A xenophobic cliche too far.

Rating: Null/10 (8 May 2003)

Mel Gibson sure has one enormous chip on his shoulder(and to think he followed this up with 'The Patriot').
Possibly one of the most xenophobic pieces of historical inaccuracy ever laid upon film, Braveheart's undoubtably impressive recreation of medieval life and well staged battle sequences can't hide its childish and tired depiction of the English. I don't doubt that they committed some awful atrocities but Patrick McGoohan's pantomime King Edward is a jeering, sneering, cliche too far - I was almost expecting Alan Rickman's Sheriff of Nottingham to make a cameo appearance. I won't even get started on the history - but as a film and piece of fiction the movie is overlong and the performances only adequate, watch for the battle sequences but ignore the rest. It's a travesty that films such as this can win the Oscar for best picture when The Lord of the Rings was snubbed by the academy - after all, they're both fantasy films.