(22) Watch the history of film studies: "Braveheart" - the epic film of magic reform!

Today's recommendation is an old film, I believe many people have seen it, it is this "Braveheart".

The film was filmed in 1995 and self-directed by American star Mel Gibson, with a Douban score of 8.9.

The film received 10 nominations at the 68th Academy Awards and eventually won five Academy Awards – Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Sound, and Best Makeup – as the second directorial work, Gibson reached a new peak in his life.

Set against the backdrop of the war between England and Scotland in the 13th and 14th centuries, the film tells the story of William Wallace, the leader of the Scottish Uprising, who fought with the rulers of England and eventually became righteous.

It's the pinnacle of textbook Hollywood heroes, encompassing almost all elements of this genre.

Grand war scenes, heroic and tragic heroes, affectionate love, cold-blooded and ruthless betrayals... What is rare is that the film is full of emotions from beginning to end, with a relaxed degree, with a climactic plot and melodious Scottish bagpipes, people can't help but cry.

I still remember the shock of seeing the war scene in the film for the first time more than 20 years ago: the whole head was blinded, and I kept asking myself in my heart, is this true?!

No! It's a movie, it can't be true! But the realism of the film's graphics makes you feel that this bloody fight is happening right in front of you, without any flaws.

This film is completely failing from a historical point of view, but it is definitely a classic from an epic point of view, and it has also re-established a new benchmark for epic films.

Well, there is so much to say about the film, after all, it is too classic, I believe most people should have seen it. Let's review the real history involved in the film and see how unsatisfactory the portrayal of the film's historical facts is.

Today's Scotland was historically an independent kingdom, a pair of good neighbors who loved and killed each other, and like most royal families in Europe at that time, there were marriages between the two royal families.

In 1286, King Alexander III of Scotland fell off a cliff and died, leaving the only heir, the little princess Margaret, who was soon hanging, and the Scottish royal family was considered to have no successor.

As the saying goes, "a country cannot be without a master for a day", and the major lords and nobles have taken the opportunity to volunteer to "share the worries of the country".

The Archbishop of Scotland, seeing that the situation was not good, remembered that England next door was also a relative, and asked Edward I to rule on the new heir to the throne.

This archbishop has a good heart, but he has committed a political infantilism, and it is better to let the wolf give the broken sheep a housework?!

So the unsettling King Edward I of England deliberately assigned the throne to John, the weaker of the Scottish nobility. Barriole, I think this is easier to manipulate.

But reality immediately snapped in the face, and in the ensuing war between England and France, Edward I asked for reinforcements from the King of Scotland, who had just been put on his horse, and as a result, John F. Kennedy was forced to send reinforcements. Not only did Barrio not send a single soldier, but he also signed an armistice with France.

This gave Edward I angry, and he did not expect to cultivate a white-eyed wolf with his own hands. Yes, France did not fight, and directly turned back to Cut Scotland.

John. Barryol was not a direct opponent of Wolf Daddy, forty thousand troops were wiped out, he himself and more than two thousand Scottish nobles were imprisoned, and Scotland became a vassal state controlled by England.

At this time, William Wallace appeared. His origin should be very ordinary, most likely not after the famous or aristocratic, otherwise, people would not be so difficult when examining his identity.

Legend has it that William. Wallace was 2 meters tall and weighed nearly 300 pounds, which must have been watery, but It is certain that Wallace was different from ordinary people, as can be seen from the only relic behind him, William's sword, which is still enshrined in the Stirling Memorial.

This sword is more than 1.5 meters long and weighs nearly 40 pounds, which is beyond the ability of ordinary people to make, and it also confirms from the side that the above legend is still so well founded.

William Wallace's earliest and most conspicuous act of rebellion was the killing of the English chieftain stationed there in 1296.

In the story of later generations, this unfortunate leader killed Wallace's wife, causing Wallace to become angry and take the road of resistance. In fact, Wallace rebelled first, and after his wife was killed, he also wanted to avenge his wife, Wallace led the troops and his wife's family to join forces to attack Lanak at night, killing more than 200 British troops, and Wallace took the head of the British army leader to sacrifice his wife in heaven.

Wallace's fame was greatly enhanced by the Battle of Larnach, and the rebellion expanded rapidly to more than 3,000 people. Scottish nobles, who had previously looked down on the rebels, also began to cooperate with Wallace against the British.

Then comes the great victory in the film - the Battle of Stirling. The British army was mainly composed of 1,000 heavy horses, nearly 20,000 heavy infantry, 1,000 light infantry and hundreds of longbowmen against more than 10,000 infantry led by Wallace, a small number of light cavalry, and 6,000 infantry and 200 heavy cavalry led by the Scottish nobleman Munney who came to help the battle.

In terms of the comparison of troop strength, it can be said that it is half a pound and eight two, but in terms of quality and equipment, the British army is a professional regular army that has experienced hundreds of battles.

In addition to the appearance of a somewhat regular army brought by Munni, the rebel army can be said to be a "ragtag group". You want armor without armor, you want weapons without weapons. Many people grabbed hoes and sticks.

Unlike the Plains Battle in the film, the Battle of Stirling won in terms of its grasp of the terrain and effective control of the pace of the campaign.

The two armies faced each other across the river foss next to stirling city, and the British army, which did not take the Soviet army in the eye, decided to preemptively attack, choosing the only small bridge on the river, the bridge was small, and the heavily armored cavalry rushed across the bridge and crashed head-on into the spear array arranged by the Soviet army, so the formation was chaotic.

But the Soviets were not in a hurry to attack, and waited until 11:00 a.m. before Wallace ordered the heralds to sound the horn of the general attack, and the Scottish warriors, who had long been unable to hold back the anger in their chests, immediately rushed down like wild horses.

There were few British soldiers crossing the river, surrounded by the Soviet army and beaten in groups, the surviving British cavalry tried to withdraw to the other side, at this time the British troops on the other side tried to rush across the river to help, the result was to trample on each other, the British army was suddenly in chaos, and the scene was completely out of control.

The British commander-in-chief, Volene, was even more desperate, directly ordering the destruction of the bridge, and no one should come over... Then he ran first, running to England in one breath before stopping.

In this battle, the British army lost 7,000+, the Soviet losses were almost negligible, and Wallace's command ability was fully exerted in this battle.

If you attack the British crossing the river too early, the enemy will not have many troops crossing the river, and will immediately retract to the opposite bank, and then use the advantage of the longbowman to attack the Soviet army from a distance.

If the attack is too late, the British army after crossing the river will be ranked with rich combat experience, the Soviet army will use wooden sticks against armor, or more fierce, it can be said that this is a just right annihilation battle with a stopwatch timer.

After the Battle of Stirling Wallace was canonized as a "Knight, Protector of Scotland and Commander-in-Chief of the Army". Wallace took advantage of the victory to pull out the British strongholds in Scotland one by one, and began to invade England, intending to save the King of Scotland.

King Edward I of England could not sit still, and gathered the national military forces to march and find Wallace dead.

Thus, the second battle in the film, the Battle of Falkirk, began.

This time, the British army of 2,000 cavalry, 10,000 infantry, and hundreds of longbowmen faced the Soviet infantry of 10,000 and 1,000 cavalry, still on a par.

Wallace still laid traps and spears in front of the battle to prepare for the British cavalry charge, but unfortunately the commander of the British army this time was the battle-hardened King Edward I.

Having learned the lessons of the defeat at the Battle of Stirling, Edward I personally led LinkedIn army to march to about 200 meters away from the Soviet army, stopped, and looked at wallace's formation.

The seasoned Edward did not charge at once, but ordered the longbowmen to go forward and attack the Soviets from a long distance with a rain of arrows.

In those days, British longbowmen existed like nuclear weapons. The bow is nearly 2 meters long, the arrows used are nearly one meter long, and the lethality is extremely amazing, even the armor of heavily armored knights can penetrate, not to mention the broken wooden shields of the Soviet army.

Under the nuclear blow of the longbowmen, the Soviet army suffered heavy casualties, and Wallace had no choice but to issue a charge order.

As a result, the elaborately prepared trap became a shackle prepared for himself, and when countless Scottish soldiers finally rushed over in a rain of arrows, the King of England had commanded the British longbowmen to retreat to the rear row, and the Soviet army was greeted by a dense array of spearmen.

The Scottish nobles saw that the situation was not good, and took the cavalry to escape first. At this time, the British cavalry directly flew horses to encircle... The battle ended with 9,000 Scottish soldiers killed on the battlefield, William. Wallace broke through alone.

After the Battle of Falkirk, Wallace lost the support of the nobility and had to return to his career as a jungle guerrilla until he died and never again managed to organize such a large army.

Edward I did not give Scotland a chance to breathe, and after five consecutive conquests, he finally beat all those who dared to resist in Scotland, and won himself the name of "Scottish Hammer".

In August 1305, William. Wallace was finally replaced by a pro-British Scottish nobleman, John. Mentis captured him and offered him to Edward I in exchange for the position of sheriff of Dumbarden.

On August 23, Wallace was brutally executed at a blacksmith outside London, with his head hanging on London Bridge and his limbs sent to Newcastle, Berwick, Aberdeen, and Perth, where he was hung on a tower to "deter the people."

At this point, 35-year-old William. Wallace went from personal defiance to national heroism in a glorious and short life.

Let's restore the lives of several supporting characters in the next film who have been magically changed:

Scottish nobleman Robert. After the death of Bruce Wallace, the Scottish nobleman Robert. Bruce (the one who ran away in the film) raised the banner of resistance, and in 1314, he returned the blood for blood at the Battle of Bannockburn, annihilating nearly 10,000 English troops and achieving a decisive victory in the War of Independence.

Robert. Known historically as Robert I, Bruce was one of the most important kings in Scottish history. During his reign, the government was enlightened, the judiciary was impartial, and he enjoyed great personal prestige.

Robert died of illness in 1329, and he was revered by the Scots as a national hero. In addition, the allusion to the title "Braveheart" is actually derived from Robert's heart, which everyone is interested in Baidu, and there is not much to write about in this.

Another person who has been magically transformed is the queen of Edward II, played by the great beauty Sophie Marceau, the French princess Isabella.

Isabella has a very loud name in history - "French Wolf Girl", is the daughter of King Philip IV of France.

Edward I created a political marriage for his son so that he could not worry about stabbing France in the back when he used troops against Scotland.

History said that Isabella was handsome, talented and high-minded. But Edward II was a homosexual, and the big beautiful women around him did not love, and they specialized in messing with men, and this situation made any woman have to smoke.

After the death of Edward I, the princess fled back to her mother's house, and the following year led a French army all the way back to London, and no one could stop her, and as a result, the wolf girl became the French Wu Zetian.

This was not the end of it, because of the deep resentment accumulated over the years, the princess ordered the insertion of Edward II's chrysanthemum with a red-hot iron bar, and it is said that the screams can be heard in half of London, and a generation of dark lords returned to the west.

Seeing this, will everyone have a feeling of "so it was", and when you watch Hollywood movies in the future, you can keep an eye on it, the art of magic reform, just look at it, but don't take it seriously.

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Let the film shine into history

Let history shine into the future

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