1995 Epic Ranked Among Greatest Movies of All Time Premiered 31 Years Ago Today

On this day in 1995, a soon-to-be blockbuster premiered at the Seattle Film Festival.

“Freedom!” would ultimately become a viral rallying cry that year thanks to Braveheart, starring and directed by Mel Gibson.

As fans are well aware, the historical epic would go on to dominate at the 1996 Academy Awards, winning five Oscars including Best Picture. More recently, Medium.com called Braveheart “one of the greatest films ever” due to its number of memorable scenes and action sequences, despite some controversial inaccuracies when it comes to real-life history.

Such pitfalls are perhaps why the multi-genre stunner only holds a 74% average critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Here’s the film’s official synopsis offered by the review-aggregation website:

“Tells the story of the legendary thirteenth century Scottish hero named William Wallace (Gibson). Wallace rallies the Scottish against the English monarch and Edward I (Peter Hanly) after he suffers a personal tragedy by English soldiers. Wallace gathers a group of amateur warriors that is stronger than any English army.”

Redditors have also sounded off on why Braveheart is a masterpiece, meanwhile, having dedicated an entire thread to its cinematic perks. “The movie is quintessentially visual: not only is it a big screen movie if ever there was one (while remaining just as captivating on any size of screen), it has sections of ten to fifteen minutes at a time where nary a line of dialogue is uttered,” a user posted on a ‘why it’s the best’ thread. “”The confidence it took to make a film like this, certainly in this genre and in these (beautiful) locations, cannot be understated.

Gibson, of course, shot to stardom with the 1979 action hit Mad Max, whose 2015 reimagining would later clean up at its own Academy Awards. Starring Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron, Mad Max: Fury Road was both a critical and commercial success, going on to receive a whopping 10 Oscar nominations — and won six.