Perhaps it even paved the way for Braveheart, another action-filled Scottish biopic that arrived on the big screen the following month. Then came Rob Roy, a historical drama set in 18th century Scotland that not only earned professional praise, garnering awards buzz along the way, but it also performed rather favorably in its modestly released theatrical run. Period pieces could be acclaimed and award-worthy if rather serious and stuffy or they could do well at the box office if they weren’t all that good. Swords and shields action wasn’t the safest bet, even if Disney managed a minor hit by combining formulas of Young Guns and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves in 1993 with its version of The Three Musketeers. The Middle Ages in cinema had gone the fantasy route in the 1980s, and the trend was not as successful as hoped, by the industry or the fans. The early-decade interest in Robin Hood ran its course a couple of years prior thanks to Mel Brooks’ parody.
The characters and the story compel our attention, but the film runs out of steam before the end.In 1995, medieval epics weren’t the hottest commodity in Hollywood. One wonders if A Brave Heart might have been more effective as a short film than as a feature. Late in the film, Lizzie visits a doctor to learn more about her health problems, but this issue probably should have been explored more thoroughly. Even though it runs just 78 minutes, it still seems drawn-out. The one problem with the film is that once it has established the issues and the outline of Lizzie’s story, it keeps hitting the same theme. Her family members come across not as saints but as decent people who never wavered in their support of their daughter. Her father is a teacher who worked in the same elementary school that Lizzie attended, and the film demonstrates what a difference it can be for a bullied child to have a nurturing home environment. Here the film pays tribute to Lizzie’s parents. Director Sara Hirsh Bordosets out not just to honor Velasquez but to underscore some of the horrors of the Internet, which allows and encourages a new kind of hate speech.īeyond this, the film examines the forces that allowed Velasquez to surmount her own personal difficulties and the cruelty in the larger culture. In 2013 she addressed a TED conference in Texas and went on to become an internationally recognized anti-bullying spokesperson. The remarkable thing is that Lizzie never allowed the hostility to defeat her.
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