Well really someone with a Brave heart

Rating: 9/10 (13 August 2000)

This film is about a man, William Wallace (whom if you take the time and look for it, can find in an encyclopaedia, although nothing much there is mentioned). He is a man, from Scotland who would have loved to live in peace and harmony with a wife and children, but sees his dream killed of by a brutal Englishman. He then becomes enraged and focuses on bringing freedom to his country by beating the bush  robbers, who call themselves English on the head and so chasing them out of his country.

In this film Wallace though has not got many friends, although he is worshipped and respected by the people, the Scottish nobles are not on his side. They rather got more scraps of land from the Englishmen and see their own folk slaughtered than help. So he is betrayed by his own, called nobles' and it was then much like it is now. The rich sacrifice the poor, there is fuss amongst men who are supposed to back each other up.

Now on to the film. This is a truly worthy film of a best director and best film Oscar, cause apart from Se7en and Murder in the First this is the best film of 1995 worthy of an Oscar (not counting action vehicles and sci-fi here, cause they are not going to get an Oscar for best film). The actors are all great, up front of course is Mel Gibson himself as William Wallace but there are other great actors in here. For instance (I believe it was) Tommy Flanagan as the crazy Irishman, Angus MacFayden as Robert the Bruce and of course Sophie Marceau as princess Isabelle. Here I really must compliment the casting director or whoever it was who picked these people. The best thing though about the characters is yet, that you feel for them and with them, especially Mel Gibson of course. This film, it's direction and it's music a few times really brought tears into my eyes and I'm not ashamed to say, that in the end I cried (not what you'd call crying, with sniffing and stuff, but yes, tears rolled and my nose became all runny.
What makes this film such a treat for young and old, is that it contains everything that makes a film worth looking at it for three hours. It contains comedy, romance, revenge, brutal war scenes (which is the only thing you may dislike here), betrayal and a good and basically true story about a freedom fighter in time in which his homeland was brutally ruled by the British. Ok I know most of the surrounding plot is probably made up, but that's what is so great, uniting a true story with fiction and there is nobody around today, who can tell you how it really was, so let your imagination rule and be not too rational.
What I also liked is that in this film you get the sphere of being in middle age. There are for instance saga's told about Wallace that make him 7 feet tall and say that he slaughters men by the hundred's. Also this film has a great moral it tells us that freedom is one of the most important things in life and that it is not treasured enough by those who have it and don't know what it is like living without it. Also there is something that can be applied to this time also, and that is that everyone dies, but not everybody really lives. These two things ought to be bared in mind by many people on this earth.

A great feature of Gibson's directing career, although it is only his second and a masterpiece that follows well in the footsteps of the good and underrated The Man without a face. I urge Mel Gibson, to again direct a film and make it at least as good as the past two. I know he will, cause he takes his time on choosing his director projects as you could see, cause Fahrenheit 451 still has not been made until today and is now I presume officially cancelled although it had been planned for about 2 or three years.

9 out of 10