An achievement in storytelling.

Rating: 10/10 (9 May 1999)

This film is perhaps one of the most entertaining stories that Hollywood has produced to date. It is of course completely historically inaccurate, though it is certainly not the only, nor the most recent, film to obscure historical truths and still be impressively well done. Gibson does nothing new with this movie, as it is a classic blend of adventure, romance, morality, and comic relief. What Gibson does do, however, is weave these aspects together with greater skill than most. To compare this story to history is futile, as is comparing the Bard's tale of Julius Caesar to the actual occurrences in ancient Rome. While based on historical events the purpose of this and any movie is to entertain. Education, while a good and noble purpose, is not nor should it be the primary goal of the cinema. While Braveheart will not educate as to the events in medieval Scotland, it will indeed tell a tale that has been told the world over in a million variations. Some call Braveheart laughable and trite and in some respects these critics are not wrong. My counter to this argument is that all epics, from The Odyssey to Beowulf to the Lord of the Rings, are by nature laughable and trite. The story of William Wallace as presented by Braveheart is not the story of the man who lived in Scotland centuries ago but the story of every epic hero. As an epic, the story must invariably deal with and contain archetypes so broadly ranging that they must be described as laughable and trite. That Braveheart is a very basic story, which I will admit, by no means qualifies it as a bad story. Instead it is an epic story, and a very good one at that.