42 BRAVEHEART
Reception
Though no run- away blockbuster, Braveheart proved to be a solid hit at the box
office. During its initial domestic run (19 May–24 August. 1995; widest release:
2,037 theaters), the movie earned a respectable $60 million. Paramount re- released
Braveheart twice: on 15 September 1995 and again on 16 February 1996, after it
was nominated for 10 Oscars. By 9 June 1996, the final day of its year- long run in
North Amer i ca, Braveheart had earned $75.6 million— just past the break- even
mark— but an additional $134.8 million in foreign box office receipts pushed the
total gross to $210.4 million. Released on VHS in March 1996, Braveheart topped
all video rentals that year. In addition to strong box office showings, Braveheart
was showered with awards: 7 BAFTA nominations (and 3 wins); 4 Golden Globe
nominations (Mel Gibson won for Best Director); and 10 Acad emy Award nomina-
tions (and 5 wins, for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Sound
Editing, and Best Makeup). President Bill Clinton enjoyed Braveheart so much he
watched it twice in three days in May 1995. Reviews were, likewise, mostly approv-
ing. Film critics praised the movie for its epic scale, rousing battle sequences, and
emotional earnestness, but more than a few found Braveheart overwrought and
excessively violent (i.e., a trite Mel Gibson vanity proj ect).Reel History Versus Real History
Of all the films ever made that purport to be based in actual history, Braveheart
ranks as the most egregiously inaccurate. In the opening scene a caption indicates
that the year is 1280 while a voice- over claims that Scottish King Alexander III
has died without leaving a male heir, thus creating a power vacuum filled by En glish
King Edward I (“Longshanks”), whose troops are occupying Scotland. King Alex-
ander III actually died in 1286, and the En glish did not invade Scotland until 1296,
during the reign of John Balliol (appointed over Robert the Bruce by Edward I, who
acted as arbitrator of the succession). The Scottish rebellion broke out in 1297, when
William Wallace was 27 years old; Scotland had been free and at peace when he
was a child. The movie also mangles chronology in its depiction of Princess Isa-
bella. She could not have warned Wallace about the upcoming Battle of Falkirk
(22 July 1298) because she was only three years old at the time and still living in
France. Indeed, Isabella never knew Wallace or King Edward I. She first arrived
in England and married Edward II in January 1308— three years after Wallace’s
execution and six months after the death of King Edward I. Likewise, the film’s
characterizations of King Edward I as a ruthless psychopath and his son, Prince
Edward, as a homosexual are historically dubious at best. Longshanks was a
hardened warrior- king but not demonical. Rumors of Edward II’s alleged homo-
sexuality stem from his close friendship with a courtier named Piers Gaveston,
1st Earl of Cornwall (c.1284–1312), but an intimate relationship has never been
proven. In the movie King Edward I murders Phillip, his son’s gay lover (based on
Gaveston), by nonchalantly throwing him out a high castle win dow— a scene that
amused audiences but angered gay activists, who found it homophobic. William
Wallace is portrayed in the film as hailing from a family of peasant farmers. In
actuality Wallace’s father was a minor nobleman. The movie depicts the En glish as