Evocative but Troubling

Rating: 8/10 (18 November 2004)

After watching Braveheart, I can't help but wonder how much of an influence starring in "Mad Max" was on Mel Gibson's film making. Maybe the then young actor landed a role that matched his view of good and evil just through good luck. In "Braveheart", the suffering icon Gibson plays is William Wallace, who fights to liberate the Scots from the tyranny of their English rulers and the treachery of the Scottish Lords.
Wallace matches cruelty with cruelty but that's alright because he's on the side of freedom. At least in "Braveheart" the times and the enemy are more in tune with barbarous methods than that of "The Patriot", which I detest as nothing more than a Revolutionary War-era "Death Wish". Patrick McGoohan is delicious as the English king Edward Longshanks who treats his allies as callously as his enemies. And I must admit my props to Mr. Gibson for treating warfare as the messy, horrific affair it is although he seems to revel in it.
"Braveheart" has many pluses. It is very convincing in taking you back in time. The stark landscapes of the Scottish countryside are lovely.