Braveheart is a film that I love and it truly is a film that has something for everyone. Yes, it is a violent film with some pretty graphic battle scenes, so on its surface this looks like nothing more than an action/adventure movie. However at its core it’s essentially a love story and it shows how far people can go for the love of their soul mate as well as for the love of an ideal. This is in actuality a deep film with rich and compelling characters, a well-structured hero’s journey and many story and character-driven archetypes. There is also a wide range of emotions, as we have romance, sadness and wit to go along with the tension of the action and adventure.

This is a story about William Wallace, a historical figure who led a Scottish revolt against the English in the late 13th and early 14th Centuries. Not a lot is known about Wallace’s actual life outside of a couple of historical events, so the film can’t be considered to be historically accurate. The film is based on his exploits even though much creative license was taken by director Mel Gibson and screenwriter Randall Wallace (no relation to William). The film starts out showing Wallace as a precocious young boy trying to keep up with his father as he gets involved with trying to negotiate a peace with England’s king Richard the Longshanks (Patrick McGoohan). His father and brother are killed however, and at their funeral, a distraught William is given a wild flower by a young girl named Muron. Then William’s Uncle Argyle arrives, promising to teach him to use a sword after he teaches him to use his head. The next day he takes him away from the only home he’s ever known. Several years later, educated after traveling to places like France and Rome, a now grown Wallace (Gibson) returns to his home and reacquaints himself with his old friends.

The previous sequence having served primarily as prologue, the story really begins here as we see William in his Ordinary World and he sees the now grown Muron (Catherine McCormack) at a wedding in the village. He recognizes her immediately and we’re also re-introduced to Wallace’s childhood friend Hamish (Brendon Gleeson), who challenges Wallace to a test of strength. Hamish wins, but then Wallace wins over the crowd by winning a game of wits. A few moments later, Wallace courts Muron by telling her in French that Rome could not match her in beauty. This is a great introduction to this character, because we see him as a likable person with normal emotions who tenderly confesses his love to the woman of his dreams.

Wallace then receives the Call to Adventure from Hamish’s father Campbell (James Cosmo), who tells him that his father was a fighter. Wallace Refuses the Call by telling Campbell, along with Muron’s father that he came back to raise crops and a family, but he has no intention of fighting a war. That all changes after Wallace secretly weds Muron. Longshanks has initiated the practice of Prima Noctum, allowing the local Lord the privilege and right to take a new bride to bed with him on the night of her wedding. Not wanting to share her with an English lord, Wallace secretly marries Muron, and Gibson and Randall Wallace did an excellent job of showing their love as it grew. We care about their relationship and want to see it flourish. However, there would be no story if that were to happen, so when Muron is attacked by an English soldier who tries to rape her, Wallace saves her and sends her away on horseback. He then distracts the soldiers until he can get away, but unbeknownst to him, Muron has been captured and brought to the center of the village and tied to a post. Stating that an attack on the king’s soldiers is an attack on the king himself, the town sheriff cuts Muron’s throat. Wallace returns to the village, appearing ready to surrender, and then he Crosses the First Threshold by attacking the soldiers. Seeing this, the other men in the town join in, and Wallace gets to the fort and cuts the throat of the sheriff.

The Test, Allies and Enemies portion of the film show Wallace growing in stature and strength. Other local villages join with him, and he has now vowed to set Scotland free of Longshanks’ tyranny. We also get to know Robert the Bruce, the lord with the strongest claim to Scotland’s throne, as well as Princess Isabelle (Sophie Mareau), who is married to Longshanks’ son Prince Edward, who is introduced as a weak bodied and weak minded man who is likely gay. The Approach shows Wallace discussing with his men the fact that their victories will only entice the English to send their best troops with armored cavalry and they have little chance to beat such an army. But when the others suggest the old ways of running and hiding when that happens, Wallace looks at the trees around them and suggests they build spears.

The Supreme Ordeal is the Battle of Stirling Bridge where Wallace arrives with his army, and Lords Lochlan and Mornay are hoping that negotiating will bring them more land and title, but their armies are ready to flee. Wallace gives an impassioned speech about fighting for their freedom, and insults the English general. Outnumbered, William uses the tactics that he learned from his Mentor Argyle, and the Scots gain an unlikely victory. Wallace is given a knighthood and then avoids the political squabbling of the Lords by pressing his advantage and invading Northern England, taking over the city of York and beheading the king’s nephew, who was the lord of that town and used it as the staging point for all of the invasions of Scotland. Unwilling to send his weakling of a son to negotiate with Wallace, Longshanks sends Isabelle, figuring that if she’s killed, he could get France to fight on his side. This leads to the Reward, where Wallace meets Isabelle, and his education and passion impress her to the point where Wallace gains her has an ally, and she sends multiple messages to him that save his life and his cause. This ultimately leads them into bed.

