Movie Review: Braveheart

 

Hey everyone, my name is Anthony and welcome back to Movie Review.

Back in my childhood days before buying a full version, I remembered playing the PC demo game that I found on the internet, its called “Age of Empires 2”, this classic real-time strategy game from 1999 is a fun game for the actions and maybe gave us some narrative telling from its history, the gameplay is simple, you take control your civilization to starting poor, but once you gathering more resources, you’ll raise your army for war and raiding other civilization, its no wonder why we love this sequel, even to this day with Definitive Edition. However, there’s one element of the game that stuck out to me back in demo of the original AoE2, it was a tutorial campaign involving William Wallace, the big Scottish Knight who takes his war against English for their freedom over English’s border. Its is unique history how the Scottish are struggle to be independence from English’s dominant, so much its been brought in various medias, but before we have Age of Empires 2, we gotta go back 4 years ago with one movie its been brought up as many are familiar with, at least for some for following its history.

“Braveheart” is a 1995 historical drama film that was produced and directed by Mel Gibson (Yup, he’s one of those actor who’s also filmmaking), co-produced by Alan Ladd jr and Bruce Davey and written by Randall Wallace.

Even though is meant to following its history, it was based on the poem called “The Wallace” by Blind Harry. The idea of the movie came from Alan Ladd Jr, who’s originally going to make a new project with MGM involving The Wallace, but when MGM went under a new management, Ladd had to bowing out from the company while holding his project, it wasn’t until Mel Gibson came in that he was interest working with Ladd, though he wanted to passed it on, he joined in as both producer, the director and actor to playing William Wallace, despite Gibson’s production company “Icon Productions” are ran out of money, which he had working a sequels of Lethal Weapons, it wasn’t until that after getting financed, Paramount stepped in to financing this project, but also distributing it in North America, while Warner Bros took it too, but for international release.

When this movie came out on May 24 1995 (seven months before my birth), the movie is well received for its action, drama, the romance and Gibson’s memorable role as William Wallace, however, there were some are criticized for its historical inaccuracies (which il point out at some, but not too much). With its well-received (and some criticisms of historical parts), it made a lot of money at the box-office with over $213.2M, as well as receiving Oscars from Academy Award from Best Pictures, Best Director, Best Cinematography and Best Makeup.

I think my father had an experience of seeing this movie with my mom when she was pregnant before i was born, he said its a pretty fascinating movie based on its historical war and life of William Wallace, even though my father may not being familiar from the poem. With my curiosity raising, i felt like to give it a shot to watch this movie how it got so much attention with its fame and winning Oscars.

So, with all that said, will this movie is still famous for its Freedom, or is Freedom pretty much weaker against the English?

Well, lets find out.

The Story

While il point out some moments that are not right historical, but honestly, its a pretty fascinating story.

The movie begins where we introduce our young protagonist William Wallace with his father, his best pal Hamish and one girl that got attention is Murron. But little did he knows is due to the death lf Alexander III of Scotland, the ruthless King Edward Longshanks (or King Edward I) conquered Scotland to putting executions at any Scottish nobles, along with Wallace’s father got killed while fighting against the English, leaving William taken by his uncle Argyle for safety. Fast Forward of couple years later, while Longshanks is granted his noblemen of privilege in Scotland, William Wallace (been grown up) returns to Scotland for reuniting his childhood pals Hamish and Murron, the latter of which that they ended up falling in love in secret, along with getting married in privacy. Despite they get along, it didn’t last long as one one of the English soldiers went after Murron in attempt to date-rape her, but Wallace took notice to fight them to keep her safe, but didn’t turned out well that she’s both kidnapped and cut open to death publicly. Devastated for the loss of his briefly wife, he took his action against English in his hometown and send some surviving garrison back to their homeland for rebellious message at King Edward I, its up to William Wallace with his Scottish men (along with Stephen of Ireland and unlikely assistance Robert the Bruce) to fight against the English for their land and their freedom.

