FREEDOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!! (Braveheart (DVD))

Member Name: toni2002toni

Product:	Braveheart (DVD)
Date:	24/01/02 (212 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: great battle scenes, good story line, memorable characters

Disadvantages: bit of gay bashing

One of the last things we need is another Braveheart review composed four years after its initial release.But after purchasing the DVD version recently I feel it is my duty to share my observations without saying a great deal about the basic plot that you can read in hundreds of other places.Perhaps it could be my Scots ancestry emerging that draws me to the film since I cant claim that it's the most artistic and well acted movie I've seen, nor is it the most gripping emotionally. Regardless, I continue to enjoy watching and re-watching it and share much of Mel Gibsons enthusiasm for his project.

Make no mistake about it; Gibson directed it because he developed a true passion for the subject matter.(He also admits on the DVD that he developed at least an infatuation for the actress he cast as Murron). There was very little historical material published on Scotland's greatest hero, Sir William Wallace, and Gibson's film has created more awareness about Wallace than any scholarly study could have done. Indeed, more scholarship has occured since the release of the film.

I am impressed by the amount of historical research that Gibson and others actually did for the film, and Gibson is well aware that some events have been changed for dramatic purposes. One of the most notable is that princess Isabelle could never have had a romance with Wallace or even have met up with him, as she would have been a little girl at the time. Gibson also admits readily that he was too old to play Wallace by about 15 years.

The background documentary shows Mel enthusiastically running up and down, organizing the shoots and demonstrates how some of the bloody battle sequences are choreographed and accomplished. There is some sense of realism to these battle scenes because most of the extras are actual military men - a big help in organizing the chaos. They even show how the illusion of spearing the horses in the battle of Stirling was accomplished
with fake horses mixed in with real ones.

While the background information is good, I was most impressed by Gibson's enthusiasm for the subject and for learning more about directing. If you do listen to Gibson's commentary section, you will hear him obsessively discuss the different speeds that he shot certain scenes. Gibson is utterly fascinated by the effects that camera speeds have here, especially more frames per second. This explains why I thought he was so self-indulgent in an early scene after he and Murron have been secretly wed and are looking after each other at a distance - a scene that lasts 2 seconds in real time but takes nearlt 2 minutes to occur on screen. He repeats this slowed down technique many other times, most noticeable when Mel came to surrender to the Magistrate, but ends up kicking some major ass instead.

The one scene that really disturbed me was the one gay bashing scene. Even though Gibson claims this is not the case in his commentary. the staging for King Edward throwing the prince's lover out of the castle window indicates otherwise. The audience reaction was decidedly anti-gay and cheering the unlikable King on for destroying the gay character, yet Gibson justifies leaving it in.

He doesn't do this in another case when the audience reaction showed repulsion. Gibson simply edits out the offending seconds. This takes place during Wallace's execution where the executioner takes a large knife and cuts Mel's shirt. To give you an idea of what gut wrenching seconds were cut from this scene, the original version had the executioner cutting more than Mel's shirt off, so this sequence originally had another purpose and was not thrown in to thrill any ladies who came to see Mel's torso.

I can still overlook the anti-gay sentiments in Braveheart because it does succeed on many other levels. It does teach us some previously little known histoty about Scotland that doesn't h
ave to do with Robert the Bruce or Robert Burns, and it entertains with some of the best battle scenes ive witnessed on film. And it's got some memorable quotes, like Wallace's poetic response to Isabella "Every man dies....not every man really lives."

This DVD is worth purchasing for the clarity of the picture and sound, for the background documentary, and for Mel's impassioned commentary.

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