Braveheart: 25 Years Later

Year 2020 marks the silver anniversary of the box office hit Braveheart. It was released in the United States on the 24th day of May, 1995. Not only did it earn well, it also garnered five Academy Awards including Best Picture and for Mel Gibson, Best Director.

I no longer hold the film in high esteem the way I used when I was young. The reason for this is because of its serious historical inaccuracies. I don't have to discuss these here since they are well documented elsewhere on the web. Any interested fellow who knows how to use Google could find them. Historical accuracy is a big deal for me. I could only imagine what disgust I may feel if  the big guns of film-making would distort the history of my beloved Philippines.

But that doesn't mean I'm junking the film altogether. There must be a good reason why it touched the hearts of many. In the book Burden of Truth, which is a collection of Breakpoint transcripts, Chuck Colson remarked concerning Braveheart:

"Good films deal with deep human problems in a way that teaches right and wrong . . . Braveheart actually makes righteous behavior look exciting and attractive."

The deep heart problems dealt with in the film as pointed out by Colson are “the horror of murder”, “the shame of treachery”, and “the lasting guilt of betrayal”. The virtues made to look exciting and attractive are courage, sacrifice, and patriotism. Then my favorite lines; William Wallace told the noblemen of Scotland:

”You're so concerned with squabbling for the scraps from Longshank's table that you've missed your God given right to something better. There is a difference between us. You think the people of this country exist to provide you with position. I think your position exists to provide those people with freedom. And I go to make sure that they have it.”

I like it because this is a profound theology of government and privilege. There is an acknowledgement that position and privilege are given by God's sovereign will. Yet they are given for a purpose. It was not for the self-interest of those in power, but to serve the people. It is not for the enrichment and comfort of a few but for the deliverance of the people from the chains of tyranny and oppression. It re-echoes Isaiah's voice:

Woe to those enacting crooked statutes

and writing oppressive laws

to keep the poor from getting a fair trial

and to deprive the needy among my people of justice,

so that widows can be their spoil

and they can plunder the fatherless. 

Isaiah 10:1-2, CSB

To the generation that saw the film: if you still like Braveheart yet you believe that one must never oppose or even speak against the oppressive ruling powers, then you have to resolve a big inconsistency. If you dislike Braveheart now, well congratulations! At least you are consistent. But I can't stop but think that your values may also have changed, most probably from good to bad-- 25 years later.

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