Revista simpozionului Eficienta si calitate in educatie 2018 Revista simpozionului | Page 61
INFORMATION POINT
BRAVEHEART (1995) - Mel Gibson's "Braveheart" is a red-blooded battle
epic about William Wallace, the legendary Scots warrior who led his nation into
battle against the English in the years around 1300. It's an ambitious film, big on
simple emotions like love, patriotism and treachery.
Not much is known about Wallace, known as Braveheart, except that according to
an old epic poem, he unified the clans of Scotland and won famous battles against
the English before being captured, tortured and executed as a traitor.
History vs Braveheart
2. Read the following text and fill in the chart below.
The Film starts in 1280, with the king of Scots dead and Edward I having invaded Scotland
and claiming the throne for himself.............In reality, King of Scots Alexander III was still alive
and well in 1280, he did not die until 1286.Edward I did not impose himself on Scotland until
1290 when he was invited to judge on the claimants to the throne. Edward I never actually
claimed the throne himself but after demanding all candidates for King recognise him as the
supreme leader of Scotland, placed John Balliol on the Scottish throne to be used as a puppet
king. Edward would strip Balliol of his crown in 1296 after the war between the Scottish and
English breaks out.
In the Film William Wallace’s father is Malcolm Wallace whom is later killed along with young
William’s brother John, after which William’s uncle Argyle adopts the young boy.............. In
reality, We now know that William
Wallace’s father’s name was Alan Wallace,
not Malcolm, and he would not have been
killed when William was a boy, in fact he
was likely alive when William was fighting
his rebellion. William had a brother named
Malcolm though, in addition to his brother
John. His brother John Wallace however
was not killed when William was a boy, he
was executed by the English in 1306, a
year after William’s execution. Uncle
Argyle was a fictional character.
In the film, William Wallace returns to
Scotland about 1296, a man, after years of
being away, visiting Rome with his uncle
etc.............In reality, Pure fiction, Wallace
in all accounts grew up in Scotland and
likely never left his native land at any point
as a child or youth. In fact he likely never left Scotland until his invasion of Northern England in
1297.
In the Film, Edward II marries Isabella of France around 1296, before Wallace’s rebellion
starts............In reality, Edward II did not marry Isabella of France until 1308, three years after
Wallace’s death!
In the film, Wallace falls in love with Murron, and secretly weds her. After which she is killed
and William gets revenge on the Sheriff and English who cut her throat by cutting
his................In reality, Wallace may have indeed fell in love with and married a young woman,
although her name wouldn’t have been Murron, legend says her name was Marion
In the Film, the battle of Stirling takes place upon an open field. In reality, The battle of Stirling
Bridge took place at a bridge not an open field. The filmmaker’s doing the battle of Stirling
Bridge without an actual bridge was rather ludicrous, the whole key to the battle was the Scots
charging down on the English as they were in the process of still crossing the bridge and
unprepared and became too hemmed in after the battle begun and limited their mobility as the
Scots cut them down.
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