22 Long Movies You Won’t Complain About (Much)

Blue face paint, bagpipes, and the roar of battle…Braveheart became the modern template for cinematic heroism. Mel Gibson’s take on William Wallace mixes brutality with poetry, history with legend. The long stretches of countryside and camaraderie make the eventual betrayals hurt more. It’s messy, romantic, unapologetically grand; the kind of film that remembers when spectacle still had sincerity.

That legendary make-up remains forever iconic, and that speech in front of troops still lingers in our hearts.