They most definitely are not obligated to do so, but big budget Hollywood historical epics are widely expected to play fast and loose when it comes to accuracy. As the old saying goes; never let the truth get in the way of a good story, and few blockbuster battlefield tales have adhered to that mantra more successfully than Mel Gibson’s Braveheart.
Historians and a great deal of the Scottish public may have torn the sweeping saga of William Wallace to pieces for the huge amount of creative license applied to great swathes of the story, but all sins were forgiven when the film’s overwhelming global success turned out to be a huge boon to the nation’s tourist industry.
Not only that, but a $213 million haul at the box office and five Academy Award wins including Best Picture and Best Director proved yet again that as along as there’s scope, scale, and spectacle on display, any deviations from the real-life events to inspire the narrative can be overlooked in the name of pure entertainment value.
Gibson recently teased that he was deliberating whether or not to cobble together a four-hour Director’s Cut, but until that day does or doesn’t come, Braveheart is still capable of putting the streaming charts to the sword. As per FlixPatrol, the 178-minute cry for freedom has become one of the 10 most popular titles among HBO Max subscribers in the United States, almost 30 years after first lifting up its kilt to expose its butt cheeks to the world.