Rusalka's eighth film review: "Every man dies, but not every man really lives"

Rating: Null/10 (15 April 2003)

"I want to tell you of William Wallace. Historians from England will say I am a liar, but history is written by those who have hanged heroes..."
And so, with a beginning that is eerily reminiscent of The Sound of Music, Mel Gibson's medieval epic unfolds...slowly. We must watch it for at least forty or so minutes before the first major "battle scene" but as we are soon to discover, the wait is well-worth it...and gory as well. Braveheart is a gargantuan film that tries to be an epic...and barely succeeds. At times, the film becomes unwieldly, simply lumbering along awaiting the next "battle sequence" (there are four in all). The performances are mostly top-notch, especially Patrick McGoohan's portrayal of Longshanks, the evil English king who is so desperate to destroy William Wallace and everything that he stands for. Braveheart has something for both sexes, but it would be the men who would leave the theater well sated. There is more blood in this film than in the first three seasons of ER alone!
Braveheart swept the 1995 Academy Awards winning 5 trophies, including the coveted Best Picture Award. It also won for Best Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Make Up and Best Sound Effects Editing. It was also nominated for Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Costume Design, Best Sound and Best Dramatic Score. It is interesting to note that this was the film that started the mid-90's trend of Academy Awards going to "epic-like" films, as the next two films that would be honoreed as Best Picture would be The English Patient and Titanic, respectively.
If anything, you come away from this film feeling revitalized. For it was William Wallace himself, a real man, who inspired thousands of his countrymen to fight for their own freedom. And that one message is powerful enough in itself.
My rating: 3 stars