HOLLYWOOD LIE

Braveheart
(Mel Gibson 1995)

Who whoo?!Braveheart.One of the best epic stories.One of my personal favourite as well.William Wallace has long been a rallying figure for angry drunken Scots.But ruddy-faced nationalist who based their rants on Mel Gibson’s whooping 53 million epic are on shaky ground.The approach on Wallace’s anti British was far from the truth.

Actually,rather than being a poor man-of-the-people,aiming to break free the Scots from the Brits,Wallace was actually a landed commoner with a good education background,whose primary motive for fighting the Brits was to protect his own property.”There was a huge level of self interest in that character”says Andy Robertshaw,head of education at the Army Museum at Chelsea “Its utterly wrong to see him as a patriotic figure who wanted t o build a complete Scotland”.The film also shows Wallace bequeathing a son to the English princess Isabella,much to the chagrin of her Scot hating husband Edward.However,in reality both of them had never met and Isabella didn’t marry until 1308(3 years after Wallace’s execution) and her son wasn’t born until1312.Quite the humanist in the film,she was actually a bloodthirsty harridan who later had her husband murdered before launching an invasion of Scotland!

Almost every detail of the battle was incorrect in Gibson's tale,there were no historical records of Bruce siding wuth the English king.Similarly with the Scottish nobles deserting Wallace and the Irish troops turning against the English.

Finally,the blue face paint!Actually it went out of style with the Celts just about A THOUSAND YEARS earlier!