Released amid the hysteria after 'Braveheart', this low budget effort is a fine piece of Scottish culture but an utterly awful movie. Paradoxically, this is reasonably historically accurate but isn't a very good film, while Braveheart, though a great movie, is about as historically accurate as The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. Still, this is worth a watch, and quite culturally relevant with an independence referendum coming in 2014 the same year as Bannockburn's 700th anniversary. Utter cringe at the spider scene, the spider/inspiration theme is a story attached to many of history's great people like Saul, Frederick the Great, The prophet Mohammed and a host of other characters throughout history - and it's very likely not to be true. One thing that gives this the edge over Braveheart is its more accurate depiction of Scottish armies at the time. We weren't tartan-clad men covered in shit with no armour and armed with farm tools, nor was our cavalry made up of tartan clad men in leather hoods armed with meat cleavers, as Braveheart suggests. Scots armies were equipped in exactly the same way as the English armies, horse and foot, Wallace and Bruce later both used to send men home if they didn't have adequate armour and weapons. The English just outnumbered us most of the time, that's all. As to this film,it's more accurate than Braveheart, but still seems very myopic from a historian's perspective, and was made by the same crowd who made the not quite as bad but equally low-budget 'Chasing The Deer' about the '45 and Culloden. Many of the actors from Chasing the Deer are in this too. The actors in this put in good performances, it just has a terrible script. Still, despite the criticism, it's worth a look, and was a noble effort, given that they had practically no budget. If you want to know the FACTS about the time of Wallace and Bruce, buy one of Dr Chris Brown's many books on the subject, they're the best by far. Alternatively, check out these 2 links to articles written by my historian mate. http://www.iancolquhoun.org.uk/robert-bruce-rising/ http://www.iancolquhoun.org.uk/how-scotland-won-its-medieval-wars-with-england/ Film cast: Bruce - Sandy Welch Bishop Wishart - Oliver Reed Edward I - Brian Blessed Cameo appearance from the great Ronnie Young from The Corries, as a minstrel, funnily enough. Wolf from TV'S 'Gladiators' playing some bawbag English knight. Most of the actors from Chasing The Deer are in it, except Fish, shame as he was rather good in Chasing the Deer. Hopefully one day, a decent movie trilogy or even a decent series akin to 'Vikings' or 'Rome' is made to tell the story of this fascinating period in Scots history, right from Wallace to Bruce. Ideally, with Braveheart/The Tudors' level of funding, but with real historical accuracy. Braveheart's 20th anniversary is coming up, come on Mel Gibson or someone, make amends for the insult to our history that was the entertaining fairy-story 'Braveheart', make this new one equally entertaining, but HISTORICALLY ACCURATE. Oh, and vote 'Yes' in 2014 folks, cheers.

• published: 14 Jul 2013
• views: 22