The Road Back is the Battle of Falkirk where Wallace is betrayed by not only Lochlan and Moray, but also by Robert the Bruce, whom Wallace had come to trust and admire. This betrayal causes the death of Campbell and it looks like it causes the death of Wallace’s ideals. But he takes his revenge on Lochlan and Moray before waging war on his own. The Road Back has Wallace approaching the Bruce, who has seen the errors of his ways and now wants to help Wallace. However, with the help of Lord Craig, the Bruce’s father betrays them both and Wallace is captured and taken to London. After his execution is ordered. Isabelle approaches an ailing Longshanks, who has not lost the ability to speak, and begs for Wallace’s life. When he refuses to yield, she tells him that she’s pregnant with Wallace’s baby, and his bloodline will soon be over, and his son will not sit long on the throne. The Return with the Elixir shows Wallace tortured as the Magistrate tries to get him to beg for mercy and pledge allegiance to the king. Even after being disemboweled, Wallace refuses, yelling “Freedom!” with the last of the strength he can muster. After seeing Muron walking in the crowd and smiling at her, Wallace knows he’s dying a free man and he’s beheaded.

So we have a deep and compelling Hero’s Journey with many archetypal components. One of the mythic archetypes is the idea of death and rebirth. Braveheart has this idea with the notion that even though Wallace dies, his bloodline will be carried on and he’ll essentially be reborn in Isabelle’s baby. When Isabelle tells the dying Longshanks that his son will not sit long on the throne, it tells us again that even though Wallace will not see it, he will ultimately win. That’s a new thought that occurred to me as I watched Braveheart over the weekend. I’ve seen this film many times, but I hadn’t thought about it this way until now. I had never really thought of Wallace as the winner in this. In fact, since Longshanks dies also, I always felt like this film was a sort of a tragedy with no real winners. That opinion has changed, as Wallace, despite his death is the clear winner of this story, and he’s a winner on a number of levels. His bloodline will be carried on and Longshanks’ will not. That’s clear enough. But Wallace even beats the magistrate, who is trying to get him to confess and declare loyalty to the king. When Wallace calls out freedom after everything that the Magistrate and his agents of torture had inflicted on Wallace, he looks defeated. He knows there is nothing he can do to get Wallace to bend to his will and finally can only nod to the executioner to do his job. With that in mind, Wallace has gained the freedom that he sought. Yes, he dies, but he dies a free man.

This is also a highly entertaining film with a lot of wit and charm. The Irishman who joins Wallace’s army, claiming that Ireland is his island, and always seeming to walk the line between sanity and madness brings a good amount of comic relief to what otherwise would be a very serious story. The action in this film is very well-choreographed and staged. CG had not yet become so pervasive in movie making, so this is a film with a lot of stuntmen performing a lot of amazing stunts. This is also a beautiful film. Almost any film that uses the Scottish Highlands as a backdrop is going to be beautiful, but the production design of the dirty and muddy British villages and the costumes all combine with the cinematography to create a cinematic film that needs to be seen in a theater to be fully appreciated. Braveheart is a movie in the best sense of the word.

Did the Academy get it right?

I believe they did. Apollo 13 actually won the Golden Globe for Best Picture – Drama, so there was a bit of controversy. Also, in the ensuing years, Gibson’s personal issues have derailed what was once one of the top careers in Hollywood. I will also say that I am a huge fan of Apollo 13, and I wouldn’t think it a tragedy had that film won. However, I still give the edge to Braveheart because I believe it to be a more complete film, and it harkens back to many of the epics that won in earlier years like Ben-Hur, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, and Dances With Wolves. This was a grandiose film that was on a scale that Apollo 13 was just not on. Braveheart is also a much stronger film thematically than Apollo 13, and the way it depicts Wallace’s victory that appears to be a defeat is a much deeper and more sophisticated way to tell a story. That level of sophistication in the storytelling is what ultimately puts Braveheart over the top. I have not seen The Postman, so I cannot speak to that film. To this day, I’m not sure why Babe was nominated, other than the fact this it did some things technically that had not been done before. It’s a nice film, but not in the same league as the others. In fact, I would say that Babe should not have been even nominated because The Usual Suspects, which was not nominated, is a far superior film. Sense and Sensibility is a wonderfully written adaptation of the Jane Austin novel, and is a very well-made and emotional film. Like Apollo 13, it might have had better luck had it come out in a different year, but Braveheart was clearly the right choice for 1995.