Braveheart

Rating: *****/*****, or 10/10

Excellent historical epic regarding the 13^th century Scottish rebellion against England led by William Wallace. When his beloved wife is brutally sexually assualted and executed by English soldiers, Wallace goes berserk against his cruel overlords and starts a full scale war, driving the English armies of the merciless king Edward I (Patrick McGoohan) from Scottish lands in several epic battles (the production of which included some of the first cases of CGI used for massive battle scenes), though he finds himself hindered by uncooperative backstabbing Scottish noblemen who care more about their own stature and wealth than about the fate of their oppressed people. Warning! Spoilers! Fortunately Wallace has a secret admirer in the wife of the English crown prince, princess Isabelle (Sophie Marceau), which soon turns into a very romantic and genuinely heartfelt doomed love affair. Mel Gibson both directs and stars in this motion picture, and does an exceptional job at both, winning the film five Academy Awards. His disturbing interest later in life for overly long torture scenes (resulting in torture porn movie The Passion of the Christ) is already evident in Wallace's gruesome death scene. Though Gibson isn't particularly nuanced when it comes to his portrayal of the English (all creepy, violent butchers) and takes some poetic license with recorded history, he makes up for it with a truly gripping and ultimately tragic story of a man who lost everything and turned that loss into a quest for vengeance and a desire for freedom, inspiring his people to fight for theirs. Accompanied by one of the most beautiful (and ever popular) musical scores in film history, this is quite simply one of the great masterpieces of the nineties and a precursor to the return of the popularity of historical epics (setting the stage for Gladiator to fully break out the genre again).

Starring: Mel Gibson, Sophie Marceau, Brendan Gleeson

Directed by Mel Gibson

USA: Icon Productions, 1995