Braveheart
This 3-hour movie tells the story of Scot/English relations from 1280 (when William Wallace was about eight) to 1314 (the Battle of Bannockburn, when The Bruce gave the English their soundest defeat ever at Scottish hands). Now, don't go get all excited about historical accuracy! There are a number of things, some of them quite important to the plot, which did not and could not have happened historically. For example, Isabelle, Edward II's wife, was not only not married to Eddie at the time of the Wallace rebellion, but she was only seven years old then and thus could not have warned Wallace of the rebellion, much less fall in love with him or have his child. On the other hand, the movie does closely follow the only source on Wallace's early life, a biographical 15th-century poem written by Henry the Minstrel (better known as "Blind Harry").
There were a lot of good points to the movie. The oxen. The realism of the battles-and their aftermath. The coats of plate. The Princess of Wales. The effect of a heavy horse charge at full gallop. Some of the mail coifs. The massed flights of arrows. Much of the costuming. The fight choreography. Finding out once and for all what Scots wear under their kilts. Unfortunately, some of the mail coifs appeared to be worn with arming caps-ouch! There was too much dirt (even the poorest people were cleaner than that), and all that Irish music in a film about Scotland just didn't sit well. And too many people wore the arms of England on their tabards (Longshanks and his personal herald would have, but not every petty officer and fighting man).
Academy Award nominations to Mel Gibson as William Wallace for "Freedom!" and for looking so sexy in a kilt.
Dasvid Appleton
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LadyJanet@RenaissanceMagazine.com