February 7, 2003

Braveheart
The Bruce, Stirling

I was amused to find the film Braveheart being cited to discredit PJ's interpritation of Tolkien's work. Mel Gibson's immagining of the life of William Wallace makes PJ's work look verbatum. Anyone with a smattering of knowledge about Scottish history knows what liberties were taken with the facts. Certain scenes in the film, despite its rampant Scottish Nationlism, were greeted with derisory laughter in the Stirling cinema where I first saw it. It may be a cliche but never were the words "Don't let the truth get in the way of a good story" more apropriate. If pike was the answer to cavalry then the practice would have died out in the 14th Century.