BRAVEHEART by Randall Wallace Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of BRAVEHEART
Book Review: Fair book . . . better movie
Summary: 3 Stars
It's finally happened . . . and I didn't think it possible. The movie was better than the book!
And while the story is a good one (and the only reason I gave this book a '5' rating . . . read on for further positive comments) . . . Mr. Wallace's prose style is rambling. His shift of viewpoints is confusing. And his references to modern phrasings and objects is bizarre, blasting the reader out of the storyline, and into reality.
An example: Fifty pages in . . . the setting is solidly 13th century Scotland, a festival is in progress, and the reader stumbles across
the following . . .
"Farmers were roasting a pig; women were comparing handiwork; young men were tossing a caber -- an unbranched tree trunk roughly half the size of a modern telephone pole -- in the traditional Highland games."
What?!
Slam! Bam! Back to 20th century America . . . and the telephone pole outside my house.
Should have stopped with ". . . an unbranched tree trunk," Mr. Wallace.
Leaves the reader scratching his head . . . a happenstance every writer worth his salt avoids like the plague.
Writers usually strive for one thing -- total reader immersion. And Mr. Wallace's writing reveals he, too, ascribes to this theory.
A better question may be -- where was the editor?!
On the good side, there was enough lyrical prose set solidly in the 13th century to keep me reading, which in itself is a coup of sorts. And, except for those jolts at odd intervals . . . it was, as they say on the dustjackets,
"A rollicking good tale!"Book Review: Great movie, poor book
Summary: 1 Stars
I'm a huge fan of the movie. I think it had excellent everything and wonderful music. But the book was awful-if I hadn't seen the movie and felt some devotion to it, I would have quit in the middle. The movie was quite inaccurate, but the action and storyline made up for that. But how can I comment on the book? I could say it was poorly written, or I could say that the plot was deviated with holes, or that William's eye color changes, and we never know what Murron is embroidering, or I could just say I wasted my time reading it. Unfortunatly for Randall Wallace, I rarely forget. Let's just say I won't be reading any of his books anytime soon. Don't waste your money-just watch the movie.Book Review: Greatest Movie Ever Made And An Excellent Book
Summary: 5 Stars
Braveheart is an excellent book and movie. Randall Wallace does a great job portraying William Wallace as he really was. The only thing wrong with the book is that its historically inaccurate but overall this is a really good book. I highly recommend to learn more about Wallace by reading other books on this passionate and courageous scot. Also, go see the movie. Its the greatest movie ever made!Book Review: Historically inacurate, but still entertaining.
Summary: 4 Stars
As others have rightly pointed out, this novel does have its faults and weaknesses, but on the whole I found it entertaining. I normally read non-fiction, but I liked the movie so much that I felt that I had to read this book.This would not be a particularly good book to rely on for a history lesson. Randal Wallace butchers history a bit in order to make a juicier plot. Though I would like to think that just as exiting a story could be told without sacrificing accuracy, I must admit that his technique works at times. For example, Randal Wallace portrays an affair between Scottish commander Sir William Wallace and French Princess Isabella that didn't and couldn't have happened. Randal Wallace also writes an epilogue which has an air of sober history, but where he's still running with his wildly revisionist story. He tells us that Edward II's reign was sad and brief. Sad, yes, but I wouldn't call a 20 year reign brief!
A blurb on the back cover makes the mistake of refering to Sir William as a highlander. Even Randal Wallace doesn't make this mistake himself.
There are also other little mistakes, such as giving the name "Stewart" to a character who is little more than a peasant. I'm no professor, but wasn't the name "Stewart" reserved for persons holding an important office in this period?
Despite these negative points, though, the book has it's strenghts. There is romance, drama, tragedy, humor, action, and there are interesting characters. Though I favored the movie over this book in many ways, the book does deliver some bits that the movie doesn't. There are two separate scenes in the book that appear as one combined scene in the movie, and actually that's to the movie's credit.
The book does, however, allow you to get to know the Isabella character better, and this is wonderful and even sometimes humorous. You find out that she's even more thoughtful that her station in life encourages her to be!
Some of the scenes are quite different than the way they appear in the movie -- not neccessarily better or worse, but they are interesting alternatives worth reading for those who like the movie. One of these is a facinating action scene where Wallace and some of his men are being hunted (thanks to Fodran's betrayal) by men using bloodhounds. That's a scene not to be missed!
Book Review: I wish...
Summary: 2 Stars
..I could say I loved the book as much as the movie but unfortunately, that's not the case. I always prefer books over movies so having seen this excellent movie a billion times (more or less), I decided to read the book. Talk about being disappointed! If I hadn't seen the movie first, this book would have been discarded after chapter one but instead, I just kept reading and hoping the story would pick up eventually. Alas, it just dragged on and on. I wonder if Mel Gibson read this book before making the movie? If he had, I think he would agree, his script is way off Mister Wallace's version of the event's which took place in Scotland. A lot of people who reviewed this book seemed to like it but I can only be honest in my opinion by saying I didn't like it and I suggest you stick to the movie version just for the action scenes alone.