Offensive in every Sense

Rating: 1/10 (4 June 2000)

Mel Gibson, instead of stirring up trouble in the UK, should instead go back to his own country and perhaps make a film about Aboriginal oppression and their struggle for land rights. The Americans love this movie because it is a simplistic and factually incorrect representation of freedom fighting that they think fits in with their own struggle against the British. Why are we always the bad guys?
Britain abolished slavery before America, Britian has the oldest democracy in the world, yet we always represent the evil West so the Americans dont feel guilt. Anyway, onto the film... Factual inconsistencies: The English king outlived William Wallace and the Queen only gave birth YEARS after Wallace died. The portrayal of the homosexual prince as weak and incompetent is completely offensive and probably inspired by Gibson's sense of machismo. The homosexual men of the Roman Empire were weak, weren't they? No, no they were not. Much is made of English cruelty but when the Scots sack York no mention is made of English suffering in the film. The fact is, life in those times was cruel, and the Scots would gladly have enslaved the English if they ever got the chance (Mary Queen of Scots, anyone?) This film is over-sentimental, predictable and depressingly obvious. I gave it 1 out of 10 and was thoroughly bored when watching it.