"Every man dies. Not every man really lives."

Rating: 10/10 (13 September 2014)

This movie is almost two decades old now and as is often the case with blockbuster films, I'm just now getting around to seeing it for the first time. My timing is kind of serendipitous too because Scotland will be voting on leaving the UK next week on September 18th, 2014 as I write this. It's pretty much a toss-up on how it goes, though whatever the outcome, the geopolitical consequences will be felt for a long time.
Mel Gibson and Kevin Costner are a couple of names who frequently find themselves involved in controversy for their projects. In recent years, Gibson has been at the center of some embarrassing personal exploits, but there's no denying he's had a major impact on film making with movies like "Braveheart" and "The Passion of the Christ". Both films offer an epic sweep and are cinematically dynamic. The battle scenes in "Braveheart" are among the most expansive and realistic as you'll see anywhere.
But as with most historical films, and I've learned this all too well by now, what you see is not necessarily what the world got at the time. I don't think such departures from accuracy are always meant to be made for the sake of revisionism, nevertheless they detract from a film's educational value. So one's approach to "Braveheart" probably ought to be made from the standpoint of an epic period drama with it's attendant personal stories thrown in as human interest. That's what you have here with this Best Picture winner and the award is well deserved on that score. Personally, I have my doubts whether the Scots ever mooned the British at the Battle of Stirling.