Synopsis:

This edit of Mel Gibson’s Braveheart deals with the constant growing sadness of the original movie and turns into a true, historically more accurate hero tale. Less romance, true to the brave heart.

Intentions:

The intention was to create a version of Braveheart that I would want to watch more often by addressing issues with the original and by making it shorter.

Change List:

- The torture ending was moved to the beginning: This was done to completely change the mood of the movie. The audience will know how and that William Wallace dies from the very beginning. It takes the sore feeling off the original ending and replaces it with the hopeful atmosphere of Wallace’s impact on Scotland. - Robert the Bruce and Longshanks were removed from the torture ending: All major characters are shown in the original, when William Wallace dies, but since this scene is now the beginning of the movie, which also means that the characters are introduced, less was more. Too many people would have been confusing. - Removed William Wallace’s youth: Although these scenes are really good and give the audience a nice picture of how it was to live in Scotland in the 13th century as a commoner, they slowed the movie down. Historically the youth of William Wallace is a myth anyway. Some scenes are referred to later on, like William’s first contact with Murron, but that could be corrected. Also the youth scenes give a first impression of the cruelty and incredibility of Edward the Longshanks, but he has plenty of room to prove that later on, so it wasn’t really needed. - All scenes involving the King and Robert The Bruce were removed from the first half of the movie. They are introduced later and stronger. - Princess Isabelle is gone entirely. - Phillip, the homosexual lover of Prince Edward, is reduced to being a friendly servant. The homosexuality aspect is entirely gone. - cut first Wolf appearance, when he watched the soldiers leave (continuity). - William’s dream of his wife is gone. Although a reference to their metaphysical bond, this scene was actually really empty and rather cold. There was no space in the fanedit, where it would have fitted. - The assassin attack on William Wallace: removed, because Isabelle could not be part of it. The scene was rather good, but it was not possible to include it.

Additional Notes:

Mel Gibson created an epic masterpiece, which still ranks among the best movies ever made. It received 5 Oscars and was a huge success, yet the length and also the mood kept a lot of people from watching it again and again, which is a pity for a movie of this tremendous strength and quality. I moved the torture ending to the beginning to completely change the mood of the movie and turn the focus rather on victory than on defeat. The new beginning reveals the cruelty of the suppressing English kingdom and William Wallace’s desperate wish for Scotland’s freedom. In the original movie things start sinister, turn to good, turn to even better and then take the road down and even more down to defeat. The fanedit starts sinister and does not get that depressing in the end. Moving, yes. Disappointed by the defeat and the betrayal, yes. But still open for a good ending. The removal of Princess Isabelle worked really well and made William Wallace an actually more believable character, because his romance with the Princess always felt like cheating. William’s childhood was really well filmed, but had to be removed for pacing reasons.

Special Thanks: