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“You think the people of this country exist to provide you with position. I think your position exists to provide those people with freedom. And I go to make sure that they have it.” When Braveheart was released in 1995, it helped to dispel a myth that the MPAA rating of a film contributed significantly to the film's box office success. It is true that G and PG - rated films make significantly more money than PG -13 and R - rated films. But to conclude that a film's popularity follows from its rating is a fallacy called post-hoc. For example, there's a correlation between house fires and the presence of firefighters, but firefighters usually aren't the cause of the fire. Braveheart, rated R for "brutal medieval violence," enjoyed a worldwide gross exceeding $200 million. The juxtaposition of its R - rating and such large ticket sales (in the mid 1990s) suggested that the holy grail of popularity likely resided in another quarter. Braveheart's success, some argue, lies in its epic telling, hefty $53 million budget, audacious action, marketing, and the star power of Mel Gibson as its lead actor and director. As we all know, however, there are plenty of examples of epic-sized films with similarly sized marketing budgets that flop at the box office. Now, I don't subscribe to Goldman's "Nobody Knows Anything" adage. If that is true Hollywood would be a ghost town. Braveheart's success, in fact, follows a very ancient rule that every successful film (and story) has and must follow. Braveheart provides convincing evidence that a film's success has everything to do with its consistent and ubiquitous portrayal of a single universal moral truth. I think that in Braveheart, that truth, or moral premise as I call it—which pits virtue and vice and their opposite consequences—can be stated like this: Compromise of liberty leads to tyranny; This statement summarizes the protagonist’s and other main characters' physical and psychological predicament and is key to understanding how and why Braveheart was successful. In short, this succinct statement, in addition to having a universal quality to it, encapsulates everything dramatic about the film, and on some deep level seems to have guided the screenwriter and filmmakers in their effort. This essay, then, is an examination of how this statement of a moral premise guided Braveheart's structure in five ways and made it the success it came to be. These points are: the story's plot, the character's physical and psychological goals, the film's connection with the audience, and how it helped the filmmakers make the story's truth both palatable, and pivotal.
Second. Braveheart, like all successful stories, is structured around two protagonist goals that are perfectly intertwined—one goal is physical and the other psychological. The physical goal for Wallace (and the Scottish nobles) is peace, or as Wallace says in act 1, "I came back home to raise crops, and God willing a family. If I can live in peace, I will." But there are two kinds of peace, one under freedom and the other under tyranny. While the Scottish nobles seem content to live in peace under tyranny, Wallace's rallying cry is his psychological goal—FREEDOM. Conversely, the antagonists, led by Longshanks (King Edward I), also have the physical goal of peace, but one obtained under tyranny. Notice this ironic twist that so wonderfully intrigues. Both the protagonists and antagonists want peace, but under different psychological terms. Thus, while we might say Braveheart on the surface is about William Wallace's heroic struggle to rid Scotland of the English, under the surface we have to also say that Braveheart is really about the moral dilemma of embracing peace under the duress of tyranny versus obtaining peace under liberty. Third. Braveheart is also successful because Wallace’s psychological goal (freedom) breeches a familiar moral dilemma faced by individual audience members. In screenwriter Randall Wallace's 13th century Scotland, the Scottish nobles have compromised their country's liberty and true peace in exchange for titles, estates, and gold. The result is a cruel oppression of the commoner and an increasingly heavy tax imposed by and for the English. But such is the price of peace, reason the nobles, and thus, begrudgingly, they give their allegiance to Longshanks, whose predictable response is further enslavement. For audience members the same sort of plot plays itself out with the in-laws or neighbors and their tolerance for behavior that infringes on their perceived property rights, or rights of privacy. More directly the audience will identify with Wallace as they make a connection between Longshanks autocracy and their present government's legislation as it relates to constitutional rights, or our foreign polices. In all these situations, we, as the audience, struggle between a peace that psychologically enslaves and a peace that psychologically liberates.
Finally, Braveheart is also successful because the script makes the centrality of the truth of this moral premise absolutely clear to the audience at a pivotal turning point that some story theorists call the moment of grace. This is a point in the plot where the protagonist is given the opportunity to psychologically change the method of his physical pursuit. Each main character may experience such a moment of grace, and in Braveheart the story's momentum is accentuated by offering the truth to nearly all the main characters in one grand gesture. Here's what happens: Midway through the film (at 1 hr. 35 min.) the Scottish nobles knight Wallace as guardian and high protector of Scotland. But immediately afterwards, the nobles argue about how they and Wallace should be united to achieve that peace when they disagree about the fine points of compromise. It's time to make clear what's at stake, and what the movie is really about. Wallace takes advantage of his newfound status, and sternly addresses the nobles. The moment is not only Wallace's moment of grace but the nobles' as well. Though we find out that many of his countrymen will reject it, Wallace heroically accepts the truth of the story's moral premise, articulates it with force, and embraces it as his life's goal.
This essay is adapted and excerpted from The Moral Premise: Harnessing Virtue and Vice for Box Office Success by the author Stanley D. Williams Ph.D.; published by Michael Wiese Productions, and available in bookstores nationally. This essay: Copyright 2006, Stanley D. Williams. All Rights Reserved. http://www.MoralPremise.com. Stanley D. Williams Ph.D. is filmmaker, author, screenwriter, and instructor and owns a small distribution company. During the past 30 years he has completed hundreds of projects for corporate, entertainment, and non-profit clients. www.StanWilliams.com
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BRAVEHEART'S and William Wallace's Moment of Grace
First. Braveheart immediately fulfills the basic plot criteria of all successful films. The film is about an imperfect and even disadvantaged protagonist whom, in an attempt to improve his life, sets off on a quest toward a physical goal, but along the way is met by a series of physical obstacles of ever increasing difficulty that both requires and leads to heroism. At first, William Wallace, a commoner of unique passion and skill, refuses to embrace the call to rid 13th century Scotland of English tyranny. But with the vicious death of his wife Murron, he is moved to give his life for his countrymen's freedom, and sets the stage for Robert the Bruce's eventual victory and Scotland's liberty.
Fourth. Braveheart's filmmakers also helped to make the film successful by making the moral premise palatable. For example, the portrayal of the moral premise in the arcs of the characters is consistent. Those characters that embrace the compromise of liberty (e.g. various Scottish nobles and Longshanks) are destined to end their storyline in dread and hopelessness, or universal tyranny—their lives and dreams of peace under a compromised liberty are destroyed. But those characters that eventually embrace liberty without compromise (e.g. Robert the Bruce and Wallace) end their storylines with the hope of freedom. 
Braveheart, like other successful films, regardless of rating or star power, finds its box office acceptance in the morally consistent telling of a tale that the audience identifies as true. Just as Wallace begins his story imperfect and disadvantaged, so audience members recognize, albeit subconsciously, their own imperfect and disadvantaged pursuit of peace. And as heroically Wallace stands for what is right, even though it means perseverance through suffering, so we as an audience recognize, deep within our souls, that true liberty oft times requires perseverance and at times great sacrifice to work to achieve peace for the greater common good.