Braveheart: the Worst Film for Best Picture
Thesis
Mel Gibson’s Braveheart is routinely named in polls of film critics as the worst movie ever to have won the Academy Award for best picture, and it is easy to see why. The acting in the film ranges from the blandly unmemorable to the mortifying. Negligible as Scottish history, but it is undeniably a political film. Gibson clearly did not intend to venture into a political debate—the film is structurally and visually standard Hollywood fare, a costume drama of the sort normally considered a “prestige picture” or “Oscar bait,” and the Academy swallowed it whole and awarded Braveheart the 1995 Academy Award for Best Picture.
Coincidently the 1995 release date would coincide with the political push towards Scottish “devolution” from the United Kingdom—with the establishment of a separate and independent Scottish Parliament—in 1997. I hope to ultimately show that not only is Braveheart a political film—not unlike those of Leni Riefensthal—it is precisely in keeping with Riefensthal’s fascist aesthetic.
Braveheart: The Worst Film for Best Picture
While I will concede that this questionably semi-historical, legend based film is meant to romanticize the audience with its use of raw human emotions like love, honor, deceitfulness, and war to keep the viewers immersed in the action, the clichés used within the film were ad nauseam. The crudity of Gibson’s overall directorial style can be seen by contrasting the cinematography and editing, I will give example from two scenes: the erotic encounter between William and his bride Murron, and the scene in which Edward Longshanks kills Philip. The sex scene finds Gibson as William roaming in the gloaming, whereupon he flirts with Catherine McCormack as Murron by tossing stones. The natural light filming here is used to great effect by filming during the actual gloaming, the quality of long twilight found in the northern highlands of Scotland, and thus their long kiss is filmed in dusky light. Soon
Mel Gibson’s Braveheart is routinely named in polls of film critics as the worst movie ever to have won the Academy Award for best picture, and it is easy to see why. The acting in the film ranges from the blandly unmemorable to the mortifying. Negligible as Scottish history, but it is undeniably a political film. Gibson clearly did not intend to venture into a political debate—the film is structurally and visually standard Hollywood fare, a costume drama of the sort normally considered a “prestige picture” or “Oscar bait,” and the Academy swallowed it whole and awarded Braveheart the 1995 Academy Award for Best Picture.
Coincidently the 1995 release date would coincide with the political push towards Scottish “devolution” from the United Kingdom—with the establishment of a separate and independent Scottish Parliament—in 1997. I hope to ultimately show that not only is Braveheart a political film—not unlike those of Leni Riefensthal—it is precisely in keeping with Riefensthal’s fascist aesthetic.
Braveheart: The Worst Film for Best Picture
While I will concede that this questionably semi-historical, legend based film is meant to romanticize the audience with its use of raw human emotions like love, honor, deceitfulness, and war to keep the viewers immersed in the action, the clichés used within the film were ad nauseam. The crudity of Gibson’s overall directorial style can be seen by contrasting the cinematography and editing, I will give example from two scenes: the erotic encounter between William and his bride Murron, and the scene in which Edward Longshanks kills Philip. The sex scene finds Gibson as William roaming in the gloaming, whereupon he flirts with Catherine McCormack as Murron by tossing stones. The natural light filming here is used to great effect by filming during the actual gloaming, the quality of long twilight found in the northern highlands of Scotland, and thus their long kiss is filmed in dusky light. Soon
Cited: Gibson, Mel. Braveheart. Paramount, 1995. Gibson, Mel. The Passion of the Christ. Lion’s Gate, 2003. Sutherland, John. (2003). “Get ready for the gospel according to Mel Gibson.” The Guardian, 11 August 2003. Accessed 21 March 2011 at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2003/aug/11/religion.world Watkins, Gregory J. (2008) Teaching Religion and Film. New York and London: Oxford University Press. Houston, Rab. (2008). Scotland: A Very Short Introduction. New York and London: Oxford University Press. Boyle, Danny. Trainspotting. 1996. McArthur, Colin. (2003). Brigadoon, Braveheart and the Scots: distortions of Scotland in Hollywood cinema. New York: Palgrave McMillan. Rifkind, Hugo and Farquharson, Kenny. (2005). “Braveheart battle cry is now but a whisper.” London Times , 24 July 2005. Accessed 21 March 2011 at: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article546776.ece