Movies & Tartan

Hi!

Tonight I suggest to watch a movie:

BRAVEHEART directed by Mel Gibson.




The 1995 movie with Mel Gibson and Sophie Marceau is an awe-inspiring cinematic portrayal of Scottish freedom fighter William Wallace a 13th-century Scottish warrior and his greatest accomplishments. William Wallace is a Scottish rebel who leads an uprising against the cruel English ruler Edward the Longshanks, who wishes to inherit the crown of Scotland for himself. When he was a young boy, William Wallace's father and brother, along with many others, lost their lives trying to free Scotland.


I have watched it one month ago and it's a really nice film. But be careful the film is a “historical fantasy” and shouldn’t be taken as the accurate portrayal of Wallace’s life (but that does not devalue it). Traditionally the visual sign of clanship and district, tartan was popularized outside Scotland by the tartan-clad Highland regiments and Queen Victoria's royal endorsement. Hollywood has continued to sustain the romantic fictions of tartan like in Braveheart.

William Wallace’s origins is wrong in the movie. Wallace was portrayed as a poor man who was secretly married right before he got in trouble with the English. Actually, he was a landed commoner with a good education. Moreover the Scots didn’t paint their faces for battle, the distinctive blue face paint—called “woad”— in the movie was not real. To finish William Wallace never once in his life wore a clan tartan kilt, what we saw in Braveheart was not worn in the 13^th century.

However I definitely recommend it to you!!!


Other film's suggestion with nice tartan:

Coming to America with Eddie Murphy in his McDowell's tartan uniform!
Summury: an African prince goes to Queens, New York City to find a wife whom he can respect for her intelligence and will.

And the second movie is Kill Bill, with Chiyaki Kuriyama as Go-Go Yubari, the kilted schoolgirl assassin.

Enjoy!