A Celebrated Mel Gibson Movie Is Blowing Up On Netflix
Although Mel Gibson has been controversial in his Hollywood life, he has been one of the most celebrated directors and actors in all of the film world.
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Fans of Mel Gibson and his earlier work will be happy to know that Braveheart is currently blowing up on Netflix in the USA. The film is #10 on the streaming platform, and for good reason. The historical epic follows the life of William Wallace, who was a freedom fighter when Scotland was attempting to gain its independence from the clutches of England. Mel Gibson starred in the titular role of Wallace and he directed the film. It sounds as if new and old fans have been enjoying the movie on streaming. This writer watches it at least a few times a year, it’s really that good.
Although Mel Gibson has been controversial in his Hollywood life, he has been one of the most celebrated directors and actors in all of the film world. Braveheart was the second feature that Gibson ever directed, and what a film to direct. Gibson’s first full-length and starring film was The Man Without a Face, which came out in 1993. How he was able to make such a jump from a feel-good picture to one of the best war epics ever made is astounding, to say the least. Braveheart is a nearly three-hour film, coming in at 2 hours and 58 mins long. There are plenty of battle scenes coupled with lost and found love, a sense of national pride, and the breaking of tyranny that make this film feel as though it is a quick hour and a half feature.
The historical nature of the Mel Gibson film has been in question, with historians claiming plenty of inaccuracies, but it is a movie. People often forget that fact. It is a retelling of a story that shouldn’t be taken literally, being that it is cinema. However, regardless of the film writers playing with the dram of what truly happened, it was a massive success. Braveheart had 10 Oscar nominations. It won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing, and Best Makeup. Securing five wins out of 10 nominations is quite a feat, and that is only partly why it is blowing up on Netflix currently.
Braveheart was truly groundbreaking in terms of how war epics were told. Besides the obvious nature of the film revolving around a revolution and needing plenty of fighting, the other stories involved made this film truly special. The drama that unfolded as a result of William Wallace losing his one true love set off a series of events that led to the ultimate uprising of the Scotland resistance. That is a detail that was clearly added to the film, but it made for quite a stirring storyline. Mel Gibson directed Braveheart in such a way that fellow filmmakers began to copy his style and how the battles of certain war films didn’t have to be the only focal point.
The way in which Mel Gibson created the drama of Braveheart for bleeding-heart Willaim Wallace worked well. Even though the film was released in 1995, it holds a “certified fresh” rating of 79% and an audience rating of 85% on Rotten Tomatoes. Simply put, it’s top ten on Netflix for a reason. The film had an estimated budget of $72 million. The worldwide box office numbers were a total of $213 million, making it a box office success, especially in terms of being released in 1995.
Mel Gibson didn’t direct another film after Braveheart until The Passion the Christ in 2004, which was also nominated for several Academy Awards. Gibson would follow that up with Apocalypto, another film that saw plenty of recognition in the awarding sector. Basically, Mel Gibson knows what he is doing when it comes to directing films. The majority of the films he has worked on have been nominated in some way. Braveheart is the first in his repertoire that was nominated and won, and there is a good reason why fans are flocking to watching it on Netflix.
Braveheart often gets put on and taken off Netflix, but seeing that it returned to a top ten status on the streaming platform, it may stick around more often than not. Mel Gibson’s war epic helped to shape future war epics and there is good reason for that. Watch the film and decide for yourself.
