In the film Mel Gibson’s Braveheart famously shouted freedom, while being racked to death at the front of the Tower of London
Rumour has it that screening of the film, Braveheart, was temporarily banned during the campaign for and against Scottish independence. Obviously an American Hollywood blockbuster, people in charge of the campaigns knew that the film had been and could be attacked according to its veracity. Further, they probably also acknowledged the original motive of the film was to tell the story of a post-colonial myth developed in the British Colonies in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Nevertheless there is no doubt that the film had a tremendous impact when it was first shown in Scotland. “For Braveheart played upon renewed desires for Scottish autonomy and independence, causing an enormous stir in Scotland, where it was eagerly grasped by politicians and commentators of all political hues for its metaphorical message, writes Tim Edensor (p. 106)
But who was the man? What were his aspirations? And what role did he in fact play?
These questions are if not central, they are at least part of what a group of dedicated historians try to uncover in connection with the project: The Breaking of Britain. http://www.breakingofbritain.ac.uk/news/ So far they have uncovered hitherto unknown sources recounting the way he died as well as more details about the actual role he played in the wars for independence.
Not yet published though, we have to turn to the most recent scholarly publication, The Wallace Book, in which we are told about the man and what can be known about his personality, ingenuity and abilities and how he initiated the resistance movement, which ultimately secured the freedom and independence of the nation. Later the legend overtook the man and an important part of the book explores what the figure Wallace meant to different generations of scots – at home and abroad.
Wish to read more about Scotland the Brand and its medieval icons? Please follow the links below
Names, Sprigs, Feathers, Tartans and Kilts
READ MORE:
The Wallace Book
By Edward J. Cowan, Editor
East Linton: Tuckwell Press (now Birlinn) 2007
Mediating William Wallace. Audio-visual technologies in tourism
By Tim Edensor
In: The Media and the Tourist Imagination: Converging Cultures
Ed. by David Crouch,Rhona Jackson,Felix Thompson
Routledge 2005
ISBN-10: 0415326257
ISBN-13: 978-0415326254
The Ghost in the Luggage. Wallace and Braveheart: Post-Colonial ‘pioneer’ identitities.
By Sally Morgan, University of the West of England
In: European Journal of Cultural Studies 1999, Vol 2. No. 3, pp. 375 -392