With elements of Spartacus (1960), the Robin Hood legends, Shakespeare's Henry V, and even, as one reviewer pointed out, Die Hard (1988) running through the sweeping tale of a charismatic leader and his oppressed people, it engaged audiences enough to make it the 13th highest-grossing film of 1995. The New York Times said it was 'a great ambitious gamble that pays off.an exhilarating new-fashioned epic,' while the Washington Post dismissed it as 'bloody, glib, saccharin and lengthy.'Ĭould it be that everyone's right about this movie? Bloody it certainly is, and at three hours, the film well earns the label 'lengthy,' but the story charges along on action, drama, romance, painstaking art direction, and over-the-top heroism.

On the other hand, the British film magazine's readers' poll - perhaps boosted by a high number of Scottish respondents - voted it the best film of its year.Ĭritical opinion at the time of its release was equally split.

In 2005, Empire magazine ranked it the worst picture of the Academy's honorees. Yet, it has shown up on several lists of the least-deserving Best Picture Oscar winners of all time. Braveheart was nominated for ten Academy Awards and won five, including Best Picture and Best Director. Mel Gibson's second feature film directorial effort, a sprawling epic about the fight for Scottish independence in the 13th century, is one of those divisive pictures whose cinematic worth is frequently debated.

Brave heart movie