Powerful, emotional, epic, sensational story about what it means to be free

Rating: 9/10 (30 April 2018)

An incredible motion picture, Braveheart is a sensational masterpiece and one of the greatest movies ever put to screen. It is a feast of color, motion, sound and emotion which delivers one of the greatest cinematic experiences one could ever hope to get.
The first hour of the film is pretty much the ultimate cinematic experience. We witness brutality, tragedy, love, redemption, revenge and much more in the course over just the first hour. The rest of the movie is equally great, but i would pick the first hour as the ultimate cinematic experience. The small romantic part of the story between Wallace and his secret bride is quite short yet so convincing due to James Horner's incredible emotionally rich musical score or the little things such as him returning the flower she gave him as a child or the genuine and natural looks they give eachother without speaking that it makes it all the more emotional and powerful when his wife does eventually meet a terrible fate.
The acting is of top notch quality. Particularly Patrick McGoohan is extremely convincing as the ruthless King Edward Longshanks and Angus Macfadyen as Robert the Bruce caught between his own conscience while trying to pick the right side and make the right decisions. Gibson, Gleeson & O'Hara are also extremely convincing as the three leading men of the scottish army.
Yet what really makes Braveheart the movie into what it is is Gibson's character Wallace and his ideology for a free Scotland and his incapability of stopping until it is achieved. This is combined with excellent dialogue such as the speech before the battle of Stirling which makes his character the ultimate well developed idealist instead of a generic hero type. It is a powerful statement about freedom and what we are prepared to do in order to achieve it.
Some critics critize the lack of historical accuracy in Braveheart, which is mostly correct. However, these critics do not realize that film is a cinematic experience, and should not be judged by factors that have little to do with the actual cinematic experience. What Mel Gibson created here is an epic emotional journey that lives and breathes due to romanticizing history into fiction which only strengthened the movie itself.
Battle sequences are incredibly filmed. The cinematography is already great in Braveheart with many extraordinary sweeping landscape shots of the green planes of Scotland but in the battle of Stirling this reaches its quality climax. The widescreen shots of the entire English army with the trees in the background are just breath taking visual beauty that is a delight to the eyes. You can tell Gibson took inspiration from Akira Kurosawa's style ( creating epic widescreen shots with constant movement ) and in this particular scene especially Ran (1985) seems to have been a major influence. The battle sequences are always shot in a way that you can understand what is going on and how the battle is playing out, and the violence is realistic and brutal, as is the movie. Also admirable is Gibson's incredible use of slow motion or long drawn out rides of horses or men to build up tension to a point where we are sitting on the edge of our seat. It is a movie full of extremely well build tension, which is lacking in most films today.
With great dialogue, acting, cinematography, incredible music, tension, emotional value & many beautiful shots what Mel Gibson has achieved here is an absolute masterpiece of the historical epic genre.