Braveheart - Motivational Speech - Inspirational Speech

This is the best capture for analysis -- both the emotional setup and emotional ending are included, unlike other clips of this scene.

Wallace: Sons of Scotland, I am William Wallace.

Young soldier: William Wallace is 7 feet tall.

Wallace: Yes, I've heard. Kills men by the hundreds, and if he were here he'd consume the English with fireballs from his eyes and bolts of lightning from his arse. I AM William Wallace. And I see a whole army of my countrymen here in defiance of tyranny. You have come to fight as free men, and free men you are. What would you do without freedom? Will you fight?

Veteran soldier: Fight? Against that? No, we will run; and we will live.

Wallace: Aye, fight and you may die. Run and you'll live -- at least a while. And dying in your beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom!!!

Wallace was never called "braveheart" in his lifetime. That is a complete Mel Gibson fiction. Robert the Bruce, on the other hand, was called "brave heart."

Wallace wasn't a poor commoner, he was the son of a minor nobleman, landed gentry, and knight. And there's no surviving historical evidence that Jus Primae Noctis was anything other than a fiction created by a traveling minstrel known as Blind Harry.

The kilt -- even the great kilt, the feileadh mòr -- wasn't invented until 300 years post-Wallace.

Same with the 2-handed broadsword. Invented ~300 years post-Wallace.

There was no Irish contingent at Falkirk. On either side.

And did you notice something a little conspicuous missing from the film's depiction of the Battle at Stirling bridge? Like, oh, I don't know, ... a bridge ?

The Scots were also missing their commander. Andrew de Moray was in command at Stirling, not William Wallace.

And none of Wallace's soldiers are shown as wearing chainmail. When Caesar came to Brittania in 55 and 54 BC, he and his men were wearing chainmail. So it had been known in those parts for more than a thousand years pre-Wallace.

You won't have much of an opportunity to grow an experienced army without it because without chainmail your combat experience very likely will be one and done.

Other than that, ... great film. [roll eyes]

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