Braveheart (1995)

Historical flaws aside, Braveheart is a rousing spectacle. So it comes to pass in the year of 1995 (not a year of our lord I think) that Mel Gibson would craft the award winning epic that is Braveheart, a film that is historically bent in the extreme, that is directed by a man who would go on to have a less than favourable character reputation, and a film that has a heavy handed approach at times. It's also as choppy as a boat ride during a tidal wave, so yes, Braveheart is far from flawless folks. Yet the structure, the epic emotional swirls and sheer…

I am afraid that as a Scotsman, I had way more problem with the factual elements of this than perhaps I ought to have had. We have this history drummed into us as bairns, and so when a grand-scale depiction like this comes along, I excitedly expected more. It doesn't matter a jot that the eponymous Mel Gibson isn't a Scot - that is the acting equivalent of a red herring. What matters is that the story is largely a work of fiction. Gory, beautiful, authentic looking, certainly - but fiction nonetheless. Taken on that basis, then, it is still an…

When i saw this I was 15 and it was one of the greatest movies I had ever seen. Fast forward to today, I'm 41, and degrees and history and... the battle of Sterling Bridge is like fingernails on a chalkboard whenever I see it. I watched it with my wife and, "no, she was like 3 and living in France." So I don't know. It was dramatic and moody and stylistically beautiful. It was a typical Gibson gore fest and that is always fun. It was well acted, the score added to the drama, and it spawned a movement in Scotland that they are still dealing with…