‘Braveheart’ a bloody, sprawling, boring epic
You want to free your country from tyrannical rule? Do you mind losing your head? I suppose that’s the real question in oft-quoted “Braveheart,” starring Mel Gibson as a man on a mission for … something.
Look, some people absolutely love this movie, call it a classic. For the most part, I found it unnecessarily grandiose and burdened down with its own desire to be the next great epic.
For those unaware, the premise of “Braveheart” is simple enough. We find ourselves at the end of the 13th century in Scotland. Our main man, William Wallace (Gibson), has the noble (and violent) intentions of saving his country from the tyrannical rule of Edward Longshanks aka King Edward I (Patrick McGoohan).
And that’s it.
Yeah, there may be some less-than-subtle “insights” into moral, philosophical and political quandaries, and if you’re over the age of 3, you’ll be unceremoniously bludgeoned with plot devices so simple, so pandering you want wish you were the one being slayed.
Taking place with abundant mist and snow blanketing the scenery, we endure lifting speeches, brutal fights and, in the final scenes, intensely disturbing torture scenes. Because we all need some disembowelment with out lamb.
There seems to be an underlying message of freeing one’s self from unfair bonds holding us down. But all that’s lost when we have enough action sequences to fill a Michael Bay movie. Nor does it aid the story when most plot points and storylines are distilled to a battle between good and bad, between light and dark, between freedom and imprisonment. Life is so rarely black and white, and the lack of shades of gray make it all the more ridiculous.
In the end, “Braveheart” will throw some quotable lines your way while engaging in some pretty awesome battles. If you’re looking for political analysis or in-depth character development… Ha.
Two gut-spilling stars out of two.
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Mel Gibson stars in “Braveheart.” (Photo credit: Paramount Pictures)
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