BRAVEHEART

US, 1995, 180 minutes, Colour.
Actors: Mel Gibson, Patrick Mc Goohan, Sophie Marceau, Catherine Mc Cormack, Angus Mc Fadyen, Brian Cox, Brendan Gleeson, Sean Mc Ginley, Stephen Billington, Ian Bannen, David O’ Hara, Peter Mullan.
Directed by Mel Gibson

There is political turmoil in Scotland in the year 1280. Young William Wallace flees the highlands after seeing many of his family killed during the incursions and oppression by Edward Longshanks, king of England. The adult William returns home, a natural leader, and intends to marry his childhood sweetheart, Murron. When the local lord demands the conjugal 'rights of first night', Wallace rebels. In retaliation, the lord attacks the village and, although he is killed, so also is Murron.

There are many claimants to the throne of Scotland, including Robert the Bruce. He father, now a recluse suffering from leprosy, urges his son to fight for power. William Wallace becomes the military leader, despite the Scots squabbling amongst themselves, and begins to attack English towns.

Edward, disappointed in the ineffectual behaviour of his effete son, sends his French daughter-in-law, Isabelle, to negotiate with Wallace. She fails. After the battle of Falkirk, where Bruce sides with the English, Isabelle returns to be with Wallace. However, Wallace is betrayed and taken to London where he is tortured and brutally killed. His final word on the block is 'Freedom'. At the same time, Edward is dying, his son is powerless. Isabelle mourns Wallace. The Bruce contemplates the confusion and brutality of the wars. Later, Robert the Bruce unites Scotland.

Braveheart was the unexpected winner of the 1995 Oscar for Best Film as well as for Mel Gibson as Best Director. (He had formerly directed the sensitive movie, Man Without a Face.) Another epic of later Scots history, Rob Roy, with Liam Neeson, was also released.

Critics argued about the historical accuracy of the movie, especially the English critics. The movie is clearly partisan Scots mythmaking. Patrick Mc Goohan portrays Edward Longshanks as a calculatingly powerful tyrant. Angus Mc Fadyen is a heroic but ultimately compromising Robert Bruce.

The movie is long, a blend of more intimate sequences and extraordinary battles (with enhanced computer generated troops) culminating in the death of William Wallace. Wallace is shown throughout the movie as a kind of messianic hero who rose from among his people, leads them to victory and is then killed as a martyr. There are many visual and thematic references to the passion and death of Jesus in these sequences. The role of William Wallace suits the talents and screen presence of Mel Gibson. In many ways it is a grim, mythic parable about the fight for freedom and liberation emerging from self-sacrifice and defeat.

1. The impact of the film? Its popularity in its time, subsequently? The work of Mel Gibson? Its winning best film Oscar, director Oscar?

2. Audience response to the history? The British and their criticisms of the bias? Scottish history? An interpretation of history? Presenting William Wallace (*or Wallis?) as a hero? Fictionalising him while basing it in truth? The history of the relationship between England and Scotland? Edward I and his cruelty? The Scottish lords? Robert Bruce? The ultimate martyrdom of William Wallace – and the move towards Scottish nationalism?

3. The photography, the beauty of the Scottish settings, the highlands, the valleys? The battle sequences, the special effects for multiplying the size of armies? The re-creation of the mediaeval towns? The villages? The palaces? The military camps? The use of Panavision?

4. The musical score, Scottish, atmospheric, rousing?

5. The information given to the audiences? The background of England and Scotland? William Wallace? Audience contemporary national reactions to the story, pro and anti England?

6. The opening, the focus on the boys and their playing, Scotland in the 14th century, William and his father, his life, the training, the harsh experiences? The friendship with Murron? The friendship between William and Hamish? The gathering of the clan lords? William and his father discovering the hanged men? The later effects for William in his dreams? The harshness of the English? His grief? The arrival of his Uncle Argyle, taking him away, training him, his travel, learning Latin and its later use, a cultured man?

