Braveheart

Braveheart is a 1995 American historical-drama film directed, produced by, and starring Mel Gibson. The epic film, based on the life of William Wallace, a Scottish national hero who participated in the First Scottish War of Independence, was the winner of five Oscars, including best picture.

Plot

In 1280, King Edward I of England invades and conquers Scotland following the death of Alexander III of Scotland, who left no heir to the throne. William Wallace witnesses a betrayal by the English king against a group of local feudal lords, survives the death of his father and his brother, and is taken abroad on a pilgrimage across Europe by his paternal uncle Argyle, where he is polite. Years later, Edward I grants his nobles lands and privileges in Scotland and likewise grants Scottish nobles, to gain their support, lands in England, including the primae nocte. Meanwhile, Wallace returns to Scotland and falls in love with his childhood friend Murron MacClannough, and the two secretly marry to avoid primae nocte. Wallace rescues Murron from being raped by English soldiers, but while fighting off her second attempt, Murron is captured and publicly executed. In revenge, Wallace leads his clan and murders the English garrison in his hometown and sends the invading Lanark garrison back to England.

The Longleg orders his son, Prince Edward, to stop Wallace by any means necessary as he must lead another campaign in defense of English strongholds in France. Wallace rebels against the English, and as the legend of him spreads, hundreds of Scots from the surrounding clans join him. Wallace leads his army to victory at the Battle of Stirling Bridge and then raids the now defenseless north of England without the army annihilated at Stirling, sacks the city of York killing Longleg's nephew and sending his severed head to the king, who in his anger himself defenestras Prince Edward's valet for his impertinences and for considering him incompetent to advise his son militarily. Wallace by his side seeks the help of Robert the Bruce, the son of nobleman Robert Bruce Sr. and claimant to the Scottish crown. Robert is dominated by his father, sick with leprosy, who wants to secure the throne for his son by submitting to the English. Concerned by the threat of rebellion, Longleg sends his son's wife, Elizabeth of France, to try to negotiate with Wallace as a diversion from sending another invasion force into Scotland, this time by sea.

After meeting him in person, Isabel falls for Wallace. Warned of the impending invasion by Elizabeth - Prince Edward had ordered levies and the King had reorganized them to invade Scotland - Wallace implores the Scottish nobility to take immediate action to counter the threat and retake the country. Leading the English army himself, King Edward confronts the Scots at Falkirk, where the nobles Lochlan and Mornay, having been bribed by the English king, betray Wallace, causing the Scots to lose the battle after a hail of fire. Welsh arrows that killed indiscriminately in the heat of the melee. As Wallace, with a piece of arrow stuck in his shoulder, charges at Longleg on horseback, he is intercepted by one of the king's spearmen, who turns out to be Robert Bruce, but full of remorse, Bruce leads Wallace to safety before that the English can capture it. Wallace kills Lochlan and Mornay for their treason and wages a guerrilla war against the English for the next seven years with the help of Isabel with whom he eventually has an affair. Robert sets up a meeting with Wallace in Edinburgh, but Robert's father has conspired with other nobles to capture and turn Wallace over to the English. Learning of his betrayal, Robert - battered in his attempt to save Wallace - rejects his father. Elizabeth takes revenge on King Edward, who is now terminally ill, by telling him that her lineage will be destroyed after her death, as she is now pregnant with Wallace's child.

In London, Wallace is brought before an English magistrate, tried for high treason, and sentenced to be publicly tortured and beheaded. Even as he is hanged, dragged and quartered, Wallace refuses to submit to the king as the crowd that initially jeered and reviled him later looks on in horror at his ordeal. As cries for mercy for him - to kill him immediately so that he stops suffering - come from the watching crowd deeply moved by the Scotsman's courage, the magistrate offers him one last chance, asking him to utter the word "mercy." 3. 4; and that he will be granted a quick death. Wallace shouts, & # 34; Freedom! & # 34;, and the judge orders his death considering that it is useless for him to suffer anymore. Moments before being beheaded, Wallace has a vision of Murron in the crowd smiling at him, but Wallace does not die in vain. Edward I dies, leaving his son, the weak Edward II, as successor to the throne.

In 1314, Robert, now King of Scotland, leads a Scottish army before a ceremonial line of English troops in the fields of Bannockburn, where he must formally accept English rule. As he begins to ride towards the English, he stops and invokes Wallace's memory, imploring his men to fight him as they fought Wallace. Robert then leads his army into battle against the stunned English, winning freedom for the Scots.

Cast

Soundtrack

Background

The soundtrack of the film published in 1995 was composed by the composer James Horner known for having made the soundtracks for the films Titanic, Avatar —both from James Cameron—, Legends of the Fall or A Wonderful Mind among others. The soundtrack includes a melody that later appeared in the 1997 Titanic soundtrack, which went on to sell 24 million copies and won several awards including two Grammys in 1998.

It is one of his most acclaimed works, nominated for an Oscar, a BAFTA Award and a Golden Globe. Due to this, it was the subject of a reissue in 1997 that was less acclaimed than the previous one and that included seven minutes of unpublished music and some sounds and dialogues from the movie.

Production

The production was carried out by composer James Horner himself.

