The movie Braveheart takes place in Scotland in the 13th century. The main subject is Scotland’s fight for independence, but there are also other subjects like love and faithfulness. The main caracter is William Wallace, who gets the whole Scotland to fight with him against the Englishmen.

Summary

Williams’s father and brother died fighting against the Englishmen when he was a little child. He was taken care of by his uncle and travelled around Europe with him until he was about 20 years old. Then he returned to his originally home place. Here William fell in love with a girl, Murron, and they got married secretly. They kept it secret because Longshanks gave all the English nobles the right to rape all new-married women before the husband could touch them, and William didn’t want to share Murron with any English noble. Unfortunately Murron almost got raped, and then killed by the English soldiers. William, with revenge in mind, attacked the English soldiers. He and the rest of the village managed to kill all the soldiers.

William created an army, and they fought against the Englishmen. They won, and William got the title Sir for his work. Afterwards they burned an English garnison and told the ones who survived: “I am William Wallace, and the rest of you will be spared. Go back to England, and tell them there that Scotland's daughters and her sons are yours no more. Tell them Scotland is free.” Then they invaded York, and took over the city. They also sendt the head from the dead master of York to Longshanks. King Edward of England sends his son’s wife, Princess Isabella, to York to give William an offer he couldn’t refuse; money and land. Isabella and William talked in private and William said that he couldn’t take her offer. She asked about his wife, and he told her what happened to her. When Isabella came back to London, the king told everybody that they would send troops to destroy Scotland when William was not there. Isabella sendt her maid to York with a letter to warn William.

William and his army went back to Scotland to prepare themselves for a new battle. William got three of the nobles in the area with him, including Sir Robert Bruce that admired

William for his courage and strong will. When they came to the battlefield, the nobles abandoned William and his army alone with the Englishmen. They lost, but William survived. The most shocking experience for William was that Bruce had changed side and joined the Englishmen.

William went to meet Bruce, but he got captured by some English soldiers. Bruce tried to help him, but he didn’t manage. William didn’t beg for mercy, and he got tortured, and then executed. His last word was when he shouted “freedom”.

The film finishes off with Robert the Bruce saying: “In the year of our Lord 1314, patriots of Scotland, starving and outnumbered, charged the fields at Bannockburn. They fought like warrior poets. They fought like Scotsmen. And won their freedom.”

Characterisation

William: William is the main character in this film, the person who fights against the Englishmen. William was a man who fought for his land with body and mind. He never gave up his dream of a free Scotland. He was from an early age interested in the fight for independence, and when his father and brother died in a battle against the Englishmen, his dream of independence grew stronger.

William was six and a half feet tall and had long brown hair. He wore a kilt like a normal Scottish man, and his clothes and hair was dirty.

William fell in love with Murron the moment he saw her. He looked her up the minute he got to the village, and asked her out on a horse ride in the rain. This shows that William was a direct person, and wasn’t shy to ask Murron out.

When William had married Murron, he didn’t originally want to fight against the Englishmen. He wanted to settle down, and get children. Unfortunately Murron got killed and his hate against the Englishmen rose.

William fell in love with Isabella because he saw the strength in her that he had seen in Murron. He told Isabella about his wife “I see her strength in you”.

Murron: Murron is one of the most important persons in Braveheart because she’s the reason why William started to fight against the Englishmen. Murron was one of the women in the village where William lived. She had brown hair and always a smile on her face. She had known William her whole life, but she didn’t fell in love with him before he came back from his journeys around the world. Originally, Murron was a quiet and a little bit shy, but she loosened up a bit when she fell in love with William.

Murron was a bit shy, but she was also a strong person who said what she meant all the time. She had a strength that William admired her for. She was killed because of the crime of being in love and because she got married secretly.

Sir Robert Bruce: Robert the Bruce lived like a king. He had fine and clean clothes and much land. For him, the clothes and land meant nothing. He admired William very much, and he could gladly give all of his land away for the strength and will for freedom William had. The only person who stood in his way was his father. The only person he listened to, except himself, was his father. His father was the one who made him change side to the Englishmen’s, and when he saw the disappointment in Williams’s eyes, he never listened to his father again. He led the Scots to victory when William was dead. I think he is important in this film because his caracter tells me that I should listen to myself, and don’t let anyone else take for example important decisions for me. He led the Scots to victory with following words before the battle: “You have bled with Wallace, now bleed with me.”

Edward the King: King Edward was also known as Edward Longshanks. He is important in this film because he was the one who were fighting against William, the one who stood against him and captured him in the end. He was old and had grey hair. Longshanks was a ruthless king. He did everything to stop William, since he also sacrificed his own men, lots of them, to get rid of William. For example when Longshanks ordered the archers to shoot on the Scots, when he also would hit his own men, to kill William. Every threat to him and his power and land made him do anything to stop what may come. He died right after William, and he was glad to know that William was dead.

The French Princess: Princess Isabella was sent from France to marry the prince of England, and had an important role in Williams’s life. She had long brown hair, and was very pretty. She was a strong person. Isabella fell in love with William because of his passion for Scotland and because he was so in love with his dead wife that he fought like a hero. After she had met William in York Isabella decided to help him. She was so upset when William was about to be tortured and then executed, that she offered him a drink that would ease his pains before he got tortured. Her plan when Longshanks died was to be queen and don’t let her husband rule England. She even said that to Longshanks when he was dying and lost his power of speech: You see, death comes to us all. But before it comes to you, know this. Your plot dies with you. A child who is not of your line grows in my belly. Your son will not sit long on the thrown, I swear it.

Analysis

I think this is a good film because it has all the qualities I’m looking for in a movie. It has humour, action and romance. It also has an inspiring story that I became interested in. It was also very realistic and trustworthy. This is now one of my favourite films and that says a lot of how much I liked it.

My opinion is that everybody that’s interested in history and likes a good film should watch this one. I learned a lot about William Wallace and Scotland’s fight for independence in the same time as I could enjoy a good story. In that way I sort of killed to birds with one stone seeing this film.

Braveheart can’t be put in a specific genre since it has so many different genres. It’s both a drama-movie, an action-movie and a romantic-movie. The whole film also contents some humoristic elements. This is maybe to soften up the film a bit.

The rating on this film is 15 years, and I think that’s suitable for a film like this. It could maybe be 13 years as well, but lower than 13 years hadn’t been suitable. The film has some violence scenes (for example all the battles, the people in the cottage hanged in the beginning of the film and William being tortured) that I think children aged less than 13 years shouldn’t see. Without the violence the film hadn’t been that god, since the film “needs” violence to underline the fact that many in both Scotland and England suffered under this war. It had also been unrealistic without the violence.

Braveheart is very close telling the “true” story (no one knows what really happened so long time ago), but there is some not real episodes in the film. For example there’s no evidence that William had a wife, Murron, and there’s no evidence that he had even met Princess Isabella. The reason that the directors in this film decided to add some romance is probably to soften the film up a bit to neutralize all the violence. The humour in this film, for example in the middle of a battle where all the Scots lifts up their kilts, is probably also added to neutralize.