Braveheart

"Every man dies, not every man really lives."

1995 2h 58m EN

🙌

7.9

BANGER

🍅

74%

FRESH

👌

METACRITIC

⭐

8.3

IMDB

★7.9TMDB · 11,502🍅74%Rotten Tomatoes●68Metacritic★8.3IMDB · 1,155,463

DramaHistoryWar

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Enraged at the slaughter of Murron, his new bride and childhood love, Scottish warrior William Wallace slays a platoon of the local English lord's soldiers. This leads the village to revolt and, eventually, the entire country to rise up against English rule.

“Every man dies, not every man really lives.”

WhatsApp X Facebook Telegram

Where to watch · US

Paramount Plus PremiumSubscription

Paramount Plus EssentialSubscription

Paramount+ Amazon ChannelSubscription

Paramount+ Roku Premium ChannelSubscription

Amazon VideoRent

Apple TV StoreRent

Google Play MoviesRent

YouTubeRent

Fandango At HomeRent

Spectrum On DemandRent

Amazon VideoBuy

Apple TV StoreBuy

Google Play MoviesBuy

YouTubeBuy

Fandango At HomeBuy

Cast

Mel Gibson
William Wallace
Catherine McCormack
Murron MacClannough
Sophie Marceau
Princess Isabelle
Patrick McGoohan
King Edward
Angus Macfadyen
Robert the Bruce
Brendan Gleeson
Hamish Campbell
James Robinson
Young William Wallace
James Cosmo
Campbell

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Mel Gibson
Writers: Dan Sweetman, Randall Wallace
Languages: English, French, Latin, Gaelic
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

Clocks in at 178 minutes — on the longer side of feature-length cinema.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Mid-budget at $72M — the now-extinct middle tier of Hollywood.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

31 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 4 languages: English, French, Latin, Gaelic.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "Braveheart Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

309+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Mel Gibson, shot by John Toll. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by James Horner. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Mel Gibson directs. John Toll behind the camera. James Horner scores. Steven Rosenblum cuts. A long sit — settle in. Profitable at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English, French, Latin, Gaelic.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Clocks in at 178 minutes — on the longer side of feature-length cinema.
2Mid-budget at $72M — the now-extinct middle tier of Hollywood.
331 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
4Dialogue crosses 4 languages: English, French, Latin, Gaelic.
5Part of the "Braveheart Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
6309+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.
7Directed by Mel Gibson, shot by John Toll. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
8Original score by James Horner. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
9Editor Steven Rosenblum shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
10Mel Gibson and Catherine McCormack and Sophie Marceau carry the top of the cast.
11Marketing tagline: "Every man dies, not every man really lives.".
12IMDB entry: tt0112573 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
1311,502 TMDB user ratings logged — serious cultural footprint.
14Classified under 10 themes, including "england", "scotland", "loss of loved one", "idealism".
15Released under 11 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: John Toll
Original score: James Horner
Editing: Steven Rosenblum
Production design: Thomas E. Sanders
Costume design: Charles Knode
Makeup / hair: Fernandes Mendes
VFX supervisor: Michael L. Fink
Sound: Andy Nelson
Stunt coordinator: Simon Crane
Runtime: 178 min · 2h 58m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $72,000,000
Box office: $213,216,216
Return: 296% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Braveheart (1995)
Rotten Tomatoes: 74% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 68/100
IMDB rating: 8.3/10 · 1,155,463 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

Won 5 Oscars. 34 wins & 34 nominations total

National Board of Review: Top Ten Films
Academy Award for Best Sound Editing
Academy Award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Academy Award for Best Cinematography
Academy Award for Best Director
Academy Award for Best Picture

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Part of

Braveheart Collection

Braveheart is a 1995 American epic historical drama film directed and produced by Mel Gibson, who portrays Scottish warrior William Wallace in the First War of Scottish Independence against King Edward I of England. The film also stars Sophie Marceau, Patrick McGoohan, Catherine McCormack and Angus Macfadyen. The story is inspired by Blind Harry's 15th century epic poem The Actes and Deidis of the Illustre and Vallyeant Campioun Schir William Wallace and was adapted for the screen by Randall Wallace. Robert the Bruce is a 2019 British epic historical fiction war film directed by Richard Gray concerning the renowned king of the same name. It stars Angus Macfadyen as Robert the Bruce, reprising the role from Braveheart. A character-driven ensemble piece, it portrays Robert's relationship with a peasant family as a galvanising influence on his struggle for independence and his ensuing reign.

