On Tuesday, February 21st, channel in the UK is showing a documentary about the truth behind Mel Gibson's (dire, IMO), 'Braveheart'. I hadn't realised how influential this film was until Kathryn - on her marvellous Edward II blog - revealed that 'William Wallace was the father of Edward III' was one of the most popular searches on her website. Just a simple check on the dates easily proves this a myth, but unfortunately, Gibson's slander has become accepted as truth for some cinema-goers. I've no idea what this documentary is like, but I'm looking forward to it. I'm wondering if Piers will get a mention, as in 'Braveheart' he has morphed into 'Phillip' and is thrown out of a window by Edward Ist - as if! I've only ever sat through 'Braveheart' once completely, and that was a big effort on my part, and then watched clips of it. It is strewn with errors - even the Beefeaters at the Tower of London mock it - and I just wonder whether a 60 minute documentary will be long enough to expose every mistake. I'll report back on the documentary after it's screened.
Here's a link to Kathryn's brilliant and well-researched article on the slander of Edward II and his children -
http://edwardthesecond.blogspot.com/2011/02/edward-ii-and-his-children-and-why.html
2 days ago
7 comments:
Last meeting of my medieval fight club, I tried to find any single thing that was true or accurate about Mel Gibson's Braveheart. He didn't wear blue woad, he didn't wear plaid, or a kilt or speak English or Gaelic. His mortal enemies actually were the highlanders as well as the English. Oh wait, he was outlawed for killing an English soldier. Okay, it was a game warden, and it was for poaching a salmon. Okay, for a moment there....
And didn't the battle of Sterling Bridge have, um...a "bridge" somewhere in it? Somewhere?
No, we decided that there was NOTHING that was accurate in that movie. Much of it "could" have been made much more accurate and would have supported the "cause" of Scottish separatism even better, but no...they went for the transparent propaganda EVERY time!
Hope he enjoyed his trip to the four corners of the kingdom. He clearly deserved it.
Thank you for the mention and the link, Anerje! I'm really looking forward to the documentary too. It shocks me how often people find my blog by searching for 'William Wallace father of Isabella's children' or similar. At least they're looking and will find the correct info, I suppose, but it's still infuriating. I can always tell when Braveheart has been on television somewhere, as within a few hours the blog gets many dozens of these searches!
A medieval fight club - wow! Braveheart is just ridiculously full of historical errors, but as Kathryn says, people who know nothing or very little about the subject believe what they see - which is such a shame! I find it laughable in places - the blue woad/kilt wearing is hilarious. But then Isabella becoming pregnant by William Wallis just isn't funny. I'm wondering how many errors this documentary will uncover - 60 mins won't be enough:>
And Kathryn - I hope your site gets a lot of hits after the documentary!
I got LOADS of hits a few hours ago for some version of 'William Wallace impregnated Isabella'. Apparently Braveheart was on TV in the US, as I suspected. Groan!
OMG - talk about the influence of tv!
Lol, I had no idea of the coincidence.
Maybe I should check for waves of 'Sarmatians in Britain' to see how often that King Arthur mostrosity airs. ;)
Post a Comment