Braveheart

[KLAXXON]

Mel Gibson stars on both sides of the camera, playing the lead role plus directing and producing this brawling, richly-detailed saga of fierce combat, tender love and the will to risk all that’s precious for something more precious: freedom.

In an emotionally charged performance, Gibson is William Wallace, a bold Scotsman who used the steel of his blade and the fire of his intellect to rally his countrymen to liberation.

Filled with sword – clanging spectacle, Braveheart is a tumultuous tapestry of history come alive, “the most sumptuous and involving historical epic since Lawrence of Arabia”.





A huge, bloody and sprawling epic, "Braveheart" is the sort of massive vanity piece that would be easy to disparage if it didn't essentially deliver. Hardly lacking for ambition, Mel Gibson's second directing effort represents an enormous marketing challenge due not only to its three-hour-length but the 13th-century subject matter and lack of marquee appeal beyond the star himself. Those factors should conspire to keep the pic from hacking its way through this summer's pack of aspiring blockbusters, its merits notwithstanding.
There are clearly elements of "Spartacus" running through the film in tone and inspiration, from the enormous battles with thousands of kilted extras to Gibson's William Wallace -- a charismatic leader obsessed with freedom who rallies Scottish rebels against the tyrannical English king Edward the Longshanks (Patrick McGoohan).

Pic also engages in considerable court intrigue, from the forced marriage between Edward's gay son and a French princess (Sophie Marceau, in her English-language debut), to the inner torment of Robert the Bruce (Angus McFadyen), one of the many Scottish lords whose feuding and avarice ultimately leave Wallace's band to their own considerable devices.

A less notable but unavoidable comparison would be pic's length, which does feel excessive; the film engages in one massive battle too many. There's also a strong romantic undercurrent, but even with that, the movie is not for the squeamish, demonstrating as it does in graphic detail the brutality of hand-to-hand combat -- masterfully staged sequences that nevertheless become somewhat numbing after repeated exposure to all the bludgeoning and skewering.

The story begins at a far more leisurely pace than what follows, introducing the audience to Wallace as a boy, squired off by a kindly uncle after his father and brother are killed fighting the English king.

Wallace returns a man (with flowing locks and a killer physique, reminiscent of Gibson's look in the third "Mad Max" movie) and immediately begins wooing the radiant Murron (Catherine McCormack), secretly wedding her to avoid a barbaric law granting nobles the right to bed Scottish lasses on their wedding night.

The relationship ends in tragedy, and Wallace's released anguish -- much like the slave revolt that sets the action rolling in "Spartacus" -- uncorks pent-up hostility as a growing band of rebels takes up arms against the king's forces.

At that point, "Braveheart" turns into a muscular and brutal medieval war movie, with Wallace consistently outsmarting Longshanks' henchmen and becoming an increasingly potent nuisance.

Gibson's direction meanders at first but takes hold once the fighting starts, and while the movie is indeed a long sit, from that point on it's far from boring. The battles, barring some unwelcome slow-motion shots, are spectacular, with almost balletic stunt and second-unit work all around.

The director also pulls the camera back to capture the grandeur and scope of the conflict, which, again, is diminished only through repetition. While it would have been a shame to lose some of the footage, the movie would have been better served by discussing some of Wallace's victories rather than depicting them. The script by first-time screenwriter Randall Wallace (who bears no direct known relation to the Wallace clan) offers scant comic relief, but Gibson does a laudable job with the largely unknown supporting cast, among them Brendan Gleeson and David O'Hara as two of his chief lieutenants.

Marceau and McCormack both cut striking figures in limited femme roles amidst the carnage, while McGoohan perhaps overplays his hand slightly as the villainous king, a figure notable principally for his utter amorality.

Gibson's central performance is also strong, and his Wallace does inspire, in both his messianic zeal and his unflinching heroism. It is notable, in light of past controversial remarks attributed to the star, that the king's gay son (well played by Peter Hanly) is an unsympathetic character, but then again, so is virtually everyone of noble rank in the film.

Tech credits are roundly impressive, with sweeping vistas of the Scottish countryside and lavish costuming, production design and James Horner score.

With the admirable "Rob Roy" lingering in theaters, if nothing else this new wave of medieval fare could make macho men in kilts fashionable, as "Braveheart" (a catchy title never uttered in the movie) serves them up by the thousands.



Scots patriot William Wallace raises an army, busts Sassenach heads and shags the Princess of Wales.


Inhospitable locations, a massive cast, a bum-numbing three-hour length, mud-strewn 13th Century decor, phalanxes of horses, kilts, beards, broadswords and battle scenes on a scale not seen since Spartacus and El Cid. Mel Gibson, it seems, is not one to balk at a challenge the size of the Caledonians.

For his second directorial venture the star has elected to delve into the past, namely Scottish folk hero William Wallace, whose sprawling story would give the hardiest of directors the jitters. Such is El Gibbo's accomplishment, however, that Braveheart can stand shoulder to armour-clad shoulder with the aforementioned slices of epic.

Randall Wallace's decade-engulfing script - managing successfully to skirt potential melodrama - charts instead his namesake's heroic struggle from the childhood loss of his pa and bro' at the hands of the double-crossing English, through his wooing of the adorable McCormack, to the horrific events that turn him from peaceable farmer to blood-thirsty warrior. From then on - and the bulk of this gripping tapestry of medieval gung ho - he is in a perpetual state of war. An almighty rebellion is mapped out via a set of searingly intense battle scenes, the political treachery of the lords in residence, the connivings of the merciless English King, Edward Longshanks (a splendidly corrupt McGoohan) and the eventual betrayal of all that he stood for (freedom, honour etc.).

What is so evident among Braveheart's earthy hugeness is Gibson's self-belief. As actor he is majestic - his locks extended to a mighty hazel mane, his Hollywood good looks set like the face of Ben Nevis, his Highland accent surprisingly authentic - fearlessly accessing the man's consuming battle frenzy as much as his glowing heroism. As director he is passionate and controlled - harnessing the thousands of extras to create the awesome in-yer-face battle scenes, free-flowing with decapitatory and limb-lopping enthusiasm, while drawing sparkling performances from his cast, be they mud-caked, kilt-lifting warriors or preened maidens. The haunting loveliness of McCormack and the silver-tongued grace of Marceau as the forlorn Princess of Wales add welcome softness to the furore.


It's a long, torrid journey, with some of the many subplots left dangling, and is, predictably, historically suspect, but it is to the film's benefit that Gibson plays up the legend at the expense of accuracy (but never realism). He dares you to lose yourself in a world of breathtaking beauty, resonating brutality and rip-roaringly good storytelling. There's no alternative but to surrender.


Mel Gibson ...  William Wallace
James Robinson ...  Young William Wallace
Sean Lawlor ...  Malcolm Wallace
Sandy Nelson ...  John Wallace
James Cosmo ...  Campbell
Sean McGinley ...  MacClannough
Alan Tall ...  Elder Stewart
Andrew Weir ...  Young Hamish Campbell
Gerda Stevenson ...  Mother MacClannough
Ralph Riach ...  Priest #1
Mhairi Calvey ...  Young Murron MacClannough
Brian Cox ...  Argyle Wallace
Patrick McGoohan ...  Longshanks, King Edward I
Peter Hanly ...  Edward, Prince of Wales
Sophie Marceau ...  Princess Isabelle





http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112573/




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