Actor Mel Gibson, who directed the 1995 hit film "Braveheart", has shared the secret of staging his much-admired battle scenes in the historical classic.

Gibson portrayed 13th century Scot William Wallace who led his native Scotland to war against the English, reports contactmusic.com.

"The thing I wanted out of the battle sequences was clarity. I've seen a lot of these battle movies and they just turn into mush," Empire magazine quoted him as saying.

"I broke it down to archers and horses and hand-to-hand and who had the high ground and the low ground, everybody was clearly delineated, even though it was often the same bunch of people playing different parts.

"We had the guys from the Irish Army, and one day they were all dressed like Scots and the next day they'd be English. I think there's a scene where somebody actually kills himself," he added.

Asked if there were were any serious injuries on the set, he said: "There was a horse that nearly killed me. He had a good trick where he did this whole rear-up thing, but he'd also fall backwards, which is a problem if you've fallen off first and you're behind him," he said.

"He did that to me. My stunt double ran in and pulled me out of the way just as the horse fell," he added.