Help Settle The Heated Debate!

[ER]

Heads were butted at the Thanksgiving table yesterday, yes, they were! It was a testosterone-fueled discussion that morphed into a debate, and had cooler female heads not intervened, verily, this toe to toe conference among two film lovers might've actually escalated all the way to (gasp!) argument!

The topic so passionately at issue between two film-loving male cousins of mine was:

WHICH IS BETTER: Gladiator, OR Braveheart!

Anyone care to help settle the question once and for all for these two turkey day warriors of the cinematic battlefield?

[frank]

Honestly, I couldn't decide. I would, however, argue if one is to attribute the term "good" or the superlative thereof to any of them...

same goes to Rob Roy, Troy, Alexander, ...

[indianasmith]

Gladiator.  Hands down.  What a magnificent film.  Do I need to come up there and join in the hostilities? 

[Psycho Circus]

Gladiator

[Jack]

Braveheart, no doubt abut it.  Sorry, but Russell Crow just didn't have what it takes to pull off Maximus.  He ain't no Charlton Heston, I'll tell ya that.  On the other hand, Mel Gibson gave us a sympathetic and truly memorable character, as we followed his plight and understood his motivations.  Crow was just some boring guy surrounded by special effects.  The battles were indecipherable and looked like nothing more than a director trying to impose his "style" on something.   Braveheart had truly flinch-inducing battles, care to chop off a good chunk of calf meat with a sword?  No CGI tigers and other such nonsense.  And a tragic love story to boot. 

No comparison, my turkey engorged friends 

[Andrew]

I prefer "Braveheart."  The battles were more to my liking, the characters and their motivations were more to my liking, and I think the overall script was better put together.  Parts of "Gladiator" seemed tacked on, like the final match between him and the emperor.

[Mr. DS]

Braveheart, no doubt abut it.  Sorry, but Russell Crow just didn't have what it takes to pull off Maximus.  He ain't no Charlton Heston, I'll tell ya that.  On the other hand, Mel Gibson gave us a sympathetic and truly memorable character, as we followed his plight and understood his motivations.  Crow was just some boring guy surrounded by special effects.  The battles were indecipherable and looked like nothing more than a director trying to impose his "style" on something.   Braveheart had truly flinch-inducing battles, care to chop off a good chunk of calf meat with a sword?  No CGI tigers and other such nonsense.  And a tragic love story to boot. 

No comparison, my turkey engorged friends 

Jack kind of covered my opinion word for word so I'll add a vote in the Braveheart column. 

[Ash]

I prefer Gladiator.   

[BTM]

I have to go with Braveheart on this.  Among other things, I could actually tell what was going on in the battle scenes in Braveheart, where Gladiator was filmed in the "get the camera so close we can't tell who's doing what" style of shooting. Braveheart has better secondary characters ("The Lord says he can get me out of this, but he's pretty sure you're f**ked!"), way more quotable lines ("They may take our lives, but they'll never take our FREEDOM!") not to mention a cool bag pipe soundtrack.

[WingedSerpent]

I prefer "Braveheart."  The battles were more to my liking, the characters and their motivations were more to my liking, and I think the overall script was better put together.  Parts of "Gladiator" seemed tacked on, like the final match between him and the emperor.

I can't help think that Gladiator and Braveheart where going for different things.  Braveheart is loosely based on real events while Gladiator is more or less complete fiction.  Yes, there is more of a story to Braveheart because it wanted to tell a story.  Gladiator is meant to be more of a escapeist movie with big action scenes and sweeping vistas.  (I think that Rome was more visually appealing than Britian) 

Its a toss up I'd say.

[JJ80]

I like both but "Braveheart" tells the (somewhat hollywoodised) story of an important part of Scottish history, the 'Wars Of Independence'. Incidentally, the Battle of Stirling Bridge sequence missed out a crucial element - the Bridge!

[akiratubo]

I think they both kind of suck.

[ER]

As for me, I like them both, but I think I have to go with Braveheart by a whisker.

[ER]

And I forgot to say thanks to everyone who replied. 

[BTM]

I think they both kind of suck.

Oh, come on, Akira, you gotta do better than that.  At least define WHY you  thought they sucked, otherwise we may have to dock karma for making a simplistic post that doesn't even add to the thread at hand.