scots he can get his hands one. Conveniently Wallace has all his family killed so he has no attachments and can spend the rest of this movie trying to defeat the Bad Guy. The love story and betrayal themes are of the depth and complexity of the one in, say, Titanic.
The battle scenes were just campy. Every time one took place with the "ooofs" and "aaarghs" it sounded like fighting in Monty Python's Holy Grail. Was Gibson trying to reference that movie or was the action so bad it just looked like it? I half expected the Scots to launch a cow at the English.
All in all, this is a very over-rated movie.