Historical accuracies and inaccuracies of the William Wallace From the movie Braveheart - Essay Example

The movie portrays the life of William Wallace. The film premiered in July 1995 and became a spontaneous Box office success. As a film, the developers of the film employed specific film production techniques in order to earn it the reception it acquired soon after its release (Brown, 2007). The film portrayed the Scottish warrior in different perspectives often omitting some fundamental features of his life in an attempt of earning the film an appropriate adaptation. As a brave Scottish warrior, William Wallace led the scots against their first war of independence against the oppressive King Edward the first.

The producers set the film in an early Scottish society, it is 1920 and King Edward the first invades Scotland soon after the death of Alexandra the third of Scotland. In the invasion, Wallace witnesses the Longshanks commit atrocities in the inversion. He survives the murder to his mother father and brothers and therefore travels to Rome with the help of his uncle Argyle. After several years, Wallace returns to Scotland as a young man and immediately falls in love with his childhood friend, Murron MacClannough.

However, the society is different following the application of King Edward’s selfish legislations (McArthur, 2003). Among the most controversial of the legislations is that granting the English Lord the authority to have sexual relations with all the women in the kingdom on the eve of their wedding night. In oorder to avoid the king sleeping with his fiancee, Wallace and Murron marry in secrecy. Later, Wallace rescues Murron from eminent rape by English soldiers. The soldiers arrest and execute Murron in public.

In a revenge attack, Wallace attacks and kills English soldiers. The following is a series of conflicts between Wallace and the English authorities as Edward orders his son Edward the second to use every means possible to stop Wallace. Even in death, Wallace maintains a bold personality and refuses to beg for mercy from the English authorities. While facing a public execution, the magistrate pleads with Wallace to beg for mercy from the government and therefore have a quick and painless life.

Instead of begging for his life, Wallace shouts freedom to the jubilation of the Scottish people who view him as a hero. As the film ends, a setting in the 1934 Scotland, Robert who is now the king of Scotland leads his army into a fight against the English in the memory of Wallace. The war finds the English unprepared and the scots earn their first freedom from the English rule. The developers of the film employ various film production features including both the setting and the plot in order to earn the story relevance from its contemporary audience.

In doing this, the developers either omitted or added specific details to both the characters and the actions. In doing so, the producers foster some accuracies and inaccuracies about Wallace’s life and the society in which he lived. Key among the lacking details in the film is his background. The producers of the film provide a brief recap of his childhood. The film begins with the English inversion of Scotland with the young Wallace witnessing the murder of his parents and the atrocities the English lord commits.

Such are scanty details that do not help build an effective understanding of the legendary Sir William Wallace. However, the scanty details are in line with the information known about his family, Wallace came from a less noble family. Historians do not provide a detailed information about his family. Blind Harry in his poem posits that Wallace’s father was known as Sir Malcom of Elderslie. The discovery of a letter written by Wallace himself and contained his seal provides Wallace’