Released in 1995 and directed by Mel Gibson, the story of Braveheart takes place during the first War of Scottish Independence and follows the trials and tribulations of the historical figure of William Wallace. With my previous studies I have focused on the production and research techniques used in an attempt to make a film appear authentic. Braveheart, although still admired by many, falls down on many issues with regards to historical accuracy, many of which will be examined in this investigation.
[1]The film was written by screenwriter and main characters namesake Randall Wallace. Anecdotally Wallace explains that during a holiday he conceived the idea of developing the story of William Wallace on the big screen. This would undoubtedly prove to be difficult with regards to historical accuracy as he explains “The actual facts of William Wallace’s life as established by historians are miniscule”. This leaves areas like character development and also story with relation to some sort of accurate timeline, a very hard task to make work. Mel Gibson himself admits that “there is a lot of legend that surrounds the character” and that the details are “kind of sketchy”. Another quote from Wallace suggests that a lot of artistic licence was taking with the history of this Scottish Knight. Wallace talks about the development of the character, “Those legends gave me a window into who the man truly was”. Unfortunately Wallace contradicts himself in this sentence by claiming that he used the “legend” to find out who Wallace “truly” was, the term legend, not meaning a fact but more of an unverified story. The issue of William Wallace’s ancestry is also brought into debate as Mel Gibson claims that Wallace was “a commoner”, however historical sources have pointed to the fact that Wallace was a descended from a noble named Richard Wallace [2]. The death of Wallace’s father is also inaccurately stated to a hanging at the hands of the English, historians suggest that Richard Wallace was killed in a skirmish Loudon Hill [3]. Even the name “Braveheart” is a name taken from a description of Robert the Bruce not William Wallace[4]. There are many more historical inaccuracies with relation to the story however I will now focus on the filming of Braveheart.
[5]A production’s costume design is of significant importance when re-creating a historical setting. The level of accuracy and authenticity depends a great deal on the outfits used by the cast. Braveheart suffers because of the attire of its main character and his “countrymen”. The incorrect clothing that historians point to is the appearance of the kilt worn by the depicted Scottish commoners. Sharon L. Krossa states that “In the 13th century (and the 14th, 15th, and most of the 16th), no Scots, whether Gaels or not, wore belted plaids (let alone kilts of any kind)” [6]. Krossa goes on to explain that when the Scottish Gaels actually began to wear their belts outside their pants they didn’t do it in the “bizarre style depicted in the film” [7]. Braveheart’s DVD extras hold a revealing moment where Gibson talks about the different armoury and weaponry used in the film. The moment comes as Gibson holds up a sleeve that he intends to wear as he plays the character of William Wallace. The sleeve is designed to wear over the forearm for protection and has a few arrowheads super glued on. The problem with this is that the sleeve was designed and created by Mel Gibson himself and not somebody with some knowledge of weaponry from that period. It suggests that Gibson thinks of Wallace as somewhat of a superhero and is customising him in his own desired way.
Braveheart was filmed at Scotland and Ireland with most of the battle scenes filmed in Ireland. This would provide Braveheart with a strong realistic setting and in defence of the film for some sequences it certainly does. However the issue of historical inaccuracy re-appears again, this can be examined with the opening scenes of the film. The West Highlands of Scotland are originally shown, this an area which is not at the centre of Scotland and did not involve Wallace’s rise against Edward, nor was it the birth place of Wallace [8]. However, the setting for Braveheart would provide some realistic weather shots as the filming took place during some typical Scottish rain showers. The cast can be seen trenching through mud at one point giving a very realistic struggle that the weather would cause to the people at that time. Braveheart executive producer Stephen McEveety best describes the aesthetic appeal “It created a look that we would not have had if the weather hadn’t designed it for us”.
[9]Despite its failings with authenticty and general historical accuracy Braveheart was a commercial success and would go on to win 5 Academy Awards out of a possible 10. Braveheart would eventually gross over $200 million, not quite making it into the top ten highest grossing films of 1995 but making it a critical hit nonetheless. However it is the films’ storyline and battle sequences which are the main attraction, despite the evident unrealistic events that surround them. Mel Gibson would own up to the inaccuracies in an interview with The Times (UK) in 2009 and shed some light onto the reasoning behind these deliberate mistakes. Talking about what Gibson thought the real Wallace was like he states “He wasn’t as nice as the character we saw up there on the screen. We romanticised him a bit. We shifted the balance because someone’s got to be the good guy against the bad guy; that’s the way stories are told.” [10] With this quote it becomes quite obvious that Mel Gibson values areas such as story structure over authenticity or accuracy. It should be noted however, that not one of Mel Gibson’s directorial films which are set as a period piece (Braveheart, The Passion of the Christ 2004, Apocalypto, 2006), have failed to reach the $100 million mark at box offices worldwide [11].
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