Its quite of fascinating for an emotional story of William Wallace’s life and his war against the English for this land and the freedom, even though it wasn’t the only story that has a war for freedom and peace of their countries, there has been a lot of them, but different story. Even though i expected to have a relationship between William and Murron for a bit longer together while he has to dealing from the English, but the whole relationship is pretty much cut short, even if its hard to see her both kidnapped and executed in front of people. Although there are a few moments that got me chuckle, especially with the inclusion of Stephen of Ireland to have a small sense of humor and some unexpected foul-mouthing language, like the scene in the battle of Sterling Bridge, Stephen tells Wallace the lord told him unable to leave the mess, otherwise they’ll be F(bleep)ed. Yeesh, kinda true if we’re in a war zone, unless if we have enough army if one of them calling quit. Not mention, even though it has a small bit of humor, there are moments that definitely will make you feel sad, or even burst into tears, especially like when William lost his beloved Murron, he wanted to be with her longer in their privacy, but she died in a wrong time that easily devastated of her death that, like any protagonists, taking revenge against the evil English on his way for Scotland.

However, despite the best effort for the story, there were a couple of inaccuracies between the movie and its true history (considered an early SPOILER examples), here three example that i found out about some moments (unless il save some issues for the characters);

1: While Scotland was under English’s occupation in Wallace’s childhood (at least...), along with talking to young Bruce before the battle of Falkirk quote “[W]e’ll have what none of us have ever had before, a country of our own”. It maybe sounds quite risky, but in reality, Scotland was invaded before Wallace going rebellious and before Alexander III’s death that causing a kingdom separation.

2: In the battle of Falkirk, its only Scottish vs English, which there’s the Irish have nothing to do with it, although there’s some English army had Welsh. (talk about inaccurate as Scottish wins at Falkirk in AoE2, since you know, Scottish failed their battle)

3: In the battle of Sterling Bridge, it was taken place in the middle of nowhere instead of taken place in... You know, a bridge?? Not to mention, one character didn’t make in the movie is Andrew Moray, who’s a joint commander of Scot army, which he was meant to be with Wallace in the bridge battle, but Andrew didn’t make in the movie.)

While there are plenty of inaccurate moments for a historical movie (again, more on that later for the characters), its a very nice writing for developing our hero for vengeance and freedom, as well with some will make you burst into tears.

The Presentation

For the budget of between $65-70M, the movie’s presentation is... Surprisingly beautiful work.

For starter, the location for their filming looks impressively beautiful from filming in the ground of village or castle set to a helicopter shots. It was filmed in Scotland (A perfect place for movie taken place in Scotland), while the battle scenes were filmed in Ireland, which im assuming for the big space for making a war zone scene, along with Battle of Sterling scene which again, its more a battle in the middle of nowhere than in the bridge. Speaking of Ireland, when they filming in the battle scenes, they bought the members of Irish Army Reserve as extras both Scottish army and British army, especially recycling the same extra for saving their budget.

As for the settings and the designs, they looks pretty cool for its medieval feel with Scott people in mix with armors, kilts and rags (though Wallace’s outfit very loosely for seeing him in armor and rag kilt, cause based when we look at his statue, he’s wearing knight’s armor like cloth and chainmail), while the English have colorful outfits and their armors. Accurate or not, they have a nice wardrobes, while the sets are pretty nice with all the small village and garrisons they live fo either domination or survive.

Of course, lets not forget the action scenes, and boy, they’re quite fun and downright brutal, this is quite possibly the bloodiest medieval movie ever with slashing, stabbing and dismembering and many other creative kills in this movie, otherwise it will be impossible to count all the dead bodies in the whole movie. In fact, in post-production (like any movies back then) it was threatened by MPAA to be rated NC-17 (similar to X-Rated), aside of naked romance, Scottish taunts, and some swearing (for the most parts), they they had to cut the time without making like a gory medieval warfare movie, as well as cut the movie’s time, though i heard Mel Gibson said this movie would’ve been 4 Hours length movie, if Paramount and 20th Century Fox accepted it. I mean jeez, Gibson, this is way too soon to having a 4 hour long movie, long before Zack Snyder’s version of Justice League (Maybe il reviewing that in the future).

