Braveheart (1995)

Mel Gibson had already directed once before this, with the modestly received The Man Without a Face (1993), but Braveheart was the project that announced him as a filmmaker with genuine ambition and scale. The film is a very loose retelling of the life of William Wallace, the 13th-century Scottish knight who led resistance against English occupation, drawing more from the 1722 epic poem "The Actes and Deidis of the Illustre and Vallyeant Campioun Schir William Wallace" by Blind Harry than from any strict historical record. Principal photography took place largely in Ireland, where the Irish Army provided hundreds of extras for the battle sequences, with some location work in Scotland itself. Released in the summer of 1995 and budgeted at a substantial $72 million, the film went on to win five Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director, and effectively revived the large-scale historical epic as a viable commercial form at a time when the genre had been largely dormant since the 1960s.

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.

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

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Where to watch (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)
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More from the 1990s: Lessons of Darkness (1992) · Shinjuku Boys (1995) · Blue (1993) · Cemetery Man (1994)
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More drama: Viy (1967) · Wonder (2017) · A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Beautiful Boy (2018)