The Bruce

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.

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!!

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?

Reed, Blessed, Welch and van Wijk all turn in quality performances in this under-rated account of Scotland's greatest warrior (are you watching William Wallace?) but one cast member stands head and shoulders above his colleagues. In the final set, Stuart Poole, clad in garb to make Robin Hood jealous, congratulates the Bruce on his vanquishing of the foe. The dignity, grace and emotion evident in Poole's performance is a joy to behold. It's a shame he isn't credited on imdb...

From the annals of Scotish history comes this story and film which tells the legend of Robert " The Bruce (Sandy Welch)." The Scots, having endured years of brutal English rule, once again take up arms against the insufferable tyranny and do so under a new crown king of Scotland. England is ruled by Edward I, the brutal king of England in this film played by Brian Blessed, who plays it to the hilt. Other notables in the film are Oliver Reed and Michael Van Wijk. The movie itself is lased with an assortment of English and Scotish notability, but because the director Bob Carruthers decided to keep all characters in 'scrag' weaponry, motley costumes, shaggy long hair, five day old beards and despicable dress even after war time battles, everyone in the film are terrible looking to the audience members. As such, one can hardly distinguish between friend and for alike. The battle scene are authentic looking, but if you have a 'stop-frame' recorder, you may notice that several combatants fighting each other are not very convincing. In many respects, this movie should follow historically on the footsteps of the Mel Gibson film ' Braveneart. ' As such, the audience does it's best to follow The Bruce with patience and understand. So enjoy it if you can, but don't expect too much. I'll recommend it because the late Oliver reed is in it. ****