On August 23, 1305, William Wallace, a Scottish farmer and minor noble, was tried in London as a traitor against Edward I of England, known as Longshanks. Wallace had led bloody uprising after bloody uprising against Longshanks to displace the English from his native Scotland. At the trial for his life, William’s response to the charge of traitor was: “I could not be a traitor to Edward, for I was never his subject.”

Wallace was convicted and carted to his public execution, where he was slowly strangled, allowed to recover his breath, and then viciously and repeatedly tortured.

Near the end, the chief executioner bends over and speaks softly into Wiliam’s ear, offering one last chance to lessen the agony. “Beg for the King’s mercy,” the black-robed figure whispers, “Just say, ‘mercy.'” William Wallace draws a final brave deep breath and shouts from his heart for all to hear: “FREEDOM!”

For that final free defiant act, Wallace was beheaded and dismembered. His head was placed on a spike on London Bridge, and the pieces of his body were carried to various cities throughout England and Scotland to be publicly displayed. This was done so that all could remember the traitor. It worked, but not in the way his executioners had intended. William Wallace was never forgotten then or now. His was the braveheart of a warrior who never stopped beating and fighting and bleeding and crying for the freedom of his native people and their lands, for his Scotland. He was and is remembered as a patriot, not a traitor.

Mel Gibson played William Wallace and directed the film, “Braveheart.” For that, he received the Oscar for Best Actor and film the Oscar for Best Picture of 1994.

“Braveheart” is a historical film. In the details of its presentation and players, the show may be as much fiction as fact. For that, the film has been criticized. Overall, however, the picture can be seen as telling a broader and, in its own ways, perhaps a more accurate story of William and the times he inhabited. They were, by all accounts, very difficult times, and the film reflects this. The battle scenes are surreal in their barbarity. The nobles, English and Scottish, are as false and unreliable as the power-grabbers of any age. The romance is touching, if fancified, and little different than the endearing and fleeting loves of more modern days. The companions of William Wallace are as good a group of companions as those of any friend at any place since the beginnings of fellowships. And the ending is as cruel and undeserved as the suffering of any true and honest person at any time and in any place. For all this accumulated agelessness and wisdom, the picture and the director deserve both merit and award.

But, I would not stand alone, this is ethnomoviefamilyography, and for that we must turn to our family of viewers to hear the summary of their reported comments:

This is Mel Gibson at his medieval road-warrior best as the 13th Century Scottish hero William Wallace, fighting and slicing his away across the highlands against the treacherous King Longshanks of England and the traitorous nobles to win the freedom of his beloved homeland; the film was most liked for its history (though much of that has been fictionalized) and its message that truth and freedom do triumph (which did happen and is the show’s redeeming grace); the picture was not liked for the cruelty, violence, brutality and killing (though much of this is probably accurately documented); as violent shows go, this one did well, receiving five Academy Awards, including Best Director and Best Actor for Gibson, and with our ethnofamilymovieography audience, an 8.50 average rating, placing the movie at #23 of the first 68 Best Pictures; the single word for this show is, of course, freedom.

Freedom: Freedom is more important than goods, power and wealth.

At the end and to the future: Truth and freedom do triumph.

This is a deep and not easily understood message.

Better seen than said, as many truths are.

Which may be why we have movies.

That can be seen in their ways:

To be more fiction than fact.

And more true even.

Than the facts.

Perhaps?

Grandpa Jim