 | | © 1995 - Paramount Pictures | In the movie Braveheart, Mel Gibson plays the role of William Wallace, a Scotsman living in the 13th century under the oppressive rule of England. When his wife Murron, played by Catherine McCormack, is killed by an English magistrate, William starts a rebellion to drive the English from Scottish shores. His gathering of clansmen gradually grows into a small army.  | | © Paramount Pictures - all rights reserved | As his poorly equipped army faces an opposing force of well trained and heavily armed Englishmen on an open battlefield, William rallies them, “Ay, fight and you may die, run and you'll live. At least a while. And dying in your beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom?” William needed to breathe deeply and that couldn’t happen without freedom. He and his countrymen had long lived under the subjugated rule of their enemy. Fear kept them in bondage. They had grown complacent and accepted their meager existence as the only life within their grasp. Their fears had produced complacency that drowned out their hunger for life. Yet, something snapped within William at the murder of this wife. He came to a profound realization - “every man dies, not every man really lives.” He was tired of not living and concluded that “it's all for nothing if you don't have freedom.” Once he came to his senses, his hunger dispelled all fear - leaving only courage in its wake. 
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