Braveheart fights the British again

Rating: 6/10 (3 February 2003)

Entertaining movie, but hardly original. Mel Gibson is, well, Mel Gibson, which is both a plus and a minus. Technically fine, but basically the film is full of 20th and 21st Century sensibilities. It is not rooted in the 18th century, where an historical epic should be. It takes more than costumes and sets to recreate an era and the film fails most notably on this point. The characters are contemporary creations in costume. And those evil British, like Nazis in redcoats. Hope Tony Blair doesn't see how Americans depict the British when he's flying over the Atlantic to see Mr. Bush.