Though it has somewhat fallen out of the spotlight in recent years, Mel Gibson’s 1995 historical war epic Braveheartwas once considered one of the great, crowd-pleasing masterpieces. The movie was a powerhouse, the sort of grand spectacle that everyone can get behind, as evidenced by the simple fact that it beat out Apollo 13 — Ron Howard’s more successful and more acclaimed tribute to American ingenuity — for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. And if there’s one scene that solidified Braveheart’s status as a masterpiece, it’s the climactic scene where Gibson’s William Wallace is tortured and executed.
Braveheart ultimately took home four Academy Awards, with Best Director, Best Cinematography, and Best Makeup (love that blue face paint) joining Best Picture. It even currently holds a 76 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, which seems impressively high considering how easy it is for modern critics to turn on movies like this (and Gibson himself). But, apparently, it still holds up relatively well, at least partially because of Gibson’s willingness to push everything — the violence, the drama, the runtime — as hard as he possibly can.
What Is ‘Braveheart’ About?
Ostensibly based on the true story of actual Scottish warrior William Wallace in the First War of Scottish Independence against England, Braveheart is more about exciting vibes than anything that really, you know, happened. Either way, it follows Wallace as he witnesses England’s King Edward I take over Scotland and execute various Scottish people, including Wallace’s father and brother, establishing a streak of anti-English rebelliousness in the boy that just becomes more pronounced as he gets older after his wife is murdered by English soldiers.
From there, an anti-English riot becomes a full-on war, with Wallace leading soldiers to various victories with his rousing speeches and stylish kilt. Politics and backdoor dealings lead to Wallace and the Scottish people losing their upper hand against the English, and he is eventually captured. That, of course, leads to the shocking, tragic ending.
What Happens in the End of ‘Braveheart’ That’s So Tragic?
Wallace is dragged in front of a jeering, bloodthirsty English crowd to be executed. He is given a chance to surrender and pledge his loyalty to the king in exchange for a quick and painless death, but he says nothing and is strung up to be hanged. Still, he says nothing, and his feet are tied to a horse that begins to trot away, causing his body to be painfully stretched. He still says nothing but is clearly in terrible pain, so he is thrown onto a cross and given one last chance to submit.
The crowd, no longer wishing to see him be brutalized, starts calling for mercy — meaning that Wallace should ask for mercy, not necessarily that his torturers should go easy on him. He says nothing and the torturers begin disemboweling him, at which point he sees a vision of his wife in the crowd and finally shouts “Freedom!” as he dies. It’s a big, emotional catharsis that justifies the whole movie, turning Wallace’s death into an epic tragedy, bordering on triumph, that rallies Scotland behind Wallace’s sacrifice in an epilogue and makes it clear that his death was for something.
The scene is so crucial to Braveheart that it makes it perfectly easy to see why Gibson followed it up (nine years later) with The Passion of the Christ, a movie that is literally all about a man giving the ultimate sacrifice so that his death can mean something. If not for the fact that that movie was also an enormous hit, the argument could’ve been made that Gibson was desperately trying to chase that specific high from Braveheart.
- Release Date
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May 24, 1995
- Runtime
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178 Minutes
