Poll: The best and worst Best Movie of the last 40 years

Fabulous book, so-so movie.

Knucklehead on March 15, 2009 at 2:01 PM

No KH, both were good. Now we have to duel.

hawkdriver on March 15, 2009 at 2:05 PM

Braveheart struck me as a movie put together by people who cared for accuracy. Before the invention of gunpowder, what would be the command for a group of archers to release their arrows? “Loose!” certainly is a better word than “Fire!” Although using “fire” instead of “loose” or “shoot” would not disqualify a best picture nominee, it shoud deserve an asterisk.

Pelayo on March 15, 2009 at 9:22 PM

Sorry, I loved BH but it is filled with goofs and historical inaccuracies. From the IMDB:

Incorrectly regarded as goofs: This is neither a biopic nor a historical documentary but is, rather, a romantic fiction inspired by true events. Many of the “real” characters and events have been deliberately reinterpreted to suit the story, as have some details of costume and custom.

This is my own. The entire premise of the Battle of Stirling in the movie is incorrect in the manner in which it was fought and won. The battle involved a narrow bridge that the British made the mistake of committing troops to one side of in too small a numbers to adequately present a superior force. Wallace took advantage of that and then advantage of their inability to retreat across the same bridge. In fact the correct title of the engagement is The Battle of Stirling “Bridge”.

Factual errors: King Edward II was almost certainly not gay or bisexual.

Factual errors: King Edward II was always bearded, even when Prince of Wales.

Audio/visual unsynchronized: A man is playing the Highland Pipes at William’s father’s funeral, but they sound like Uillean Pipes. This was a deliberate artistic decision because “they sounded better”.

Revealing mistakes: MacGregor is shown standing in the background at Murron’s funeral, but he doesn’t arrive in Wallace’s town until the next scene.

Anachronisms: When Wallace’s wife’s throat is cut, a white Ford Transit van can be seen briefly in the distance.

Anachronisms: After Wallace makes love to the future queen he rides off and is then part of a group riding down a long and winding road. Far off in the distance (at the bottom of the hill) a car or van can be seen moving towards the camera.

Factual errors: Wallace sleeps with the English princess, Isabella of France, however, at the time this film is set, Isabella was two years old according to many western civilization books. She was not in her teens or early twenties as depicted in the film.

Factual errors: Wallace and Edward I are seen dying at the same time, when in fact, Edward I died 2-3 years after Wallace.

Factual errors: Whenever pipes are heard in the movie, they are never Highland pipes. Highland pipes (characteristic of Scotland) are shown, but what are actually played are Uillean pipes which are Irish.

Factual errors: It is a widely accepted historical fact that woad (the blue face-paint Wallace and his men wear during battle scenes) was not used by Scottish warriors during the 13th century, but was in fact used much earlier by ancient Celtic warriors, and was obsolete by Wallace’s time.

Factual errors: Several costumes in the movie depict Scottish men wearing tartan and other checkered cloth. Tartan and such checkered cloths of this type did not begin to appear until 16th century, and were not worn in battle until the Battle of Culloden in the 1700s. It would not have been worn in the 13th century.

Errors in geography: The landscape in the opening credits and early scenes is the Western Highlands (specifically Glen Nevis) which look utterly unlike the Western Lowlands where Wallace grew up. Wallace never visited the Western Highlands.

Factual errors: At the funeral of Wallace’s father, the child Murron plucks a thistle, the symbol of Scotland, and gives it to the boy Wallace. This is both physically impossible (every species of thistle in the British Isles is so prickly and so tough-stemmed that you could only wrench one from its stem wearing protective gloves) and symbolically absurd (the toughness and prickliness of the thistle is its whole point as a symbol of Scottishness).

Factual errors: Wallace and many other Scottish characters ride horses while dressed in kilts. Even in times and places where the kilt was genuinely worn (it wasn’t worn anywhere in Scotland in Wallace’s time, and at no time in history was it worn in Wallace’s part of Scotland), men who expected to ride anywhere wore trews, not kilts, for the very good reason that it would have been an extremely painful and impractical experience; no underwear was ever worn under the kilt.

hawkdriver on March 16, 2009 at 3:53 AM