Braveheart Content

Lyrical

The album was made instrumentally although the CD More music from Braveheart (1997) included spoken parts of the script with the same voices from the film.

Melodies and instrumentation

James Horner himself has stated that his works are influenced by Celtic music and precisely in this work the eighteen instrumental pieces, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, drink heavily from Scottish or Celtic music influences. Bagpipes, enveloping flutes, bodhrán drums, a children's choir and percussion were used to recreate this moving, melancholy and romantic epic setting.

Reception

Criticism

At Allmusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave the soundtrack two stars out of five, saying it captured "the film's patriotism and adventure perfectly". Soundtrack.net the writing team gave it a rating of four stars; He highlighted its "lack of masculinity" and its "Hosnerisms" as interesting aspects of it. The critic went on to say that although the repetitions of style were very evident, it could not be said that the work was not "intensely attractive" heard in the context of the film. As a negative aspect, he indicated that a repetition of sounds already used in other works by the London composer could be heard, although he achieved the romantic aspect of combining a romantic orchestra with the ethnic character. In closing they wrote that as a whole it is a well-arranged collection of Horner's best compositions.

Commercial

The album was nominated for an Academy Award as well as a Golden Globe and BAFTA Awards in 1995 and went on to be one of the composer's most acclaimed albums.

Song List

All songs written and composed by James Horner.

All songs written and composed by James Horner.

Comparisons with historical facts

William Wallace Statue modeled according to the image of Mel Gibson's character in Braveheart and inaugurated in 1997, adjacent to the National Wallace Monument box office.

• Sir William Wallace was Malcolm Wallace's second son, a landlord of Welsh descent. Other sources suggest, however, that the Wallaces of the Clyde region were in fact of kubrian ethnic origin; being this an ancient Celtic-British people that until the time of their extinction, it is estimated that at the beginning of the centuryXII, inhabited an area between the Lowlands and northern England. This town spoke a language very similar to Welsh. He was born noble, not peasant as in the film (although it is recognized that they had their own lands). He was born around 1270 in Elderslee (Ayrshire County). He was going to follow the ecclesiastical race but the death of his father because of an English incursion, in 1291, made him swear to revenge.
• The language of Wallace, Robert Bruce and in general of the Scots of the time was the Scottish Gaelic, as well as the language of the English aristocracy and royalty of the time (as well as of Robert Bruce himself and other noble Scots of Anglo-Normal origin) was the Anglo-North or Anglo-French, an oïl variant similar to the French proper,
• The right to pernate did not really exist as such right (except perhaps symbolically). It is included in the film to give the English domain a more vile appearance.
• The wife of the historic Wallace was Marian Braidfoot. Murron's name was changed to avoid confusion with Lady Marian, character of Robin Hood. Wallace had already begun to harass the English when Marian (Murron) was murdered as a reprisal by the English sheriff of Lanark, William de Hazelrig, in May 1297.
• Princess Elizabeth did not reach England until 1308 (with 16 years old), after the death of Wallace and Longshanks, to marry in a political marriage to the Prince of Wales, Edward II of England.
• The film does not mention the lieutenant of the historic Wallace, Sir Andrew Moray, one of the most important gentlemen of Scotland and acting from the north of the country. He died as a result of his wounds shortly after the Battle of Stirling.
• The Battle of Stirling Bridge, Wallace's great victory, was different from the figure in the film. The battle of the film is rather inspired by other medieval battles, such as Aljubarrota and Azincourt. Wallace's emotional speech before the battle is inspired by the Enrique V Shakespeare, but with the words of the centuryXX..
• The script of the film is based on a poem by the Blind Harry, Scottish poet of the centuryXV. But Harry extrapolated the era of Wallace the corruption and the anglophilia of the nobility of his time. Wallace and Moray were noble, Bruce, Balliol and other nobles also fought the invaders.
• In the battle of Falkirk the forces of Wallace are decimated by the Gallic archers, by the numerical superiority of the English and by the desertion of the nobles. Wallace received an arrow in his throat (in the film it is in the chest), but managed to survive and escape. However, Eduardo I could not conquer more than a small area of the country. Robert Bruce and others continued the resistance until Anglo-French peace and the fall of Stirling Castle in 1304 forced them to negotiate peace. The Irish were used as cannon meat, and it is to be imagined that they would not have sympathy for the English, but a change of band like that of the film is unlikely.
• Meanwhile, Wallace fled to the continent, where he sought support for the Scottish cause before King Philip IV of France, King Haakon V of Norway and Pope Bonifacio VIII. But the signing of the peace between England and France landed these efforts. This exile does not appear in the film, which places his stay abroad before of rebellion, instead of later.
• He could have stayed in France, but returned to Scotland to restart the rebellion, but he was betrayed by a noble collaborator, John Mentieth, in exchange for money. The English captured him in his hiding place in Glasgow, transferred to London, sentenced to death and executed in 1305.
• While in the film King Edward I of England dies almost at the same time Wallace does, he actually did it almost two years after this execution. Wallace was executed in 1305 and the king died in July 1307.

Awards

Oscar Awards

Golden Globe Awards

BAFTA Awards

1995 Film Writer Circle Medals