Braveheart
2-Disc Collector’s Edition
Directed by Mel Gibson
Starring Mel Gibson, Patrick MacGoohan
Paramount Home Video
Available Dec. 18, 2007

Twelve years. That’s how long it takes a Best Picture-winning, fiercely revered classic to descend into camp and cheese. Not even Titanic got there that fast (it was never that highly revered by anyone male and over the age of 13 at the time of its release). It’s almost quaint by now, isn’t it? This was the movie that made BEN-HURian epics fashionable again and if it weren’t for Braveheart‘s success, Lord of the Rings wouldn’t have been greenlit in its current incarnation. And it was made in a time that seems so long ago, when we didn’t think of Mel Gibson as”¦ y’know”¦ Mel Gibson.

And believe it or not, I’m actually NOT cracking cheap jokes (for a change). Mr. Gibson certainly is”¦ outspoken about some things, and some folks just plain can’t stand him anymore. It’s a valid issue, depending on who you ask. Like it or not, BELIEVE it or not, the new 2-disc reissue of Braveheart is now a niche item. There are two camps for this item: those who are die hard fans of the movie, and those who are curious after not having seen it since it came out in 1995 and think “Why the Hell not?” Any of those who haven’t seen it by now, probably won’t be interested.

I fall in that latter category, just for reference. And I accepted this assignment out of sheer curiosity. Would what I’ve seen out of Gibson in the past few years detract from a movie I loved twelve years ago that I haven’t seen since?

The answer to that is actually “No.” But the bad news here is the glaring flaws I failed to pick up on in the meantime that I was either too young, too ignorant, or too much of both to pick up the first time. Needless to say, in a year that gave us The Usual Suspects, Apollo 13, Leaving Las Vegas, Dead Man Walking, and Se7en, Braveheart really didn’t deserve Best Picture.

To recap (as is custom in reviews, even of movies everyone’s seen), Braveheart is the story of William Wallace, a commoner who grew up in 13th-century Scotland. We first see Wallace as a be-mulleted boy-child watching his father and older brother marching off to fight the English. Their dead bodies get carted back and William goes to live with his uncle, strengthening his resolve for later on in the movie.

He comes back after globetrotting, and picks up where he left off with his childhood sweetheart Murron (Catherine McCormack). They’d get married publicly, but thanks to an edict passed by King Edward II of England (Patrick MacGoohan), the Lords of each Scottish fiefdom get first dibs on the wives of common marriages on the wedding night. But being that Murron is so gosh-darned pretty, the soldiers try to rape her anyway, only to be thwarted by Wallace and his blue-eyed, fist-throwing magic. He escapes, but she is captured and is killed. Wallace reacts to this the same way anyone else would”¦ By starting a war with the English. Lots of fighting ensues.

Those two paragraphs are stretched into just shy of three hours. That is the magic of the epic, dear readers: you HAVE to plan your entire day around it.

What works is that Gibson, as an actor, sells the movie. Gibson may have made a habit of playing the same damn character in two gears back when he was an actor, but he did it well. He’s backed up by a solid supporting cast with Brian Cox as his uncle and Brendan Gleeson and James Cosmo as his two henchmen (his Grizz and Dotcom, if you will). Also impressive are Angus MacFadyen and the late, great Ian Bannen. The only weak link in the cast is MacGoohan as King Edward. He glowers and glares and rolls his R’s and recites with dire intent. And that one part when he tied Nellie to the railroad tracks while twirling his mustache to the organ score made absolutely no sense at all. He shouldn’t be held to the whims of the script like that, he should air his character out and fine-tune his performance. He is not a number, HE IS A FREE MAN!

MacGoohan..? The Prisoner..? Greatest sci-fi show of all time..? Aw, fuck you, THAT JOKE WAS FUNNY!

Anyway, what also works is the cinematography by John Toll. It captures the countryside in muddy browns and beautiful, lush greens. THAT was the Oscar it DID deserve. Also much props to Gibson at the helm of the battle scenes, which are some of the best since Kurosawa did his thing back in the fifties.

But as Wallace began his war on the English, Braveheart was the opening volley in Gibson’s war on subtlety, one that hasn’t ended yet. Everything of any meaning that occurs in Braveheart arrives solemnly enshrouded in symbolism. From the scene with Murron’s father after the funeral to the never-ending journey of the thistle that Wallace carries around with him, Braveheart isn’t content with a simple look from an actor or a single line of dialogue that foreshadows or has multiple meanings. No, Gibson and writer Randall Wallace (maybe a relation, we don’t know) must hammer every single concept into our heads in case we don’t get it. Even semaphore would have been less obvious.

Of interest on disc two is a historical documentary on William Wallace, which was funded by Paramount and features almost exclusively interviews with the cast and crew, so we don’t know how well the facts are on that. Also, there is a featurette on Randall Wallace and what he went through to write the picture. He tells a story about how he refused to kiss Gibson’s ass in their first meeting and then spends the next couple of minutes of the interview doing exactly that. If’n that ain’t good for a laugh, I don’t know what is.

In the latter day scheme of Gibson’s directorial efforts, I’d place this in the middle of the three films (I haven’t seen Man Without A Face). I like it more than THE SNUFF-FILM OF THE CHRIST, but I don’t like it nearly as much as Apocalypto, whose affectations of language and setting served to strip cliché from a simple and superior action film. But I DO recommend Braveheart. It’s a cartoon, but much like what we used to eat cereal over on Saturday mornings, it’s both harmless and enjoyable.

*** out of 4