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William Pranker

Week Two Essay: Literary Elements

This movie means a lot to me. It was one of the best movies ever made. Mel Gibson

played the best role he has ever played in his career. It meant that any peasant could rise up and

take charge. Then all you need is an army to stand behind you and you can accomplish anthing

you set your heart on.

Braveheart is a 1995 Academy-award winning action-drama film produced and directed

by Mel Gibson, who also starred in the title role. The film was written for screen and then

novelized by Randall Wallace. Gibson portrays the legendary Scot, William Wallace, who

gained recognition when he came to the forefront of the First War of Scottish Independence by

opposing Edward I of England, also known as Edward the Longshanks, (portrayed by Patrick

McGoohan) and subsequently abetted by Edward's daughter-in-law Princess Isabelle (played by

Sophie Marceau) and a claimant to the Scottish throne, Robert the Bruce (played by Angus

Macfadyen).

Mel Gibson, long-time heartthrob of the silver screen, came into his own as a director

with Brave heart, an account of the life and times of medieval Scottish patriot William Wallace

and, to a lesser degree, Robert the Bruce's struggle to unify his nation against its English

oppressors. The story begins with young Wallace, whose father and brother have been killed

fighting the English, being taken into the custody of his uncle, a nationalist and pre-Renaissance

renaissance man. He returns twenty years later, a man educated both in the classics and in the art

of war. There he finds his childhood sweetheart Murron (Catherine McCormack), and the two
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quickly fall in love. There are murmurs of revolt against the English throughout the village, but

Wallace remains aloof, wishing simply to tend to his crops and live in peace. However, when his

love is killed by English soldiers the day after their secret marriage (held secretly so as to prevent

the local English lord from exercising the repulsive right of prima noctae, the privilege of

sleeping with the bride on the first night of the marriage), he springs into action and single-

handedly slays an entire platoon of foot soldiers. The other villagers join him in destroying the

English garrison, and thus begin the revolt against the English in what will eventually become

full-fledged war. Wallace eventually leads his fellow Scots in a series of bloody battles that

prove a serious threat to English domination and, along the way, has a hushed affair with the

Princess of Wales (the breathtaking Sophie Marceau) before his imminent demise.

“You’re so concerned with squabbling for the scraps from Longshank’s table that you’ve

missed your Godgiven right to something better. There is a difference between us. You think the

people of this country exist to provide you with position. I think your position exists to provide

those people with freedom. And I go to make sure that they have it.” This is one of the best

quotes in the whole movie. It was well spoken by William Wallace.

Thematically, Braveheart explores the definitions of honor and nobility, reinforcing what

we've always known: that true nobility is not the result of your birthright, but that it arises from

the way you live your life. It's an excellent reminder that stays with you long after the film is

over, and that is all too rare in Hollywood these days.

I found this movie very meaningful to my personality. I am come that you might have life

abundantly. This means that if you live life God's way, then you will have life in all its fullness.

This does not necessarily mean that you won't have any problems, on the contrary, life can be
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more difficult for the Christian, but we have the Lord to help and strengthen us through our

difficulties as we are in relationship with Him. Really live is definitive of the individual. Really

living to me may be spending my life doing good for humanity, where really living to you may

be experiencing life, traveling, learning. Very few people chase their dreams. Their dreams are

what living is about. It has made me a very strong and thoughtful person towards others. I

understand the concept of the love and the powers that it has over people, and as long as they

have that they have it all.