Angry_Arguer vs. William Wallace

Rating: 8/10 (27 August 2003)

I can see why ordinary laymen love Braveheart so much. What's not to like about spearings, stabbings, slashings, and other miscellaneous pokings with other sharp objects?
Problem is that the film falls too quickly into the whole good vs. evil mentality. How I HATE that cliche! Gibson never was high into the "moral ambiguity" idea, prominent in much of Kubrick and Scott's work. This movie only emphasizes his lack of education.
I will give him credit, though, for trying to make Scotland look ugly and dirty. After watching this, you'll probably want to take a shower. Gibson is too obvious in his camera, creating scenes and shots that you wonder why they are there other than eye candy for James Horner's music. Horner has done better (ALIENS), but he's also done worse (Patriot Games).
Overall, Gibson nicely remade this movie with The Patriot and showed how even someone of his stature could screw things up. I think Braveheart is better than average, but many of its subtexts make it too obvious for its own good. 3.5 out of 5 stars.