What an emotionally charged film! “Braveheart”
goes beyond the Hollywood warrior movie and brings us a tale about the pursuit for
love, happiness, and freedom. Mel Gibson,
who starred in this film and directed it, is responsible for making people around
the world see that sometimes liberty is more important than life.
William
Wallace is a Scotsman who leads a small army of Scots to rebel against the
English. He is motivated by more than just frustration over England but for
personal reasons as well. It takes some time for the battles to take place in
order to establish character in the beginning but the battle scenes themselves
are worth the wait.
Mel Gibson
does a splendid job both directing and acting in this movie while the rest of
the cast doesn’t disappoint either. The music is probably one of the best
elements of the film as Scottish history is the best breeding ground for the
ideas of James Horner’s Celtic influences. Bagpipes and synthesizers go
together quite nicely and the result is something so good that if you didn’t
like the film you could close your eyes and just listen to the music and would
not regret the experience.
The one
thing “Braveheart” looses points on is pacing. Watching the movie is like being
on a rollercoaster; there are slow parts but when it accelerates it is worth
it. Every battle scene is great and emotional because it is not simply a war
film but a film about how in battle it is not the numbers that matter but the
spirit of the soldiers (Sorry “300” but “Braveheart” did it first).
As some
of you may know, this film won Academy awards for Best-Picture, Best Director,
Best-Cinematography, Best-Sound Editing, and Best-Makeup. It stands as one of
the handful of films to win the Best-Director Academy award without also wining
the equivalent Directors Guild of America award; that year it went to Ron
Howard for “Apollo 13”. I guess the Academy realized that this film is more emotional
than you would expect.
8/10
But what about you? What is your favorite epic warrior movie? Click here to cast your vote.
8/10
But what about you? What is your favorite epic warrior movie? Click here to cast your vote.
I love this flick and definitely think it deserved all of the Oscars it got. May run a little too long but it still kept me watching and riveted. Good review Mike.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I agree it did run a bit too long but it was a very good time to watch.
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