Brave (2012)
Set in the 9th-12th century Scottish Highlands, Brave tells the story of a young princess of the clan of BunBroch. The movie is a bit of a coming of age story. It teaches moral lessons about learning from your past and not repeating the mistakes of those before you. Merida, the princess, is against the idea of marriage when she learns that the other clans are going to be competing for her hand. Traditionally, in the movie anyway, the princess gets to choose the competition in which the eldest sons will be participating for her hand. She decides to take matters into her own hands and chooses archery, which she excels at. After the sons have fired their arrows, Merida steps out and shoots perfect bullseye over their own shots, theoretically winning her own hand. Merida’s mother, the queen Eleanor, is mad at Merida and even throws Merida’s bow in the fire in anger. Merida rides away on her horse because she is so upset. She stumbles upon a stone circle much like Stonehenge. She sees a will o’ the wisp across the circle and follows it, where she comes upon a witches cottage. She tells the witch that she wants a spell to change her fate. The witch gives her a spell in the form of a small cake, which she gives to her mother when she returns to the castle. After eating this cake, Eleanor is transformed into a bear. The rest of the movie is spent attempting to turn the queen back into a human. At the end of the movie, Eleanor is transformed back into a human and the bond between mother and daughter is mended. 
This movie is accurate in some aspects but definitely has some exaggerations and even depicts the 9th-12th century as less developed than we know it to be. Wisps are a very common occurrence in this movie and are shown as being the souls of those who have died. These are seen today. They are actually thought to be caused by gas emissions from bogs and swamps reacting with the oxygen in the air.
The clothing in the movie is actually fairly accurate among women. Some of the clothing is more contemporary and would be found in the 14th or 15th century Scotland. The men in this movie wear kilts, which weren’t actually worn in Scotland until the 1500s. Clothing in this time period was actually very similar to what people in England were wearing. Many of the clansmen are also shown wearing face paint to show which clan they are from, however, this was not an actual practice at this time. Food shown in this movie is fairly accurate. There is an entire conversation about haggis. While there is no proof that this recipe was around back then, it is very likely. A cookbook from 1615 was found with the recipe for haggis. One inaccuracy is the use of forks, which were not used at this time. They also ate many of the things that we have been talking about in class in the section about eating. Something that I found interesting was that banqueting was very common in this movie, which we learned about in our reading.
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| Haggis |
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| Tipperary Cakes Recipes exist today! |
The Kingdom’s castle is quite accurate. The producers of this movie did do their homework when it comes to landmarks and the landscape. Arranged marriage is a huge theme in this movie. Merida is told that she must marry whichever man it is that shoots the best arrow. While arranged marriages were common among nobility at this time, women had the right to refuse the marriage. This was often looked down upon and was believed to be selfish, making it uncommon for women to do so.
All in all, this movie was fairly accurate. While this might not be shown in a history class wanting to learn about 9th-12th century Scotland, you can definitely see many accuracies that make this movie a decent representation of the Scottish Highlands. Don't get me wrong, though. It definitely has flaws! Personally, I love this movie and definitely recommend it!
Sources:
Barnett, Laura. “A Scottish Historian on Brave.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 29 Aug. 2012, https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/aug/29/scottish-historian-view-brave.
“Disney Pixar's Brave: Historically Accurate?” Apprentice of the Chosen One, 23 Aug. 2015, https://apprenticeofthechosenone.wordpress.com/2015/08/23/disney-pixars-brave-historically-accurate/.
Riley. “Scottish Highlands.” Clothing of the Ancient Celts-Scotland, 1100-1600 AD, http://www.marariley.net/celtic/SentToKass/Scotland.htm.
Bennett, Judith M. Medieval Europe: a Short History. Langara College, 2016.
I have always loved this movie, and it is so interesting to understand the historical side of it more. Thinking about it now and being in this class, I agree that the feasting and clothing used in the movie is fairly accurate. I really enjoyed your post, and I'll just have to watch the movie again to notice even more of the accuracies and inaccuracies you pointed out!
ReplyDeleteThis is one of my sister's favorite movies, primarily because of the use of the theme of archery, which my sister enjoys. I'm very disappointed to hear about the kilt, situation, though.
ReplyDeleteYou have done a great job debunking myths from the middle ages, and i like how you described banquet meals and how they didn't use forks.
ReplyDeleteMy sister loves this movie. I think you did a good job giving credit to the creators of showing the correct landscape. The use of forks in the movie is a huge inaccuracy as you pointed out. I feel like forks are something that everyone feels have been around forever because they are something we use everyday. Great review!
ReplyDeleteGood Job. I like how you discussed all aspects of the movie instead of just one topic.
ReplyDeleteI like how you really picked up on clothing they wore in the film and how it was inaccurate such as the kilts that weren't used to 15th century. I actually really like this film and I like you threw in the wisps those were quite important in the film. I never knew they actually happened due to bogs mixing with oxygen. I really like your film review and how thorough you were with it.
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