Also by

Mel Gibson

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

Anton2k2012-08-04
★ 10/10
Being Scottish, this movie really does a good job at showing off the scenery in and around Scotland. The story line of this movie keeps you on the edge of your seat all the way through the movie. Mel Gibson does a really good job with the accent and plays a great role as William Wallace in the movie. I cant help by want to stand up and shout FREEDOM! once the movie is finished. Could watched this movie another 1000 times and not get board of watching it. It's a must watch for any one who has not see it yet.
John Chard2019-09-08
★ 10/10
Historical flaws aside, Braveheart is a rousing spectacle. So it comes to pass in the year of 1995 (not a year of our lord I think) that Mel Gibson would craft the award winning epic that is Braveheart, a film that is historically bent in the extreme, that is directed by a man who would go on to have a less than favourable character reputation, and a film that has a heavy handed approach at times. It's also as choppy as a boat ride during a tidal wave, so yes, Braveheart is far from flawless folks. Yet the structure, the epic emotional swirls and sheer spectacle of it all marks it out as a rousing treat. It's a lavish gargantuan epic that somehow seems out of place for the year it was made, perhaps the secret of the films' success is because the 90s were crying out for an epic to get us hankering back to those halcyon days of Spartacus et al. Or just maybe the film punched the buttons of the public psyche because it is a great and grand thing to see the little people rise up and kick some ass? The oppressed and the bullied strike back as it were, surely that theme works for the normal human being? It's a sweeping tale that involves love, loyalty, honour, dishonour, treachery, death & heroes and villains. In short it ticks all the boxes for the genre it sits in (clinical bloody battles superbly full on). Gibson is William Wallace, and although he may struggle to nail the Scottish accent to fully convince at times, he more than makes up for it with his verve and vigour when delivering his lines - with the Sons Of Scotland speech at Stirling a particular iconic highlight. Patrick McGoohan is pure egotistical villainy as Longshanks, King Edward I, and the supporting cast also do sterling work (or should that be Stirling?). Brendan Gleeson, Tommy Flanagan, Catherine McCormack, Angus Macfadyen, and the wonderful James Cosmo all add flavour to the delightful scotch broth on the screen. The score by James Horner is appropriately tight to the themes at work in the piece, and the cinematography by John Toll was rightly awarded at Oscar time since he captured the essence of the film. Be it the lush rolling hills or the blood stained field in the aftermath of battle, Toll's work is critically in sync with the unfolding mood of the picture. So yes, damn straight, flaws and all, pic has the ability to lift and inspire many a discerning viewer. It does kick you at times, but as it does so, it also emotionally engages you from start to finish - to which the film deserves every accolade and award that it won. Because the grandiose epic had seemed long gone, but Gibson and his army brought it back to the modern era and made a genre piece fit to hold it's head up high with the greats of years gone by. 10/10
GenerationofSwine2023-01-11
★ 10/10
When i saw this I was 15 and it was one of the greatest movies I had ever seen. Fast forward to today, I'm 41, and degrees and history and... the battle of Sterling Bridge is like fingernails on a chalkboard whenever I see it. I watched it with my wife and, "no, she was like 3 and living in France." So I don't know. It was dramatic and moody and stylistically beautiful. It was a typical Gibson gore fest and that is always fun. It was well acted, the score added to the drama, and it spawned a movement in Scotland that they are still dealing with today... ... so it is still a really good film. It just, well... where the heck is the bridge?