Mel Gibson's Stirring `Braveheart' Depicts Gritty Heroism

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XXX "Braveheart," with Mel Gibson, Sophie Marceau, Patrick McGoohan, Catherine McCormack, Angus McFadyen, Brendan Gleeson, Peter Hanly. Directed by Mel Gibson, from a script by Randall Wallace. Alderwood, Crossroads, Everett Mall, Gateway, Issaquah 9, Kirkland Parkplace, Mountlake 9, Oak Tree, Parkway Plaza, Puyallup, Uptown. "R" - Restricted because of violence, language, nudity.

Many movies deal with battlefield heroics. Few seriously attempt to define heroism.

In recent years, Jeff Daniels' remarkable performance in "Gettysburg" came closest to demonstrating what it takes for one fragile, frightened leader to defeat his own doubts and inspire his men to risk all in combat. Daniels was playing an educated man, the Civil War colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, and he suggested an intellectual's take on the idea of courage.

In his new $50 million battle epic, "Braveheart," Mel Gibson goes for a more primitive approach. Playing the 13th-century Scottish rebel leader William Wallace, Gibson also deals with the transformation of an unlikely soldier into a formidable warrior. This time there's something quite savage about the process, yet it's equally stirring.

Partly this is because Wallace's cause is just. Faced with a vicious British king (Patrick McGoohan) who intends to rid Scotland of Scottish blood by encouraging British soldiers to impregnate newlywed Scottish brides, Wallace is forced to act when his own wife (Catherine McCormack) is attacked. Almost a passive character at first, he becomes enraged, inspiring his countrymen in an all-out assault on their longtime tormentors.

Wallace is lucky that the king's gay son (Peter Hanly) is neither a gifted militarist nor much of a husband to his French wife (Sophie Marceau), who turns out to be less than sympathetic to the British cause. When the king's away on the continent, the son makes a royal mess of the situation, bringing in a male lover and adviser who is promptly murdered by the king when he returns.

(This segment of "Braveheart" has drawn protests from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, which is demonstrating today in nine cities, including Seattle. When questioned about it last week, Gibson said he presented all the British characters in a negative way because the film was being told from the point of view of oppressed Scots. The alliance claims this sequence amounts to gay-bashing, although the king who does the bashing is easily the most despicable character in the movie.)

Many of the elements in Randall Wallace's script have a familiar ring. Like Charlton Heston's selfless warrior in "El Cid," Wallace is a noble subject who needs a nobler king than the would-be Scottish monarch played here by Angus McFadyen. Like Kirk Douglas' slave leader in "Spartacus," Wallace unites and inspires disorganized troops, brings out their best qualities, constantly surprises his decadent enemy by catching them off-guard, and is crucified for his efforts.

But if screenwriter Wallace often seems to be borrowing from the religion-oriented super-spectacles of the early 1960s, he and Gibson have done a thorough job of making those ideas and characters play in the 1990s. There's a matter-of-fact grittiness about "Braveheart" that infects even its occasional touches of mysticism and photogenic romance.

The movie is so well-cast, with several unknowns making strong impressions in key supporting roles, that the actors never have a chance to hint at deja vu. And the most familiar face, Gibson's, hasn't seemed this vital in years. The striking cinematography, by this year's Oscar-winning cameraman, John Toll ("Legends of the Fall"), is complemented by a score by James Horner that's never too slick, never too folksy.

"Braveheart" runs for three full hours, without intermission, yet Gibson is rarely wasteful as a director. The graphic battles may grow repetitious toward the end, the final scenes are almost sadistically drawn out, and the script often lacks humor. But this movie moves.