Courageous film-making and story-telling

Rating: 8/10 (20 August 2005)

I am by no means a Mel Gibson fan, as in many of his films I find too much violence, often unnecessary (Lethal Weapon series, Mad Max sequels, etc).
However, with "Braveheart" he came up with an extraordinary story that just had to be made known to the general public. I shall skip any historical inaccuracies: I am talking about the film in itself, beautifully photographed by John Troll and well backed by James Horner's excellent music.
I shall add no other comment to the hundreds thus far submitted to IMDb. However, this story of Wallace fighting the English was only the beginning. If after seeing this film you would like to know more about Scotland and how the English carried out genocide against the clans, I thoroughly suggest the following reading:
John Prebble: Fire and Sword: the destruction of the clans
I - TheHighland Clearances
II - Glencoe
III - Culloden
In this meticulously documented trilogy, John Prebble uncovers the genocide carried out in Scotland from the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution through to the late 1800s, documents well hidden from the general public.
These books, though dating from the early 1960s, should still be available from Penguin (London), or Penguin-Bantam (USA and Canada).