Masterpiece with a few cracks

Rating: 9/10 (24 November 1999)

It's a magnificent epic with sad trials of love and the most graphic and realistic battle scenes ever witnessed on film.
But there's one thing that kept getting on my nerves.
I think it was Mel Gibson. You get a different kind of feeling watching Mel in LETHAL WEAPON, probably because he was younger. You get a different feeling watching MAD MAX, probably because it was made before he was a Hollywood leading man.
Here he is the older Hollywood star we are most familiar with. But he has a great talent under those charming looks, and even a great eye for directing, as witnessed here.
But his blue eyes and scraggly wig kept me from believing he was the savage he was portraying. No matter how hard he tried to hide that.

The best parts of the movie are the battle scenes and the medieval Scotland authenticity. The movie sucks you in a time period that is both brutal and romantic. The supporting acting is superb, especially the breathtaking Sophie Marceau as Princess Isabelle, the ruthless Patrick McGoohan (what a great voice for a baddie!) as Longshanks and Angus MacFading, who I kept finding more interesting than Gibson, as Robert the Bruce. Catherine McCormack had a haunting beauty in the film, especially in her presence as a ghost.
And, yes, Mel Gibson gives all he's got as the lead. But did he really have to bag the Princess?
Oh and one more thing Mel, how about doing a movie where your wife DOESN'T DIE?!! I think you hold the record in that category already.