Mel Gibson Recalls Trials and Triumphs of Oscar-Winning BRAVEHEART
By Movieguide® Contributor
Mel Gibson recently reflected on the challenges and triumphs of his 1995 movie BRAVEHEART, which he both starred in and directed.
“There’s a lot of people on the set,” Gibson told Andrew Erwin on “The Storytellers” podcast. “There was like some days there were like 3,000 people there, and like I mean everybody’s in costume, and it’s like, what are we doing now…it was just crazy the logistics. I was fortunate that I had a very good team to help me.”
But through the intense filmmaking process, the idea of freedom kept him anchored.
“You know, the story at its heart is quite an intimate story,” Gibson said. “It is about a man and love, you know? He loves this woman, he loves his country…he sees injustice, he loses, and you know he has his family taken, and all these things are taken. He says, ‘Well, I’m just not going to put up with this anymore, and I’d rather be dead than not free.’ And I think I related to that because I’d rather be dead than not free.”
But more than just an epic movie, Gibson thinks there’s a reason why people are drawn to historic stories like BRAVEHEART.
“The need that we have to reach for something higher than our existence and to be able to transcend, really, the suffering of our existence,” he explained. “Even people that have it pretty easy, there’s the degree of suffering and there’s the condition the human condition that they have to undergo, that we all have to undergo, and how do we make it through that?”
Gibson’s hard work on the movie paid offer, taking home five Academy Awards, including Best Picture. “It was for me, confirmation that the work I did kind of hit the mark and…it resonated in other people, so you know very gratifying, and I was very thankful for all the attention it got,” he said.
BRAVEHEART, which Movieguide® founder Dr. Ted Baehr said “extols liberty, condemns injustice and acknowledges God’s will in every person’s life,” also took home a Movieguide® Teddy Bear Award® in 1996 for the Best Movie for Mature Audiences.
BRAVEHEART is a rallying cry for the supremacy of God’s law over unjust governors. Regrettably, the movie is extraordinarily violent, the Scot taunt the English by exposing themselves, and there is an implicit adulterous affair. Even so, as director, star and producer, Mel Gibson brilliantly weaves together romance, heroism, magnificent cinematography, and explosive action into a modern epic.
READ MORE: BRAVEHEART REVIEW
Currently, Gibson is turning his focus to his PASSION OF THE CHRIST sequel, THE RESURRECTION OF THE CHRIST.
“I’m hoping next year sometime,” Gibson said of when he plans to shoot the movie. “There’s a lot required because it’s an acid trip. I’ve never read anything like it.” He and his brother, Donal Gibson, and Randall Wallace wrote over a seven-year period.
“It’s not going to be easy and it’s going to require a lot of planning and I’m not wholly sure I can pull it off to tell you the truth, it’s super ambitious,” he said. “But I’ll take a crack at it because that’s what you got to do, right, walk up to the plate, right?”
READ MORE: HERE’S WHEN MEL GIBSON WILL FILM ‘SUPER AMBITIOUS’ PASSION OF THE CHRIST SEQUEL
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