Braveheart Facts That Deserve Their Freedom

When Mel Gibson pulled on a kilt, painted his face blue, and picked up the most oversized sword since Excalibur, things could have gotten hysterically bad pretty quickly. Yet, even when he starts strutting around angrily and giving passionate speeches about freedom in a peculiar accent, "Braveheart" just works. Gibson brought depth to his performance as the famous Scottish freedom fighter William Wallace. Despite playing hard and fast with historical facts and leaning into more stereotypes than you can blow a bagpipe at, "Braveheart" has an epic, moving, and soul-stirring quality that makes you want to scream, "You can count on my steel Wallace!"

Almost 30 years later, "Braveheart" still entertains and engages with the full force of a Hollywood blockbuster. In Wallace, you have the eternal, slightly unhinged underdog with a bloodthirsty temper and heart of gold. In King Edward I, you have a brutal overlord who comes out with lines like, "The trouble with Scotland is it's full of Scots." It's pure pantomime, yet it's extremely effective in creating a villain who is pure evil and who must be beaten at any cost.

When you throw in a host of committed performances, some of the finest battle scenes ever committed to film, and the sort of speeches that put fire in your belly, "Braveheart" rises above all its criticisms like a tartan phoenix. Here are some interesting facts about Gibson's period classic.

Everyone remembers the iconic freedom speech from "Braveheart" that launched a raft of imitators but has never been topped. When Wallace sits astride a horse and addresses an army of spear-wielding Scots who may be feeling a little apprehensive about a square go with the armored English cavalry, it's rousing stuff. He asks, "Dying in your beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom!" The answer, of course, is a resounding yes.

Words have the power to move mountains, build worlds, and change the course of history. According to Shakespeare & Beyond, the bard's famous St. Crispin's Day speech from "Henry V" was the influence for Wallace's keynote address in "Braveheart." Like Wallace, Henry has to inspire his men, who are on the eve of facing immeasurable odds at the Battle of Agincourt. "And gentlemen in England, still lying in their beds, will think themselves accursed because they were not here, and be in awe while anyone speaks who fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day," Henry barks. If you swap out England for Scotland, it sounds exactly like something from Wallace's speech.

The moniker Braveheart is a no-nonsense one. It suggests a person has reservoirs of courage and a cast-iron will. Robert the Bruce may come across as a bit wishy-washy and fearful in "Braveheart," though it was actually he and not William Wallace who earned historic renown under that name.

In the movie, Bruce plays second fiddle to Wallace and is often cast in an unfavorable light. However, it was Bruce's resounding victory over the amassed forces of Edward II at Bannockburn that finally earned Scotland its hard-won independence. According to Smithsonian Magazine, there's no evidence that Bruce "directly betrayed" William Wallace at any point, even if "he did switch sides several times in these early years."

Before the release of "Braveheart," Wallace was known as the knight who won a decisive victory at Stirling Bridge before overplaying his hand at Falkirk. Meanwhile, history tells us that Robert the Bruce inspired his country to finally throw off the shackles of their English oppressors. He was King of Scotland from 1306 to 1329, but his reign wasn't an easy one — in fact, there was only a single year of genuine peace during it. Bruce was named Braveheart posthumously, after a knight loyal to him reportedly carried out his last request.

Bruce apparently asked his friend Sir James "Black" Douglas to take his heart to the Holy Land. Douglas placed the heart in a silver case and set sail, though he decided to drop in on Spain's Alfonso XI on his way. Alfonso was at war with the Moors, and Douglas wanted to help. It's said that he took Bruce's heart into battle with him, throwing it at his enemies while shouting, "Lead on brave heart, I'll follow thee."

"Braveheart" is very much Mel Gibson's movie. He directed it, he helped produce it, and he stars in it. Among its five Academy Awards are Oscars for best picture and best director. Would the film have been as successful without Gibson in the lead role? Believe it or not, that was almost a reality. Jason Patric, best known for films like "Sleepers" and "The Lost Boys," was actually Gibson's first choice to play the Latin-speaking farmer who leads a national uprising. It's difficult to imagine anyone other than Gibson in the role now, but it's interesting to imagine how things might have played out. But why didn't Gibson want the role for himself from the beginning?

Well, according to Gibson, he initially felt as though he was too old for the part. "Wallace was around 28 when he died and I was already ten years older than that, although at least my knees weren't wrinkly," Gibson said (via the Daily Mail ). It was the studio that insisted on Gibson leading the picture, keen to take advantage of his star power. As for Patric, he explained in an interview with Vulture that he never knew Gibson wanted him to play Wallace until after "Braveheart" was released. "I found out afterwards, so I couldn't really be mad about it," he said. "Wow, that sort of would have been nice. Too bad. I thought it was good, but he was too old for it, which he would admit, too. But, you know, that's the way it goes."

