YMMV / Braveheart

• Americans Hate Tingle: Although there is a stereotype that supporters of Scottish independence love this movie, in fact, pretty much everyone in Scotland loathes it, for its relentless historical inaccuracy and general Anviliciousness. It has much more than a few haters in England, given that all the characters with an english-sounding name happen to be villains.
• Awesome Music: One thing universally agreed upon for this movie is that for all its flaws, James Horner once gain made a glorious score for this movie.
• Complete Monster: King Edward I "Longshanks" is portrayed as far more evil than his real life counterpart ever was. Introduced as a "cruel pagan" who has annexed Scotland into England and just returned from a war with France, he authorizes mass rape in Scotland by restoring the ancient law of Ius Primae Noctis, giving English lords in Scotland the right to claim "first night" of any peasant girl in their domain upon their marriage. He's doing this to win support from the English lords necessary to solidify his rule in Scotland and to gradually end the Scottish as a nation by outbreeding them. He sees his effeminate son Edward II simply as the continuation of his legacy, throws his son's homosexual lover out of a window for daring to speak to him as an advisor and beats his son's face in afterwards. After William Wallace stages a Scottish rebellion against him, Longshanks announces his intent to reduce the country to ashes just out of petty spite at Wallace. During an engagement with the Scots he orders his archers to fire on his own troops while they're busy fighting the Scots, justifying it by stating that his men are expendable. After Wallace is captured by the English due to a conspiracy among the Scottish lords, Longshanks has him slowly and painfully tortured to death in a public execution while listening on from his own death bed.
• Crazy Is Cool: Stephen, the Irishman. His crazy remarks about what the Lord "tells him" are quite hilarious and even badass in its own way.
  Hamish: Is your father a ghost or do you converse with the Almighty?
  Stephen: In order to find his equal an Irishman is forced to talk to God. (to the sky) Yes, Father! (back to Hamish) The Almighty says, "Don't change the subject; just answer the fookin' question."
• Crosses the Line Twice: The scene where Prince Edward's lover gets thrown out a window, with the nearby guards looking at the lover's corpse, looking up to see Longshanks, and going back to their posts. According to the filmmakers, this was unintentional.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Again, Stephen the Irishman. He brings the funniest moments in the film, which makes him quite memorable.
• Fight Scene Failure: During the very end of one of the battles, you can see a couple of extras in the background are only half-heartedly and slowly bumping their swords together and aren't really fighting.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Benedict Cumberbatch mentioned that the Tibetan monks he taught English to during his gap year absolutely loved Braveheart and would watch it all the time. The Tibetans feel a connection with the Scots because of their fight for independence from China.
• I Am Not Shazam: Whenever Mel Gibson's portrayal of William Wallace is spoofed/referenced, people will call his character "Braveheart" instead of Wallace. In actuality, it refers to Robert the Bruce.
• Jerkass Woobie: Prince Edward is by no means a likeable guy (cowardly, clueless, treats his wife poorly) but his jerkassery could be explained by the great relationship he has with his good old dad. He's also probably struggling with his homosexuality in a very unfriendly environment to gay people, stuck in a marriage he didn't want and his lover eventually killed by his father. When his wife gives him and his father "The Reason You Suck" Speech saying they don't even know what mercy is as well as love, for a moment he seems distraught (he has lost his companion and lover) supporting this Alternative Character Interpretation.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • The "HOLD!" bit became a meme on YTMND in the mid 2000's.
  • "FREEEDOM!!" gets a lot of mileage too, especially for folks having to endure some lengthy torture (bonus points if said torture is something entirely mundane).
  • Wallace's blue and white face paint during the Battle of Stirling scene has seen plenty of reference. It's even a face paint option in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim for a Nord character.
• Moral Event Horizon: When the Magistrate responds to an attempted rape by one of his soldiers by publicly executing the victim - Murron - and daring Wallace to come to him. The atrocities trigger off a peasant revolt, get his entire garrison killed (special mention goes to the attempted rapist, who is Impaled with Extreme Prejudice) and almost bring down the entire English kingdom. Talk about Laser-Guided Karma!
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • Wallace's execution is pretty scary. Being hanged, drawn and quartered was not a pretty way to go. Although nothing excessive is shown on-screen, Wallace's horrid expressions don't help much and the fact alone that the damage he endures is irreversible.
  • Murron's attempted rape scene. She is cornered by a group of English soldiers and their commanding officer pins her down in a hut, lays on top her and kisses and licks her. It's bad enough that the soldier remarks on how she reminds him of his daughter and when Murron tries to escape, he hits her and calls her a bitch. If it weren't for Wallace's rescue in the last minute, she would have been brutally gang-raped.
• Signature Scene:
  • Wallace's speech before the Battle of Stirling, especially the "they may take our lives but they will never take our freedom!" part.
  • The moment Wallace realizes that he had been betrayed by Robert is often seen as the most memorable portrayal of a moment when someone comes to the realization that they had been stabbed in the back.
  • Wallace's execution, mostly because of his last yell for FREEDOM.
• Special Effects Failure: During the Battle of Stirling, Campbell the Elder gets his left hand chopped off. It is incredibly obvious that it's a prop due to the fake arm not being properly attached, looking visibly bent and not being in motion with the actor's movements.
• Squick: An English soldier tells Murron how she reminds him of his own daughter back in England before he tries to molest her. According to the DVD commentary, this line was improvised by the actor.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The film makes up so much ahistorical crap to vilify Edward I, and yet inexplicably misses out the Edict of Expulsion; something that would immediately make him look awful to modern audiences^note This is also Harsher in Hindsight, after Gibson made a number of antisemitic comments; it at least makes it look like he didn't think throwing all Jews out of England was a bad thing, so he had to make something up.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: The film has very little sympathy for Prince Edward, later King Edward II, and tries to portray him as a weakling and the second coming of his father. What we actually see is a tormented young man, badly abused by his father, forced into a marriage he doesn't want, whose true love is murdered in front of him for the crime of just trying to be helpful to Longshanks at the wrong time. Many viewers have expressed expanded sympathy for him as time has gone on.

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