Braveheart Reviews
Mark Johnson Awards Daily
...a huge film with incredible action sequences, an emotional love story, and a few technical wonders... Braveheart remains a thrilling and entertaining epic
Full Review | Jun 27, 2023
Rick James Alabama Forum
The film is rich, multi-layered and lush.
Full Review | May 4, 2023
Harper Barnes St. Louis Post-Dispatch
It's unclear when Mel Gibson became a combination of Sam Peckinpah and Akira Kurosawa, but there's no question that Braveheart is one of the best epic movies of the '90s... Scene after scene takes your breath away with its sometimes cruel beauty.
Full Review | Nov 18, 2022
Bob Fenster Arizona Republic
In only his second film behind the camera, Gibson has crafted a historical epic, Braveheart, that stands tall among the biggest and the best: Lawrence of Arabia, Ben-Hur, El Cid.
Full Review | Nov 18, 2022
Ella Taylor L.A. Weekly
Epic in length only and peppered with snigg*ring hom*ophobia, the homage to Himself drags on for three hours going on three years.
Full Review | Nov 18, 2022
Hugo Davenport Daily Telegraph (UK)
McGoohan is terrific; half-basilisk, half brass-rubbing. Nor does the film lack power to stir and move us.
Full Review | Nov 18, 2022
Betsy Sherman The Improper Bostonian
As he did with The Man Without a Face, Gibson takes his directorial chores so seriously that he squeezes the life out of the piece.
Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Nov 18, 2022
David Denby New York Magazine/Vulture
Gibson puts us in the peculiar position of longing for him to die. Braveheart overstays its welcome. It's an epic looking not only for a point but an exit line.
Full Review | Nov 18, 2022
Wallace Baine Santa Cruz Sentinel
Braveheart is an astonishing spectacle of blood and heart, a virile and punishing epic, less interested in historical relevance than in grandiose myth-making.
Full Review | Original Score: A- | Nov 18, 2022
Nanciann Cherry Toledo Blade
If Braveheart suffers from Gibson's vision and his excesses, it also accomplishes two things: It demonstrates the vast, faceless misery of war like no other movie of recent memory. And it answers the question: Just what do men wear under those kilts?
Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Nov 18, 2022
Henry Sheehan Orange County Register
Braveheart doesn't amount to much more than theatrical chest-thumping by Gibson. He clearly knows how to put a movie together, but he is going to have to get over himself before that knowledge does anyone any good.
Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Nov 18, 2022
Alison Gillmor Winnipeg Free Press
[Mel Gibson] really does put his heart into this blood-and-thunder saga, as both director and star. One result is real passion. A disastrous consequence is a self-indulgent running time.
Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 18, 2022
Robert W. Butler Kansas City Star
The bone-crunching chaos of a medieval melee has rarely been so effectively captured... That's pretty much the story on this three-hour epic -- riveting when it comes to battles and the camaraderie of fighting men, a bit shaky the rest of the time.
Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Nov 18, 2022
Bob Ross Tampa Tribune
With its earthy humanity, glorious landscapes and sweeping battles, Braveheart accomplishes what its makers intended: to tell a stirring story in a memorable fashion.
Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Nov 18, 2022
Bob Thomas Associated Press
It's Mel Gibson's movie all the way, and he comes through triumphantly.
Full Review | Nov 18, 2022
Eleanor Ringel Cater Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Powerful, confident and fiercely unapologetic about its movie-movie sensibility, Braveheart insists that escapism needn't be synonymous with mindlessness.
Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Nov 18, 2022
Olga Flores Austin American-Statesman
Gibson, who directed and produced Braveheart, has transformed himself into a believable mercenary driven by revenge, passion and love.
Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 18, 2022
Lawrence Toppman Charlotte Observer
It’s an epic with clinches on battlefields more important than those in bedrooms or council halls. On that level, it works splendidly, if with brutal violence.
Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 18, 2022
Frank Bruni Detroit Free Press
[Braveheart] is stirring in ways that not too many movies are, and to a degree that not too many movies achieve. You fight it, but it wins.
Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 18, 2022
Michael H. Price Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com
Gibson is solidly on course as a director, and likewise in his element as an actor, once he stops being Mel Gibson.
Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Nov 18, 2022