And lastly that i wanna give a credit, its the soundtrack of the movie, and boy, what a beautiful soundtrack what James Horner gave to give a beautiful romance to tragedy feeling for Wallace, like its beautiful, its emotional and its a very good composure from James Horner gave, like it almost made me cry of hearing it. However, hearing this soundtrack while James Horner is longer with us (due to his fatal plane crash in 2015 with his age of 61), it will be very hard to listen without making you bursting with tears. He’ll be deeply miss forever in our lives.

Despite some inaccurate wardrobe, the movie’s presentation and the soundtrack looks soo beautifully done and the action scenes are downright bloody for medieval age movie.

The Characters

When it comes to characters they’re pretty fascinating and probably lovable that we routing for and well-written. But once again, they’re being pointed for inaccuracies.

Lets start with William Wallace (played by Mel Gibson), the main hero of the movie and the rebellious Scottish knight for saving his country against English for freedom. As we all know, he’s depicted as a tragic figure from beginning to end that he went from losing his beloved wife to vengeful knight against English over their border. He has some smart plans for his war (like the tree spears against English’s cavaliers) and has a memorable speech before the battle in Sterling with Gibson did a great work for his delivery, which his war speech took plenty of inspirations like Gladiator’s “Are you not Entertained?!” to 300’s meme worthy “This is Sparta!”. However, while Wallace is meant to be a tragic figure, aside of his inaccurate wardrobe (again, based on his statue), in actual history, he’s meant to be chaplain, well-educated and less nobility, but more like a marginalized Highlander, at least according to A. E. Christa Canitz. Even if Williams Wallace is meant to be a legendary figure in Scotland, despite he’s a real deal.

Next up is Robert the Bruce (played by Angus Macfadyen), a Scottish neutral when he was aware about William Wallace going rebellious that either he’ll helping him or refusing. I find him fascinated too, since he’s meant to be Wallace’s assistant after the battle of Sterling after heard about his vengeance at the English’s garrison, even if he could be difficult for his choice with or without Wallace. While he’s a neutral role, he does changing both sides in true history, but, remember the famous plot twist to revealing he’s part of English in Falkirk that literally betraying Wallace for his responsibility with Longshanks? Pretty dramatically sad for a surprise, but in reality, he had nothing to do with the battle of Falkirk, but rather Wallace got betrayed by John de Menteith. There’s also his father (played by Ian Bannen) who appeared to be infected by leper, whether or not if its true, but Robert possibly has a similar disease in his later life, i guess his father’s infection kinda followed up for him. Despite some elements, Angus did a pretty good work of his role and his narration of this movie.

After that, we have King Edward Longshanks, or King Edward I (played by the late Patrick McGoohan) the takeover king of Scotland for his border with his English. He’s quite of a ruthless and kinda mean-spirited king for his orders and such, especially his relationship of his son, Prince Edward II (played by Peter Hanly), for his order after his marriage with Isabella. Sure, it many stories of Scotland, Longshanks is always depicted as a villainous king for his invasion at Scotland, but its probably exaggerated compare to the real Edward I, despite his takeover king and being ruthless, he has some positive things like enjoying poetry and a harp, having a lovely relationship with Eleanor de Castile, being religious king and gave a charity. Despite the exaggeration, Patrick did a pretty good work of his role as an evil king.

Next, is Isabella of France (played by Sophie Marceau), the princess from France that aside of being with English for marrying Prince Edward II and, probably similar to Longshank’s mean treatment to Edward II, she was order to tell Wallace to stop the invasion or else, despite she got so much attention when she first met Wallace that nearly falling in love with him, even if William is too busy for his rebellious war against the English. I find her not bad, since i find her to also being a sorta neutral that she’s meant to be with English, but she’s enamored of Wallace, probably to the fact that she’s sympathetic to him. While she’s meant to be in relationship with Wallace, but in reality, she had nothing to do with, because she was much younger as three years old and lived in France during the battle of Falkirk, not to mention, she’s way too soon to be married before she married King Edward II and having a baby after Wallace got beheaded. Despite of mixed up development between fiction and reality, Sophie did a nice work of her role.

