I recently watched the movie Braveheart again and decided that this film is my all-time favorite. As compelling and moving as the main character William Wallace is, it is the subplot of that story, led by Robert the Bruce, that really grabs me. My mother named me after him because of the Scottish ancestry that I have. It's a shame that a sequel was never made to this movie showing how Robert the Bruce was able to finish the work of freeing Scotland from England's tyranny. Through most of Braveheart Robert the Bruce is seen as a weak and ineffective leader, unable to overcome the influence of his father and the other Scottish noblemen. These "noble"men had maintained their wealth, lands and status by compromising and acquiescing to the demands of the ruthless English king known as "Longshanks". Robert the Bruce was the recognized and rightful heir to Scotland's throne but was unable to assume that position because of the powerful grip that the English king had over his people, especially the landed nobility. When William Wallace led a successful grassroots, popular uprising against the English, Robert the Bruce greatly admired him and would have openly joined forces with Wallace. But his father and the the other "noble"men only saw Wallace as a threat to the cozy relationship they had with the English king and they succeeded in keeping Robert from following his heart. He was a tormented man. On the one hand he longed to follow the lead and the courage of this commoner, Wallace, and be the true king he knew he really was. But for so long he was unable to break free from the influence of his father and his peers.
The turning point finally came after a battle where he wanders amidst the corpses of his dead countrymen who had died trying to gain their freedom and he realizes how much he has contributed to that slaughter by his own cowardice and refusal to openly support Wallace. You can see the anguish on his face begin to change into a resolve, "Never again! Never again will I give in to my fears! I will fulfill my calling and my destiny!" He goes home to his father, who is near the end of his life which had become so perverted and twisted in the effort to maintain his position by any means possible (other than a truly noble means), and tells him, full of passion, that he is finally done with the sham that his father has tried to foist on him. He father responds, "Good! So you have finally learned to hate!" Robert turns to leave and his parting words to his father is, "My hate will die with you!" He had finally learned to love what a righteous and noble king is supposed to love - truth, justice, and freedom - and he could turn his back on fear and hatred.
In one of the final scenes of this film, the princess of Wales is in Wallace's prison cell begging him to give a show of loyalty to the English king so as to avert the certain torture and death that awaited him. In response, Wallace utters the most memorable lines of the whole movie, "All men die. Few men really live,"
Do you want to really live? Do you, do I, have the courage to really live? Are you aware that the first type of person on the list of those who are thrown into the lake of fire is not the sexually immoral or even the unbeliever, but rather the cowardly (Revelation 21:8)?!
Robert the Bruce is even more of a hero to me than William Wallace because he had to overcome even more than Wallace had to. Once Wallace had lost his bride to the English he had little else to lose. It didn't take that much for him to become a freedom fighter. Robert, on the other hand, had so much more to lose: his wealth, his status and his high calling to govern and lead his people as their king. It was no simple decision for him turn against the English king. To do that also meant turning against his own father and the lords and nobility who were his peers. He truly had become an overcomer. I want to be like him . . . and so can you.
"Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am! I stand at
the door and knock. If anyone hear my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with
him, and he with me.
To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame
and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit
says to the churches."
(Revelation 3:19-22)
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