Everyone familiar with "Braveheart" winces when the Battle of Stirling Bridge approaches, knowing that a bunch of poor horses are about to run into the hidden spears of the canny Scots. Questions about animal welfare got raised in response to the scene, and Gibson had to send footage to an animal rights charity to prove that at no time was the welfare of a horse at risk during the filming of "Braveheart" (via The Times). Film School Rejects reports that the crew of "Braveheart" worked around the clock to ensure that the Battle of Stirling Bridge maintained its air of authenticity, but not at the expense of the horses. The trick was to use mechanical horses for the spear scenes, keeping the real ones far from danger.

When asked about animal welfare on "Braveheart," Gibson said (via News.com) that Ireland — where the Battle of Stirling Bridge was filmed — is "horse country" and there was "a massive racetrack where you could house and stable all your animals" right next to the shoot. Naturally, Gibson was keen to assure anyone who asked (including the Irish Society for Prevention of Cruelty Against Animals) that no horses were harmed during filming. He also went out of his way to make sure no people were hurt. "Before every take, I'd go, 'Remember the S word! What's the S word?' And they'd all go 'Safety!' I said if anybody hurt anyone I'd kill 'em."

"Braveheart" was penned by a then-unknown writer named Randall Wallace. He was just about ready to give up on his dream of becoming a screenwriter when he began working on a William Wallace biopic. "I thought I had one more chance to write a film before I had to go do something hideous, like become a lawyer," he told Forbes on the film's 25th anniversary in 2020. "I wrote the story I wanted to see with complete disregard for whether I thought I could find a market for it. For us, 25 years later, to be discussing why 'Braveheart' is still relevant and exciting to people, is incredible."

By his own admission, Wallace was a "complete unknown" when "Braveheart" got the greenlight. He was delighted when Mel Gibson got involved, and he shared the opinion of the studio when it came to Gibson playing the film's lead character. "Mel was the only actor I could see who could play this role, he was the only one I wanted," Wallace told Forbes. "No-one else fit the bill for me." The writer went on to reveal that he harbored dreams of directing the film himself at one stage, but he was thrilled when Gibson decided to take the reins. He found the Hollywood star to be very down to Earth. "Even with his tremendous experience and industry stature, he listened to me as if I had something to say," Wallace recalled.

It's no spoiler to say that "Braveheart" doesn't end well for William Wallace. There's no tear-jerking reunion with the love of his life in some remote paradise, no ride into the sunset with his brothers in arms. Just like he was in real life, he's hung, drawn, and quartered in front of a baying mob. Mel Gibson came through the famous scene in one piece, but he did have a close call while filming a battle scene.

"There was a horse that nearly killed me," Gibson told Independent. "He had a good trick where he did this whole rear-up thing, but he'd also fall backwards, which is a problem if you've fallen off fast and you're behind him." The actor went on to reveal that this is exactly what happened to him. Luckily, there was a quick-thinking stuntman on hand to prevent what could have been a tragic turn of events. "My stunt double ran in and pulled me out of the way just as the horse fell."

There were a few other heart-in-mouth moments on the shoot, but everyone came out relatively unscathed. According to Gibson, the only real injuries were "a broken ankle and a hangnail and a busted nose."

At just shy of three hours, "Braveheart" is what you'd describe as an epic. These days, it would probably be a sprawling Netflix series instead of a self-contained movie. According to Mel Gibson, "Braveheart" was originally way longer. In a 2016 interview with Collider, Gibson revealed that the original cut of "Braveheart" was three hours and 45 minutes long and that there's an extra hour of footage that has never been seen. Gibson said that if the studio financed it he'd be happy to do a longer cut for general release. "People have mentioned it," he said. "It's a big deal."

Getting from three hours and 45 minutes to the length the studio wanted was no picnic. "I remember bringing it in at three hours and 15 minutes, and thinking we couldn't possibly carve any more out of it, but having to rethink it again," Gibson said (via News.com). He initially resisted executive calls to make the film more compact, but in the end, he realized that they were right. After taking the advice of studio head Sherry Lansing on board, Gibson and editor Steve Rosenbloom were able to "get from three hours and 15 minutes to two hours and 48 minutes, almost half an hour, and then it really sang."