Braveheart Reviews
Top CriticIn this mix of historical tragedy and hip adventure, Gibson may be as galvanic a movie swashbuckler as Errol Flynn and Burt Lancaster were in their day.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/4
The political argument that ensues is pretty dull, but the battle scenes are the loudest and most convincing in years: Gibson has learned from Kurosawa in lending a clarifying thrust to what is, essentially, chaos.
Braveheart looks like a true epic -- even if it is both bloody and bloody long.
A huge, bloody and sprawling epic, Braveheart is the sort of massive vanity piece that would be easy to disparage if it didn't essentially deliver.
Though the film dawdles a bit with the shimmery, dappled love stuff involving Wallace with a Scottish peasant and a French princess, the action will pin you to your seat.
As a filmmaker, [Gibson] lacks the epic gift, but the movie, scripted by Randall (no relation) Wallace, works on a fairly basic level as a hiss-the-English medieval Western.
Braveheart opts to turn cowardly, settling for the magnification of Gibson's idol status, forfeiting the complex, more nebulous magnificence of the real Sir William Wallace and virtually excising the strategic brilliance of Robert The Bruce.
There's a matter-of-fact grittiness about Braveheart that infects even its occasional touches of mysticism and photogenic romance.
At times the film seems an obsessive ode to Mel Gibson machismo.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
Gibson's raw energy and storytelling power in Braveheart are undeniable. If the film doesn't meet his ambitions, it's because he set the bar so high.
With its clashing armies, heartstopping action, and grand sense of romance, this is the sort of film it's a pleasure to see and review.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/4
An action epic with the spirit of the Hollywood swordplay classics and the grungy ferocity of The Road Warrior.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/4
One of the most spectacular entertainments in years.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
[Gibson] has created a completely adequate modern facsimile of the classic romantic epic.
Though lumpy and even redundant, Braveheart constantly rebounds on some bold note.
| Original Score: 4/4
Everybody knows that a non-blubbering clause is standard in all movie stars' contracts. Too bad there isn't one banning self-indulgence when they direct.
