(When Wallace has a reunion with hischildhood pal Hamish, they hurl rocks at each other for entertainment later,when a Scotsman has his wound cauterized, all he says is, "That'll wakeyou up in the morning, boy!") It is sometimes seen as an egotisticalgesture when actors direct themselves, especially in heroic epics costing (sothey say) $53 million. Thesecharacters come from hardened stock. The two spendtheir wedding night outdoors, and the backlit shot as they embrace gainssomething, I think, from the frost on their breaths. ThePrincess, played by the French actress Sophie Marceau, does not much admire herhusband, who spends most of his time hanging about moon-eyed with his bestfriend (until the king, in a fit of impatience, hurls the friend out the castlewindow).Įdward,smarting from defeats, dispatches the Princess to offer his terms toBraveheart, but soon she's spilling all the state secrets, "because of theway you look at me." The Princess is the second love in Wallace's life the first, his childhood sweetheart Murron ( Catherine McCormack), marries himin secret (so the local English lord won't claim his rights). "I may have to conceive the childmyself!" Longshanks says, and indeed, under the medieval concept of primanocte, or "first night," nobles were allowed a first chance to sleepwith the wives of their lessers.
Inthe film, Wallace's chief antagonist is King Edward I ("Longshanks"),played by Patrick McGoohan with sly cunning he is constantly giving hisrealpolitik interpretation of events, and that's all the more amusing sincehe's usually guessing wrong.Įdward'sson, the Prince of Wales (Peter Hanly), is an effete fop who marries a Frenchwoman only for political reasons.
Once we understand that this is not a solemn historical reconstruction(and that happens pretty fast), we accept dialogue that might otherwise have anuncannily modern tone, as when Braveheart issues his victory ultimatum to theEnglish: "Scotland's terms are that your commander present himself infront of our army, put his head between his legs and kiss his -." Uh,huh. William Wallace may have been a realperson, but "Braveheart" owes more to Prince Valiant, Rob Roy and MadMax. Gibsonis not filming history here, but myth. Gibsondeploys what look like thousands of men on horseback, as well as foot soldiers,archers and dirty tricks specialists, and yet his battle sequences don't turninto confusing crowd scenes: We understand the strategy, and we enjoy thetactics even while we're doubting some of them (did 14th century Scots reallyset battlefields aflame?).
Just from a technical point of view, "Braveheart" does abrilliant job of massing men and horses for large-scale warfare on film. It fits in with the whole glorious sweep of "Braveheart," whichis an action epic with the spirit of the Hollywood swordplay classics and thegrungy ferocity of "The Road Warrior." What people are going toremember from the film are the battle scenes, which are frequent, bloody andviolent. Wallace'sdying cry, as his body was stretched on the rack, was "freedom!" Thatisn't exactly based on fact (the concept of personal freedom was a concept notmuch celebrated in 1300), but it doesn't stop Gibson from making it his dyingcry.
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