How Gauling to be a Celt

Rating: 7/10 (17 May 2006)

The Scots, the Irish, even the French.......where were the Welsh? A little ironic they got left out, because if anyone had more cause to resent Edward, creator of the British, it was probably the Welsh aristocracy! Still, this movie only uses it's historical setting to create a story of individual physical and moral courage.
Mel Gibson goes into Mad Max mode when his gorgeous wife is foully done to death. How come she was so pretty and clean when all her relatives were ugly and dirty? No matter. Rightly roused, William Wallace foments an uprising. Cue lots of Terry Gilliam style slashin' an' bashin'. The cuttin' an' buttin' pretty much continues on through the film. Fair enough, makes a change for violence to be stomach-churning and filthy rather than clean and tidy, as in so many machine-gun-toting or light-sabre-waving movies. Being butchered in a battle should never look like fun. Well done, Mr. Gibson.
As the story behind the fighting took shape it all started getting a bit biblical. This Bruce fellow - our Rabbie....he's part of some disgusting cabal of Scottish aristocracy. Their meandering meanness and geedy self-interest makes Edward 1st (portrayed brilliantly by Patrick McGoohan) look like a positive beacon of moral courage. So why does William Wallace seem to worship the Scottish lord so much? The answer seems to lie in Mr. Gibson imaging Wallace as being John-the-Baptist to the second coming of the Scots: Robert-the-Bruce.
That seems to be the only explanation for why Wallace, despite being metaphorically as well as literally, kicked in the teeth by these treacherous aristocrats, keeps deferring to the One: the Bruce. Finally, Wallace as Scottish John-the-Baptist suffers his own form of crucifixion, in lieu of his god, strapped to a horizontal cross by the English judges and being publicly disembowelled. ! FREEDOM ! he screams. Freedom for the Scottish? Or freedom for Wallace from serving his Master?
By the end then, we end up with two historical figures possibly being traduced: Edward the First and Robert the Bruce. I don't know much about history.
I do know that, aside from the early romantic scenes of Wallace in love, the only parts of the film I could take a delight in watching were those wherein Patrick McGoohan acted his creation. McGoohan was rightly 're-discovered' by the public as a result of this role. He does of course get most of the best lines. But he still had to deliver them and he did. Brilliant. Unfortunately his character is struck dumb by the end of the movie. It might have been more interesting had he been physically paralysed but still able to speak his defiance of the scheming French witch and all the other useless people he ended up surrounded by. Just as Wallace proved impotent and was superseded by Bruce so his nemesis, Edward, shared the same impotence; as his bloodline was erased by those less 'moral' than he.