If you didn't get enough of "Braveheart"
A gorgeous looking slice of history that hardly establishes
the central hero's story or his journey to becoming
a warrior and leader of men.
Ridley Scott is showing more visual flair and, dare
I say it, restraint in a movie with a collosal scope.
What we are left with is a movie that is a shorthand
for a hero's journey amid some very pretty cinematography.
Scott is clearly entirely interested in the costumes,
scale and majesty of the massive crusader battles. The
production is excellent and the design will have historical
fans swooning. Contrary to fears, this isn't a one-handed
western versus Muslim story. The politics are actually
quite fair to what I know form the period.
However, the main problem is Orlando Bloom's hero character.
He is a blacksmith thrust into the inherited seat of
defender of the faith. We are shown hardly any progress
in his character who seemingly parachutes into the Holy
Land already a natural warrior, tactician, lover and
politician. All of this leads me to think that the makers
of the movie have created a movie entirely in the Hollywood
shorthand. That is, the audience has seen this type
of movie so often, they may not even care about proper
character establishment. In the new Vancouverscreenwriters
forum I made this much longer post about the story
here
>>
The "Blood, Gore 'n Guts"
screening
Friday evening I attended the screening of the 19 short
films created by everyone who participated in that 48
hour contest from last weekend. Any disappointment that
still lingered in the crew over not being able to get
the film outputted in time was gone. It was actually
a much bigger affair than I thought. Around 400 people
filling a gymnasium. I stayed for the first half and
saw some pretty good movies, ours among them.
