Braveheart

This is another movie I've seen large sections of but never the whole thing. Mel Gibson directs leading man Mel Gibson through a vast (and in places vastly inaccurate) historical epic that manages a special combination of artful filming and awesomely brutal violence. We need more Best Picture winners that feature a bearded Brendan Gleeson bashing British troops' heads in with a giant hammer. The first 50 minutes of the movie were well put together, and in places it was fairly moving, but I was still waiting for anything to finally happen. Then it did, and it was pretty great. The brief scuffle where William Wallace and the townspeople wipe out the British occupying their village might actually have been my favorite scene in the movie. It's not as grand or vicious as some later battles, but it's just extremely entertaining and satisfying.

After the rebellion finally gets going, there's a couple hours that alternate between the military exploits of Wallace and his merry band of Scotsmen, whether brief glimpses or full blown battle scenes, and the state of things in England as Patrick McGoohan brilliantly portrays King Edward. I seriously loved his performance. When he's not menacingly threatening those who disappoint him and passing laws allowing nobles to rape newlyweds, he's throwing people out of windows for speaking to him out of turn. It's pretty great. Things slow down after a couple things don't turn out well for the Scots, and then we go through a pretty nonsensical subplot involving the future queen of England. Some stuff happens and there's the last dramatic few scenes depicting the inevitable conclusion. I was actually impressed by how tasteful and powerful some of that stuff was. I don't think it does everything right, but Braveheart was a pretty outstanding movie of its type.

The Prisoner

I heard about this old series when its star and creator Patrick McGoohan died earlier this year. AMC has filmed a remake which will air this year, and on their website you can currently watch the original in its entirety. It's a unique mix of espionage, science fiction, and psychological absurdity. McGoohan is an agent of some sort who suddenly retires from his post, and is then drugged and brought to a strange village on a remote island, where everyone has a number instead of a name, and he doesn't know who to trust. He's number six, and a string of number twos along with their secret allies try a variety of methods to find out what secret led to his retirement, from psychotherapy to virtual reality and everything in between.

For the most part it's a battle of wits between six and his captors, as he constantly attempts escape and once in a while even makes it back to England, before eventually being returned to the island. There are occasional fisticuffs and scenes where a giant white balloon chases him, though mostly the conflict in the show is more cerebral. I mostly enjoyed the series, which had some mostly boring episodes but also some really good ones, especially one where he avenges an innocent woman's death by making number two paranoid enough to declare himself unfit for service. The show gets stranger as it goes on, culminating in the final episode, where court is held before an audience of men in white robes and masks, and bizarre musical interludes and imagery accompany a completely ambiguous ending. It can be frustrating when you've spent all that time wondering what was really going on, but in the end it's a pretty interesting and influential show.