Who thinks this film is better than Braveheart?

I think Braveheart is better here's why...

"better villain"
agreed

"more sympathetic hero"
Uhhh, mabye, it's close. Rob still had his wife and kids to go back to.

"more realistic action scenes"
I would agree with that but Braveheart is more of an "action packed" movie anyway

"more interesting characters"
I disagree with this one, the Irish Crazy guy, William's friend and Dad, the struggle of the Bruce and his Leper father. I think the characters in Braveheart were way more interesting. Although the woman in Rob Roy is more interesting than both in Braveheart

"Better actors"
Between Liam and Mel...agreed
the entire cast...I think not

The final duel is very gripping. I don't know what you're talking about with the Directors. I think the rest of Roy's director's work pales in comparison to the fantastic direction of Braveheart, The Passion of the Christ, and Apocalypto.

Reid you are the second person I have ever come across who found Rob Roy superior to Braveheart. Guess that makes three of us on this lonely island.

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"I miss Dwight. Congratulations, Universe. You win."

It has been a while since I have seen either but I must say that 'Rob Roy' stands head and shoulders above 'Braveheart' - and not just because I am a Jewish descendant of Robert Roy McGregor's - it's just a better movie & story!

agree many aspects much better w/ Rob Roy, including story, direction, supp. actors & most of all--Neeson played his role more believably, R

Thank you!

This movie was SO much better than Braveheart and got so little recognition. belides having such great action and characters (including the best villian of all time) Rob Roy was so much more noble.

Rob Roy was about honor and loyalty.

Braveheart was about vengence.

I’m gonna have to go with Braveheart as the better movie of the two, and it’s not just because it’s my all-time favorite. Keep in mind that even though they are both set in old Scotland they are essentially very different; there is a lot more going on in Braveheart.

I agree about Archie, he is definitely one of the nastiest movie villains. But Braveheart doesn’t really have a single villain for Wallace to fight, he is up against an entire nation, a superpower of its time none the less. You could go with Longshanks, but he is the king and, realistically, single combat between Wallace and him would never happen.

And I don’t see how you find Roy to be more sympathetic than Wallace. Wallace loses his father and brother as a boy, his wife is murdered, he must endure the cowardice of the nobles and is ultimately betrayed by them, and even by Bruce whom he held in such regard. Not to mention he is tortured before a cheering crowd of his enemies and beheaded. Though he was driven by vengeance, it turned out to be a fight for freedom that could only be won by his own sacrifice. Roy is a great hero, but compared to Wallace he had it easy.

I’d pick Liam over Mel as the better actor, though.

As for the rest of the cast there were definitely more interesting characters in Braveheart. It was said in a previous post; the crazy Irish guy, Hamish, Bruce and his leper father, the cruel king and the incapable prince…
Archie and Mary were outstanding, but overall there is a lot more interesting characters in Braveheart, as was said in previous post.

Action scenes: Braveheart is widely and critically acclaimed for having some of the greatest battle scenes ever filmed. The intensity and realism of the carnage of battle shown is nothing less than spectacular, it is raw and unpolished and has you feeling that you really are right in the middle of it. The fight between Rob Roy and Archie is as great as everyone says it is, but it doesn’t equal the scale and intensity of say the Battle of Stirling. Here in also lies my argument for who was the better director.

These movies are hard to compare because they are essentially very different, both story and plot-wise. But if it must be said, I think Braveheart is in a whole other league than Rob Roy, considering the plot and the scale. And it has the Oscar to prove it.


"Every man dies. Not every man really lives"

I love 'Rob Roy' and despise 'Braveheart'.

Although 'Rob Roy' takes some liberties with the real history (it is a film after all not a documentary) of the character, it is far more accurate to its period and location than 'Braveheart' is to its setting. For instance 'Braveheart' includes such absurdities as Anglic Lowlanders wearing kilts (a relatively modern garment associated with the Highland Norse-Gaels and later Gaels in general, that derives from the more ancient, Norse 'kjilt') and sharing a culture with their Highland Gaelic neighbours, which is completely ridiculous as the Lowlanders at the time (and until later Victorian times when Romanticism took over) still called themselves 'Inglis' (Scots for Inglis) and were culturally more connected to Northern England (which is culturally and linguistically similar, if not identical in the far south and far north of respective countries). Even the great Sir Walter Scott was (as evidenced by his works) only a foreigner looking in at Gaelic culture when he wrote such novels as 'Rob Roy', hence the "noble savage" styled depiction of Highlanders. Most of Scott's writings are of course set in the Borders and he did himself spend time on both sides. 'Rob Roy' on the other hand depicts the Highlander and Lowlander as two different breeds, hence we have the Lowland Soldiers shouting "baaaar" (mimicking the call of a sheep) at the Highlanders who they regarded as sheep-shagging savages at the time. And of course we see the differences between the Lowlander Montrose and the Highlander Argyle right from the start, in their manner of speech, dress et al.

Also in 'Rob Roy' we don't have 'noble-hero' versus 'Satan', but a flawed but honourable man fights a "bad" human being; as bad as Archibald Cunningham is we can still see that he is still a human, what with his picture of his mother that he carries around being used to represent Archie's good side much in the same way that classical music represents Little Alex's good qualities in 'A Clockwork Orange'.
We don't see anything of the sort in 'Braveheart', all we get is the evil "heathen" king (in Christian Medieval England!?!) and a band of assorted bad-teethed English villains.

"Nothings gonna change my world!"

I find Braveheart an embarrassment nowadays. The good people of Stirling had the good sense to vandalise that stupid pathetic arrogance of a statue of Mel Gibson as "Braveheart" which had been erected near statues of their much revered heroes, Wallace and Bruce. Derided by Stirling folk as a "pile of crap", the attacks on the Gibson statue led the authorities to protect it in a protective railing/grille. So the statue which declares "FREEDOM" is locked inside a cage !!! No-one would ever dream of defacing the statues of Bruce and Wallace - no-one !!

Okay Rob Roy isn't perfect and I think I will have to go to Hollywood or wherever to show them how to wear the breacan feile properly !!! There is no stupid loose over-the-shoulder-endy-bit dangling down the front which needs stuffed into the front of the belt or weighted down with a heavy brooch or else is draped over your forearm !! It should stop at the shoulder and be pinned there. Look at early 1740's lithographs of the 43rd Highland Regt (Crawford's) to see how to wear the breacan feile properly in all its permutations.

For a better depiction of movie Highland dress, try the film "Chasing The Deer", about the '45 and Culloden.

Apart from that, Rob Roy was far wittier (maybe too parochial and only for Scots to understand ?), I don't believe an American could have written it and the story was more grounded in parochial Highland and Scottish history, even touching on Queen Anne's succession and Jacobite interest.

I disagree about the Norse origins of the breacan feile. It is only first mentioned early in the 16th Century and first seems to have become fairly common wear by the time of Mary Queen of Scots. The Norse influence had long evaporated after their defeat by the Scots at the Battle of Largs in 1263. Before Mary QoS, the brat agus leine form of clothing was worn by Highlanders, owing more to Irish commonality that any Norse origins. Indeed, the only carvings of Norse clans, in places like Iona and Kintyre etc, show MacDonald etc chieftains of the early 13th Century wearing similar armour and padding as contemporary Swedish and other Norse warriors which in turn looked like post Norman English/European knightly dress.


Tha mo bhàta-foluaimein loma-làn easgannan.



"Giftzwerge" - German nickname for The Cameronians "wee Glasgow hard men" - Minden 1950's