Braveheart (1996)

13th-century Scotland. A Scottish rebel, William Wallace (played by Australian/American Mel Gibson), leads an uprising against the cruel English reign of Edward the Longshanks (Patrick McGoohan), who plans to take the Scottish crown for himself.

His father died trying to bring freedom to the Scots when he was a young boy, so Wallace – with the support of Robert the Bruce (Angus MacFadyen), takes on the invader.

Of all the films ever made that purport to be based on actual history, Braveheart ranks as the most egregiously inaccurate.

William Wallace is portrayed in the film as hailing from a family of peasant farmers. In actuality, Wallace’s father was a minor nobleman. The movie also depicts the English as executing Wallace’s wife, thus providing him with a deeply personal motive for rebelling against them. In fact, there is no record of Wallace having been married.

Wallace is shown having an affair with Princess Isabella, who implies that the child she is carrying is his.

The real Isabella was born in 1295, and Wallace was killed in 1305, making her only ten years old at the time. Her child was born in 1312, 7 years after Wallace’s death.

Robert the Bruce is shown to secretly side with the English and betray Wallace on the battlefield, but this is not true either. He fought for and helped secure Scottish independence, and the nickname ‘Braveheart’ was first used to describe Robert, not Wallace.

Even Mel Gibson’s physiognomy and age are wrong. Wallace was reputed to have been tall (perhaps 6’5″) and heavily muscled. He would have been in his late twenties to mid-thirties during the uprising against England.

Standing a trim 5’11” and 38 years of age at the time of filming, Mel Gibson was a half-foot shorter than Wallace, much slighter of build, and somewhat older.

Woad, the blue war paint prominently displayed in the film’s battle scenes, had not been used by Scottish warriors since the end of the Roman era, some 800 years before the events depicted in the film. The movie also depicts several clans in Wallace’s army wearing their respective clan tartans, but the use of distinctive kilts and tartan patterns did not emerge until the Victorian era, 600 years later.

It was also filmed in Ireland.

Budgeted at around $53 million and given an R rating for its scenes of brutal medieval warfare, Braveheart bagged six Oscars, including Best Director.

While the battle scenes are something to behold, the real interest lies in the way Gibson ups the ante in Hollywood cinema’s enduring fascination with the spectacle of broken, bloodied male bodies, where narcissism and masochism combine to create the image of warrior-star.

The next stop for Gibson would be obvious: The Passion of the Christ – the ultimate in celluloid bloodletting.

William Wallace
Mel Gibson
Longshanks, King Edward I
Patrick McGoohan
Princess Isabelle
Sophie Marceau
Argyle Wallace
Brian Cox
Murron
Catherine McCormack
Robert the Bruce
Angus MacFadyen
Hamish
Brendan Gleeson
Stephen
David O’Hara
Campbell
James Cosmo
Prince Edward
Peter Hanly
Mornay
Alun Armstrong
Young William
James Robinson
Malcolm Wallace
Sean Lawlor
John Wallace
Sandy Nelson
Elder Stewart
Alan Tall
MacClannough
Séan McGinley
Mother MacClannough
Gerda Stevenson
Phillip
Stephen Billington
Craig
John Kavanagh
Morrison
Tommy Flanagan
Mrs Morrison
Julie Austin
Lord Bottoms
Rupert Vansittart
Smythe
Michael Byrne
MacGregor
Tam White
Stewart
Donal Gibson
Nicolette
Jeanne Marine
Lord Dolecroft
Martin Dunne
Faudron
Jimmy Chisholm
Lochlan
John Murtagh
Lord Talmadge
Martin Murphy
Balliol
Bernard Horsfall
Cheltham
Gerard McSorley
Governor of York
Richard Leaf
Sean
Liam Carney

Director
Mel Gibson

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