As for the rest, they’re there for respectful relationship or just there for various purposes.

There’s Hamish (played by Brendan Gleeson) who’s Wallace’s childhood best bud, Murron (played by Catherine McCormack) who’s Wallace’s wife that she ended up cut-short, Stephen of Ireland (played by David O’Hara, a lovable madman from Ireland for joining Wallace’s side, Philip (played by Stephen Billington) who’s Edward II best pal (though i heard that he’s meant to be gay with Edward II, but thrown out without making a homophobic protest) and few others if i miss any.

While its easy to pointing out some inaccuracies, but they’re either lovable, fascinating and maybe relatable for to enjoy the characters.

SPOILER ALERT if you haven’t seen the movie, or didn’t mind

Things are about to becoming tragedy.

After losing the battle of Falkirk, Wallace murdered both Lochlan and Mornay for not just betrayal, but their involvement with Longshanks’ bribary, unless there’s one point where Wallace went to having affair with Isabella (which again, she’s too young to be with Wallace in reality). Robert the Bruce is panning to have a meeting with Wallace at Edinburgh, but it didn’t turned out well when Wallace was kidnapped to handing over to English, revealing to be Bruce’s father’s plan all along, Robert was upset about this that he both disowned and banished his father for ruining his meeting plan. But Bruce isn’t the only one who’s upset for this, Isabella is upset in front of dying Longshanks that his bloodline will be destroyed by revealing she’s pregnant by Wallace to having a baby (which again, completely wrong that she’s meant to having affair with Edward II to have a baby, Edward III), despite Prince Edward II will taking over his father’s king (in a controversial way, but different story). Later at London, Wallace is brought to the court from magistrate and for treason to submitting the king, but William refused for their deal, resulting him sentenced to death, in his last day in tragedy, we see Wallace gets tortured from hanging, drawn and quartered, before he’s about to be beheaded, he was asked for calling mercy to live free by magistrate, Wallace, still refused for his mercy on his responsibility, by shouting his final word “Freedom!”, while Longshanks died in his bed (but in reality, he died on his final campaign, which is two years after Wallace got executed), Wallace sees his late wife in his face (while watching the crowd) before getting executed from beheaded. And in the end, couple years later, Robert the Bruce, took over as the King of Scotland, is on the battle against the English at Bannockburn for their name of freedom for the late William Wallace (even though in reality, it wasn’t supposed to be a spontaneous battle, he already fought them for 8 years).

Man... Aside of some inaccuracies that im pointing out (because of course), its both pretty heart ranching ending for Wallace accepting his fate for his rebellious knight to putting his life on the line for having no choice to but putting himself over to say goodbye, especially his execution will probably haunting for Robert and Wallace’s best pals.

And now for my final opinion of this film.

Overall, Braveheart is pretty good movie in the mid-90’s as a medieval movie.

The story is fascinating to go, the presentation looks beautiful, the characters are fun and some lovable (as maybe some are relatable) and it has a fun and bloody actions.

Sure, its not one of the most accurate movie based on William Wallace, despite its based on the poem, with couple of moments that are loosely followed to making their own in Hollywood’s fashion, as well with romantic element is short-lived, despite this movie mainly focusing on William Wallace

Even though its not the most accurate movie based on William Wallace, but at least its a beautiful, fun and emotional film Gibson has ever give. Its no stranger that i recommended to see it, but hope you have a tissue box cause between this and the soundtrack, they will certainly make you burst into tears.

For my rating, im gonna give this one an 8.5/10.

So this ends of my movie review, if you guys have your opinion or any suggestions, let me know at comment bellow and support me on KO-FI.com/blackevil.

Thanks for reading, and im Anthony, signing out.