I apologize in advance for coming across as an even bigger pedantic dick than usual, but I just cannot step over this film's fabricated history lesson.

I know, I know, historical accuracy is always a tricky thing and most films present a romanticised version of events. But this film portrays 'recent' history from a rather well documented time period. And it isn't so much the small things that were changed for cinematic convenience that bother me, it's the big things.

So it's not the fact that the Scots didn't wear kilts in those days, not did they paint their faces. There are many of those things in it, changed for the audience's understanding. Search the internet and you'll find lists…

Between this film and Avatar I'm just two steps away from tattooing my face blue!

When I see quality films like this I have to wonder why all films aren't made with the same passion and spirit as this one! While the film played footloose and fancy free with historical facts is of little or no consequence when the end result is a high caliber Epic, of which many (myself included) deem to be a modern day masterpiece!

Mel and I have the same credo! Go Big or Go Home! Mel didn't stop at Big he went full blown postal and never once looked back! Mel may be a flawed individual (We All Are) but he's one hell of an…

Braveheart is one of the best "bad" movies ever made and possibly one of the worst "good" movies ever. It's a slithery beast, slippery with blood, sliding between objectively terribly and ludicrously entertaining. Some scenes feature Gibson's knack for horror, his unrelenting and unblinking camera focusing on images culled from darkest nightmares, where other scenes, laconic and clumsy, go on too long, and misunderstand the value of economical visual storytelling.

I wanted to find a YouTube clip of Robert the Bruce's introduction, but I can't find it, so instead, we'll use Edward Longshanks' introduction of prima nocte as our great example of Gibson's baffling editing choices. Here's the clip. The princess enters the dungeon-like meeting room where the King is…

During 1995 we had not one but two films based on Scottish folk heroes. Michael Caton-Jones gave us the story of Rob Roy MacGregor a Seventeenth Century cattle drover with Irishman Liam Neeson in the lead role. American action hero Mel Gibson however would take the more prominent role as William Wallace in the Oscar winning Braveheart, a historical epic of huge proportions.
Focusing on the Scottish historical hero William Wallace who waged a war against the English in the very late 13th Century, this was a big budget medieval adventure film. Mel Gibson takes on the role as a wronged man who seeks revenge on the English after the murder of his wife. It's simple revenge, but escalates quickly…

I can easily see how this was so high on my original list way back when. It is brutal and driven on extremely masculine motivations, with intense focus on honor and freedom through violence and resistance by Gibson and co. Revenge starts out as vendettas for the women and men who suffer at British hands, but it quickly becomes something that ties good vs. Evil with political motivation and choices, making the message of the film supportive of all or nothing, which gets dicey, but what else do you expect from Gibson?

It can be a whole lot of fun to watch, and my is much of this film beautiful to look at, but there are just so many moments…