It's the second week of my Best Picture A-Z Challenge whereby I watch an Academy Award Best Picture Winner for each letter of the alphabet plus a numerical entry. However with one additional rule...it has to be a film that I have NOT yet seen. So I build my list and then if there's more than one choice I offer up a vote to suggest which one to watch. This challenge is the letter B and so here were my choices:
R 1995 ‧ War/Drama ‧ 3h 2m
[1] https://www.google.com/search?q=braveheart&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS930US930&oq=brave&aqs=chrome.0.69i59j46i433j69i57j69i59j46i433i457j0i433j0i131i433j69i60.3407j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
AND after the votes were in, my "B" challenge became to watch:
Here are my quick thoughts.
Casting. Kudos to the casting director who got a kid who really looked like a young Mel Gibson. I always love when casting gets it right. There are some supremely talented casting directors out there and I'm always highly impressed when I get the sense immediately of who the younger actor is portraying from first glance.
Mel Gibson - Is This Where the Facination with Martyrs Began for Him? First of all, I'm wondering how many personal training hours Mel Gibson had to put in just so he could shirtless up for this film. I mean he buffed out and I cannot argue with a person willing to put in the time and energy to get the body ready for the big task at hand. The hair though for William Wallace annoyed the ever living fuck out of me the entire movie. First it has shades of mullety goodness, and I couldn't figure out if it was a full wig but it seemed like a partial wig or a fall. Keep that natural top wave ol' Mel and let the bottom part of your locks flow like the sea! Mind you as it got raggedy over time he added some nice braids along the way I guess to jazz things up since we didn't have salons where he could get a nice double processing or a blow out. However as I was watching this film the entire way I kept thinking, maybe this is the tip off for where Mel went off the rails as a person. He wins an oscar for this film basically giving him the nod for showcasing the obvious martyr that William Wallace was...but then he goes in on the story of Jesus...and basically doubles down on anti-semetic rehtoric since. Perhaps this is one of those times where a artist is losing the ability to distance himself from the material. I'm sure that Mel thinks his views have martyred him in Hollywood so I guess he's living his dream. I don't know.
The Noble Knobhead Fuckwits. The right to bed these people's wives on their marriage night? The killing of William Wallace's wife just because she didn't want the scabby pasty-boy's body on her. I mean she fought a good fight and frankly I was pretty sick of these idiots and their entitled buffonery. I will say for his wife's burial it was a beautiful death shroud and I want to give our ancestors a high five for the use of ecologically friendly burials too.
Sword Play and Beyond. What a difference some guns would make. You may be asking yourself a gal that calls herself a film buff has avoided Braveheart this entire time? Yup. Two words why...sword play. I am not a fan of the slicing of skin, it bothers me to my core so I knew that this was going to have nothing but old school swords, daggars and otherwise meaning lots of severing of skin, arteries and lopping off of limbs, heads and other assorted body bits. I did keep thinking if any of these guys had guns this movie would have been a lot shorter.
The Horses Didn't Sign Up for This! I know a lot of people decry this fact of historically based films especially involving battles and such, the horses are the vehicles on which these brawling boys get around and when the first battle started and the fact that (spoiler alert), team Braveheart's major weapon solution is the long spear/sticks that the horses and riders basically run full throttle into I always get upset thinking the horses didn't ask to be involved in your politics yall. So part of me has always been, if you want to go fight your wars leave the horses, elephants or other creatures out of it. Alas, I don't make the rules.
Confusing Betrayals. I think it was confusing to know who's side people were really fighting for given Some-one the Bruce's surprise betrayal that pretty much took all the wind out of Braveheart's sails. Then the scene where the two factions were running to fight each other and then stopped and basically acted like the welcome home hallway at an airport (oh for you young people there once was a time we could wait at the end of the gate to welcome our people home, that was before the NSA existed...oh memories). Anyway, I had to keep reminding why these people had all these agendas. I finally just gave up and said, they want power...just accept they want power and team Braveheart just wants the ability to be free to not be told what to do by absent landlords. I get it now.
Why Does this Dirty Hanky Keep Showing Up? I had for some reason not got the understanding of the importance of the handkerchief that Wallace's wife had given him so when he's captured and before being killed this dirty hanky keeps showing up as some level of importance. Thankfully I watched this with the Erik so he reminded me of the importance of said article of cloth. Then I was okay with it.
Tune in for Torture! Lastly, it occurred to me that since all these townspeople were basically all but lining up for butter and popcorn to watch the torture of William Wallace that we've always been troublesome as a species. That people were just and have been just excited to see someone executed and basically this event turned in a date night for the dim-witted in the city square it made me sad to realize the cruel nature of humans. We are the only species I believe that goes all in on not just killing for food but killing for sport, for power and for whatever the murderous mob deems to be a reason to take a life. So I guess I shouldn't be so surprised when I see a portion of our country so willing to kill people just for their political opinions these days. It's in us...and sadly has always been a part of us as a humanity. Lack of humanity.
IN THE END
It was okay. I guess if I was a boy or a girl who was super into SCA life I may have liked it a whole lot more, but I'm honestly not a huge fan of brawling films or war films. I appreciate them as a form of "historical" referencing for those not willing to read books or otherwise, but it's just not my cup of tea. I appreciate the effort on the development of a film about a historical period I probably would have not delved into otherwise.
To listen to the accompanying podcast click HERE: https://anchor.fm/theamusedlife/episodes/Best-Picture-A-to-Z-Challenge-Braveheart-epa3hf
*** In Peace, Love and Hope - Anna ***
Comments
Post a Comment