Braveheart Braveheart was one of the most interesting films produced during the 1990’s. Mel Gibson’s portrayal of William Wallace was horribly inaccurate but extremely interesting at the same time. Wallace’s undeniable dedication to loyalty, prowess and love really illustrated a devout sense of knight hood. Even more so, Wallace’s vengeance and the reputation that made him a world renowned knight to the people that helped him showed the power of knight hood in the movie.
Wallace starts off in the film as a small child and witnesses Longshanks’ ( Peter O Tulle) treachery, survives the deaths of his father and brother, then is taken abroad to Rome by his paternal Uncle, Argyle. Once grown he finds a woman he fell in love with during adolescence, named Murron MacClannough (Catherine McCormack) that is later executed after rebelling against English knights trying to rape her. The vengeance propelled by all of these factors is what makes Wallace a good warrior and eventually gets him dubbed a knight.
When Wallace sees his wife executed he goes on a rampage killing over ten of Longshanks’ soldiers within seconds on the screen, and then carries out a complete Scottish uprising against the English crown. Once Princess Isabella of France (Sophie Marceau) hears of this devotion to love and his country, she is infatuated with him from the start. This infatuation allows Wallace to have warnings of English attacks before they come, relations with Princess Isabella and eventually the upper hand in the war against the English.
Wallace’s determination and prowess in these attacks on the English also gained his alliance with Robert the Bruce (Angus Macfadyen) in the film. Though the first time doesn’t prove to be a successful alliance because the English crown buys off Robert the Bruce, it is not a reflection on Wallace as a knight, but the lack of traits of loyalty men who were not knights had. Once
