Braveheart (1995)

Released in 1995 and running to a formidable 178 minutes, Braveheart tells the story of William Wallace, the 13th-century Scottish knight whose rebellion against English rule became one of the defining episodes in Scottish history, or at least in its mythology. The film opens with Wallace as a young man witnessing English brutality firsthand, and the story proper kicks off when the murder of his new wife, Murron (Catherine McCormack), drives him from grieving farmer to guerrilla leader. What follows is a sweeping, blood-soaked account of the Wars of Scottish Independence, culminating in the decisive, and notoriously romanticised, struggle against the forces of King Edward I. Historians have been arguing with this film since the week it came out, and with good reason: the tartans are anachronistic by several centuries, the timeline is compressed almost beyond recognition, and certain liberties taken with real figures border on the scandalous. None of that, however, has dented its popularity in the three decades since release.

The film was directed by Mel Gibson, who also takes the lead role, a double responsibility that carries real risk and which Gibson had arguably been building towards across a long career in front of the camera. By 1995, audiences knew him primarily as an action star, from his early work in Mad Max through to the Lethal Weapon franchise, but Braveheart represented a clear step into prestige territory, both as a performer and a filmmaker. Produced through his own Icon Productions alongside The Ladd Company, the film gave Gibson considerable creative control, and the ambition shows in every frame. The large-scale battle sequences, shot partly on location in Scotland and Ireland, have a physical weight and chaos to them that was relatively unusual for mainstream Hollywood epics of the period. Gibson would later return to similarly grand, violence-heavy historical subject matter as a director with The Passion of the Christ and Apocalypto, but Braveheart remains the work where he first announced himself as a filmmaker with genuine scale and intent.

The supporting cast is worth noting. Sophie Marceau brings a quiet, conflicted dignity to Princess Isabella, Patrick McGoohan is icily effective as the calculating Edward I (known to history, with some justification, as the Hammer of the Scots), and Angus Macfadyen gives a memorably tortured turn as Robert the Bruce, torn between ambition and conscience. McCormack, in a relatively brief role as Murron, does enough to make Wallace's grief feel earned rather than mechanical, which matters a great deal for everything that follows. The film is polished but occasionally uneven in its quieter dramatic passages, and its emotional register is pitched at a consistently high volume, which suits some scenes and overwhelms others. James Horner's score, all pipes and swelling strings, is inseparable from the film's reputation at this point.

Freeeeedom I'm half Scottish, so I can't lie. I felt a weird surge of patriotism watching this, even though I know full well it’s basically historical fan fiction in a kilt. That said, Braveheart is still an emotional, rousing epic. Mel Gibson might not be the most accurate William Wallace, but he absolutely sells the role with raw intensity. The action scenes are bloody, visceral, and genuinely thrilling, even by today’s standards, they hold up remarkably well. Yes, it plays fast and loose with the truth (okay, very fast and loose), but it taps into something primal. Freedom, sacrifice, rebellion. The music swells, the speeches soar, and suddenly you're yelling "FREEDOM!" at your TV with misty eyes. Great for its time, slightly dated now, and wildly inaccurate but still a cracking watch.

I think that tension between knowing something is nonsense and being swept along by it anyway is at the heart of why Braveheart has stuck around. It's not a film that rewards scepticism in the moment, even if the scepticism is entirely deserved. You just have to surrender to it a bit, and when you do, it delivers. If you're after something in a similar vein from the same era, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is another 1990s historical epic that takes roughly the same attitude towards historical accuracy and leans hard into the spectacle. Accurate it is not. A good watch? More often than not, yes. Sometimes that's enough.

Rating: ★★★★  | Year: 1995  | Watched: 2025-04-06

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Trailer

▶ Watch the official trailer for Braveheart (1995) on YouTube

Where to watch

Watch in the UK
Stream: Disney Plus
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Related on Movies With Macca

More from Mel Gibson: Apocalypto (2006) · The Passion of the Christ (2004)
More with Mel Gibson: Lethal Weapon 2 (1989) · Lethal Weapon (1987) · Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) · Mad Max 2 (1981)
More from the 1990s: Lessons of Darkness (1992) · Shinjuku Boys (1995) · Blue (1993) · Cemetery Man (1994)
More action: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · The General (1926) · Hand of Death (1976) · Daredevil (2003)
More drama: Viy (1967) · Wonder (2017) · A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Beautiful Boy (2018)