The Bruce

This movie is the last straw in a list of films I have seen this week that have pushed me over the edge and forced me to join IMDb and spread some warning to the public. It was absolutely horrible. The film was drawn out and painfully boring. The sound, effects, and even picture quality seemed like they came from Willow (1988) or maybe even Conan the Barbarian (1982). The battle of Bannockburn was absolutely absurd. This "largest filmed reconstruction of medieval battle ever staged in the British Isles" made me snicker. There wasn't even a coherent formation at all, just a few guys with spears and horses running right through them. The scenes of Douglas, especially in the last battle, were simply horrible, as was most of the acting in the film.

I invested hard cash in this production and may therefore seem biased in my opinion; so if I say this is the worst film you'll ever see, the worst scripted, cast (except for Oliver Reed), edited and most of all DIRECTED, you'll probably get my message! I am a Scot as well as a first class honours graduate in Film Production and a History teacher, so maybe I know what I'm talking about. How I would love to meet the Producer/Director Bob Carruthers, of this appalling rubbish, the man who took my thousands of pounds, and managed to turn the greatest story in Scottish History into the most embarrassing production you could ever imagine, so that I could tell him to move over and let someone who knows how to make a real film take over - and even give me my money back!

I got this film (and an exclusive baseball cap - hence the snazzy tagline above) back in 1996 when I turned 20. Given that Braveheart dominated Scottish cinema - even overshadowing the superior Rob Roy with Liam Neeson and Jessica Lang - a crowd funded production with distinct my mixed values was always going to struggle, no matter how well intentioned.

So I have a little soft spot for an amatuerish, threadbare movie that made a deeply flawed, if honest, attempt to accurately address the historical record during a crucial period of Scotland's history - no easy feat given the fragmented, contradictory, mythical or non - existent accounts of these times. A straightforward telling was never going to be possible.

Although it was a bit of fun watching 1990s pop culture icon Michael Van Wijk aka the villianeous Wolf from ITV's Gladiators, and Scottish folk singer Ronnie Brown (the surviving Corrie), a special nod must be given to Oliver Reed - head and shoulders the best thing about The Bruce. With his quiet, dignified and restrained performance was Reed showing us what he was capable of as an actor - preparation for an first class swansong with a Gladiator of a different kind?

To be fair this film was never intended for the big screen, it was made at a time when everyone was buying DVD players and needed to stock up on cheap discs to buff up their collections! Yes it is a bad film, dubious acting, grainy film, and poor battle scenes, but give the film a break, it does have a couple of household names in it, and the history (although slanted and very pro Bruce) is at least far more favourable than its block busting, older sibling 'Braveheart'(which this film is obviously a low budget cash-in of!). Bruce is played competently by Sandy Welch, who portrays the Scottish icon in a sympathetic light, and Pavel Douglas is fantastically over the top as the nasty Red Comyn! Brian Blessed gives a crazy but fulfilling turn as King Edward, and Ollie Reed does good as the bishop! People who are complaining about this film are just negatively comparing it with 'Braveheart', and this is not really fair, the film delivers an account of Robert The Bruce's life, and does so on a very low budget! It is perhaps, too over ambitious, but fitting an epic struggle lasting 25 years into a 110 minute film is reason enough for applause! It would work well as a school film to give kids a history lesson they can expand on later, but its target audience is the couch potato (GUILTY AS CHARGED!), and we don't need $79 million spent on a film, just so long as it tells a good story! Even Wolf from Gladiators gives an OK performance, and if that isn't enough, Robin Hood makes a guest appearance at the end of the film! If its a rainy Wednesday afternoon and the wife is out,and 'Loose Women' is on TV, you will probably be a lot happier giving up an hour and a half on this film than watching the previously mentioned programme!!

This is not an easy film to follow in the beginning. Granted the period it portrays is also quite confused. The film jumps into events and characters quickly without really allowing one to develop who they are. This is not aided by a poor sound quality which makes it hard to follow dialog and plot at times. I think editing might have hurt this film as well.

The best actor by far is Brian Blessed who steals all the other roles as Edward I (Hammer of the Scots) Again we see a pretty heavy-handed portrayal of this great English King a la Braveheart! Also, as mentioned by the previous reviewer the English are wee bit too evil, and the Scots a wee bit too good! The Bruce for one thing is shown as rather saintly in the film. This he certainly was not! His murder of Comyen the Red in the church abby was certainly one of the more foul acts of the time. The Bruce was no saint, but again he had to be pretty ruthless given the times he lived in.

This was a Cromwell Productions film, and since they did a pretty good historical documentary of the Bruce and Bannockburn in a previous work it is surprising that they white-wash the history so much in this drama here. The battle scene at Bannockburn while good, is not as impressive as billed. For one thing the intervention of the Highland Gillies seems over-done. The battle was largely won by the Scottish Schiltrons long before the surging horde of Highlanders from the bluff above! Also the legendary dual between the Bruce and De Bohan the day before the main battle is completely omitted! This would have made for a splendid movie fight scene and did much to build the Bruce's legend as a great fighter! Instead he kills the English knight during the general melee of the battle. Not as convincing! Those seeking a film above the level of Braveheart wont really find that here. In fact Braveheart while complete fantasy, makes for a more coherent film. The Bruce is a modest work at best. Perhaps it is not surprising that it has all but gone out of print.