7. Mel Gibson as William Wallace, his age? The background of his experience, the relationship with Hamish, with Murron? His arrival in the village again after his training, the encounter with Hamish and his father, the fight? The life in the village, the shot-put competition, Murron, love for her, the secret marriage? The importance of the right of first night with the lords, their discussing it as a means of controlling the highlanders? The arrival in the village, the young man and his wife, taking her away? The build-up to the confrontation?

8. The portrayal of Edward Longshanks, tyrannical, his relationship with his son – and his disappointment with his son? His son’s homosexuality, his friend and adviser? Longshanks and his control of the nobles, his strategies, the prima nocte and its application? The desire to create a dynasty, keep his hold over Scotland?

9. The background to the prima nocte and its application, the young man and his bride? The confrontation with Murron, her being surrounded, her attempted escape, William and his trying to rescue her? Her capture, her throat being cut? William and his revenge, the gathering of the clans, their seeing him as leader, the confrontation with the English, their strategies, the noble and cutting his throat?

10. The Scottish clans and their support of William? The issue of the lords, their meetings, their personalities, their jealousies, their squabbling about land? Edward and his shrewd manipulation, offering them land and keeping them attacking each other? William Wallace as the commoner? Yet his being knighted? Their seeing him as a possible leader – but for their own ends? The significance of Robert Bruce, his potential as leader? The build-up to the battles, the deals, the delays and squabbles?

11. The character of Robert Bruce, his potential as a leader, the tradition of leadership? The importance of the role of his father, the deception about his leprosy, people thinking he was out of the country and in France, yet the reality of his leprosy, his son’s visits to him, his exercising his authority, his pressures on his son, the double-deals with Edward, forcing a strategy? Robert Bruce’s disgust with his father? His father saying that this is how politics were? Bruce and his being forced into deals with Edward – especially at the end of the battle, the capture of Wallace, removing the helmet and Wallace seeing that it was Robert Bruce?

12. The battle sequences, the preparations, the training? William as leader? The Scots painting their faces? The confrontations, the English response, the use of the arrows, charging? Wallace’s strategy and deceit? The violence of the pictorial aspects of the battles? Edward and his response?

13. Longshanks and his son, Philip as his adviser – and Edward throwing him out the window? The planned marriage with the Princess of France, her coming to England with her maid, the non-consummation of the wedding? Her fascination with talk of Wallace? The king and his using her as an ambassador, her visits to Wallace, their discussions? Her later coming to warn him, the night together, her grief at his death? Her very strong stances – stronger than her husband’s? the admiration of the king?

14. Wallace and the effect of the squabbles, his confronting the nobles? The further battles with the English, the defeat, his being arrested? His dismay at what Robert Bruce had done?

15. The torture of Wallace in prison, the visit of the princess, the night with her? The attitude of the king – yet his illness? The lonely vigil of his son? The grief of the princess? The build-up to the execution, the demands being made on Wallace, to confess? His silence? His being brought into the town, the crowds and their vengeance, Hamish and his presence and the other members of the group? The torture, the execution – and the crowd crying for mercy? William and his focus on the child, his waiting for his beheading – and his seeing Murron in the crowd? His cry for freedom? The cross-cutting to the king, his death? Cross-cutting to the princess, to the prince, to Robert Bruce and his standing on the battlements?

16. The aftermath, the role of Robert Bruce, the uniting of Scotland? The heritage of Braveheart? The role of Scottish independence – and the changes in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries?

17. The film’s length, the detailed number of characters? The English court, the advisers, the king and the prince and his friend, the princess and her maid, liaisons? The Scottage village, the parent generation, their wariness of William, the suffering and deaths of members of their village, their coming to his support? The picture of the Scottish nobles, their courts, their squabbles? Robert Bruce and his father? The cumulative effect in such a long film, the historical events, their re-creation? The overall response to the film as one of history, action and adventure? Politics and betrayal?