Chaw

Rating: Null/10 (22 August 2003)

Mel Gibson's accent slips from time to time, but he is still good as William Wallace and he's just down right sexy. The film strays close to cheesiness when Wallace makes his pre-battle pep talks but thankfully, the score is awesome, so the screen doesn't get lacquered in strings and cheddar, and you almost don't notice how bad the writing is(for the speeches).
The writing, overall, isn't too bad (though not that accurate, historically), and there are some really well-written scenes; such as the "wits of men."
The romance between William and his wife feels quite rushed, but it's not that much of an issue, since the Braveheart aficionados only like it for the gory battle-scenes (in general, faw!).
There are flaws, yes, but Braveheart is still a mind-blowing movie of epic proportions. The cinematography (though I'm not quite an expert) is phantasmagorical, and there are several Bee-eautiful scenes; such as the scene with the deer, the love scene by the waterfall, the scene where William takes off Robert's helmet, the scene where Robert walks among the dead bodies, the torture scene (Gibson seems to have a fondness for S & M), and the final scene with the flying sword, although the writing there is excruciatingly bad: "They fought like warrior-poets--they fought like Scotsmen." Bah.
Good acting, okay writing, great cinematography. 7/10