Braveheart is, to me, one of the few good epic historical movies. Mostly these films fall into the pit of oblivion in my eyes because of ridicilous pacing (The Gladiator), dull imagery (Troy) or simply because they're too long (The Patriot)....
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Braveheart is, to me, one of the few good epic historical movies. Mostly these films fall into the pit of oblivion in my eyes because of ridicilous pacing (The Gladiator), dull imagery (Troy) or simply because they're too long (The Patriot). However, this movie has all those right. Things happen as they are truly meant to happen, the fields of Scotland look great and it doesn't feel very long, even though it is. The script is wonderful. The storytelling is indeed well paced but it also features a hefty amount of set-up and characterisation, even to the bad guys (who, however, are still portrayed as just bad guys). The underlying theme of the film, freedom, is brought up in an extremely powerful way, and it's a key point in the movie, instead of just being an excuse to show violence (300). Gibson proved his talents 12 years after this movie with Apocalypto, but here he is already doing a good job with a nice combination of steady/shakey camerawork, he really manages to keep the two in balance with each other. There is a great deal of violence involved here, however it is never glorified, which is a good thing. The acting department is a mixed bag. Gibson is magnificent as William Wallace, probably the best he's ever done as an actor since Road Warrior. He doesn't portray a wide variety of emotions here, but there's hardly any point since most of the movie is just him giving speeches to his army or him screaming in battle. So you could say he just gives an extremely powerful performance, as anyone should notice in the final scene of Braveheart. Now, I said that the acting here is rather mixed, and by that I mean that even though most of the other members of the cast do well (we even have Brian Cox there, which is always great), the villains and especially the Queen/Princess or whatever she is are extremely bad in their roles. The Queen/Princess-creature was simply incredibly annoying with her voice and attitude, despite how well her part was originally written. The villains I can forgive however regardless of how horribly they all overact their parts, because it fits the tone of Braveheart in some really weird and unlikely way. Musically, there isn't much to note. James Horner does a decent job, but besides the final scene the score doesn't emphasise itself too much, which is probably good since that way you keep your attention to the actual happenings of the screen instead of listening to the lovely tune that's playing in the background. Now, Braveheart is a good movie. It has some flaws, but especially in it's genre it's great due to the lack of competition. I'd recommend this without a doubt if I was asked, but it still isn't perfect.