Word: gibsonized
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Moreland's roommate of several weeks, Sidney Gibson, quietly fries hamburger on a hot plate. A 27-year-old Native American, he traveled to Bullhead City from Oakland, California, with his brother, who "painted a beautiful picture of good work and higher pay. I should have known it was bull." Across the river is the casino boomtown of Laughlin, Nevada, and his brother, a gambler, landed in jail for a bad check, Gibson says. Now Gibson, who spent his teenage years in an Oregon correction facility, works in a Kingman plastics factory. But he dreams of heading to Northern California...
...their relationship speeds along, Gibson relies increasingly on staple Hollywood techniques to create an aura of budding romance and sexual tensions. Galloping horses, sweeping green valleys and silhouettes in the sunset are all shamelessly put into play. They work, but it's unoriginal and it still sounds ridiculously premature when William confesses his love to Murron after having known her for what seems like a few days...
...still raging in Northern England, and here Gibson surprises the complacent viewer with not one, but two lengthy battle scenes. Although he effectively juxtaposes the discipline and organization of the English army with the innovation and passion of the Scots, he also resorts to one-liners and silly adolescent pranks (like plashing the enemy) that are completely at odds with the situation. Testosterone also asserts itself in the form of barbaric yawping...
...Gibson plays it safe by dwelling on themes always close to the collective American heart. The heartlees but lethally well organized monarchy against the bank of riff-raff with real heart is a mirror of the American Revolution, while the greedy Scottish nobles who sell out the hard-working commoners reflect the American distrust of aristocracy...
...Although Gibson uses his carefully-chosen themes and visual elements to good effect, the ploy is obvious. While these devices put together a decent movie, the viewer is perfectly aware that it is manufactured for the times. The whole "prima notte" issue, for example, clearly alludes to the sexual-military tactics used in Bosnia. Tentative stereotyping still mars the actors' roles including the French princess, trained to rule but unable to deny her soft female heart. Enjoying this movie calls for a generous does of cluelessness to ignore the tired machinery so obviously creaking behind the scenes...