1、Robert the Bruce (narrator): I shall tell you of William Wallace. Historians from England will say I am a liar, but history is written by those who have hanged heroes. The king of Scotland had died without a son, and the King of England, a cruel pagan known as Edward the Longshanks, claimed the thro
2、ne of Scotland for himself. Scotlands nobles fought him, and fought each other over the crown. So Longshanks invited them to talks of truce, no weapons, one page only. Among the farmers of that shire was Malcolm Wallace, a commoner with his own lands. He had two sons: John and William. hroughout the
3、 narration, Scottish nobles are arriving out of the mist. Robert the Bruces father, with his page, stops his horse on a rise. A rival noble and page stop on a distant rise. Cut to Wallaces farm. Malcolm and John are riding to MacAndrews.) Malcolm: (stopping to speak to William who is running after t
4、hem) I told you to stay. William: Well, I finished my work. Where are we going? Malcolm: MacAndrews. He was supposed to visit when the gathering was over. William: Can I come? Malcolm: No. Go home, boy. William: But I want to go. Malcolm: Go home William or youll feel the back of my hand. John: Away
5、 hame (home), William. (Malcolm and John arrive at MacAndrews, finding that there is only silence.) Malcolm: MacAndrews; MacAndrews. (Malcolm and John enter the barn to find everyone at the gathering hanged) Holy Jesus! (Malcolm hears someone at the back door. He grabs Johns axe, assuming it might b
6、e an English soldier still lurking. Instead he finds William. When Malcolm approaches William, the boy panics and runs off, running into the hanging corpses.) William: Ah! (screams) Malcolm: Its all right! John: William! William! Malcolm: Its all right. Its all right. Easy lad. (Malcolm grabs Willia
7、m and holds him. William looks up at a dead page boy that is swinging from his noose. Later that night William dreams of the same page boy. The page boy looks up and whispers to William.) Dead Page Boy: William! (in Wallaces house) Malcolm: I say we hit back now. MacClannough: We cannot fight them.
8、Its suicide. Campbell: Wallace is right. We fight them! MacClannough: Every nobleman who had the will to fight was at that meeting. We cannot beat an army. Not with the 50 farmers we can raise. Malcolm: We do not have to beat them. Just fight them. Now whos with me? Campbell (among others): I am, Wa
9、llace. MacClannough: Alright, alright. Malcolm: Aye. (Next morning, Malcolm comes out of the house and gets his hidden sword from the roofs thatch. William is sitting on his fathers horse.) Malcolm: Where do you think youre going? William: Im going with you. Malcolm: Oh, youre going with me, are you
10、? And what are you going to do? William: Im gonna help. Malcolm: Aye, and a good help youd be, too. (He gets William down from the horse.) But I need you to stay here and look after the place for me while Im away. William: I can fight! Malcolm: I know. I know you can fight. But its our wits that mak
11、e us men. See you tomorrow. John: (laying a hand on Williams shoulder, then tossing his head affectionately) Ha! (William watches his father and brother ride away.) (English soldiers ride by young William and Hamish.) Hamish: English! William: Get down! Hamish: With your father and brother gone, the
12、yll kill us and burn the farm. William: Its up to us, Hamish. Both boys: Ahhhh! (Throws rocks at sheep skulls) (Hamish misses his throw. William hits both of the skulls.) Hamish: (looking at William) Nah! (He knocks William down with a punch. Then they continue to horse around) (That evening, Willia
13、m walks home, stopping to look at it from a distance. No one is home.) (William, having fallen asleep at the table, wakes up the next morning. He stretches and looks around.) William: Da? (He walks to the door and calls out) Da? (William goes out side to get water and sees the men returning from bat
14、tle. He looks close and realizes that there are two missing and the two are his father and brother. William turns around afraid to hear the bad news.) Campbell: William, come here lad. (William continues to do his work without turning around.) (Later, in the house, William watches as his dead father
15、 and brother are being washed for burial. William places his hand on his fathers chest, staring at the lifeless body.) (At funeral) Priest No 1: (speaks Latin.)De profundis clamavi ad te, Domine. Domine, exaudi vocem meam. Fiant aures tuae intendentes in vocem deprecationis mei. Requiem aeternam don
16、a eis, Domine, et lux perpetua lucet ad eis. Requiscat in pace, Amen. From the depths I invoked you, Lord. Lord, answer my voice. Be your understanding in the voice of my despair. Give him eternal rest, Lord, and shine perpetual light to him. Rest in peace, Amen. Everyone: Amen. (Everyone from the f
17、uneral leaves but young Murron turns around, picks a thistle and gives it to William. After she leaves, a man rides up) Argyle: William, I am your uncle, Argyle. (Gets down from his horse and takes Williams face in his hand.) You have the look of your mother. (That night, in Williams house, over din
18、ner.) Argyle: Well stay here tonight. Tomorrow youll come home with me. William: I dont want to leave. Argyle: You didnt want your father to die either, did ya? But it happened. Did the priest give a poetic benediction? “The Lord bless thee and keep thee“? William: It was in Latin. Argyle: You dont
19、speak Latin? Well thats something we shall have to remedy, isnt it. (After dinner; Argyle praying with William) Argyle: The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord cause his light to shine on thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee. And give thee peace. Amen. (William dreams, with slow hear
20、tbeat.) Dead Malcolm: Your heart is free. Have the courage to follow her. (William wakes up to the sound of thunder and bagpipes. He goes outside, joining his uncle, who is listening to Campbell play the bagpipes.) William: What are they doing? Argyle: Saying goodbye in their own way. Playing outlaw
21、ed tunes on outlawed pipes. It was the same for me and your daddy, when our father was killed. (Noticing Williams interest in the sword hes holding, Argyle hands it to him.) Argyle: First, learn to use this (taps Williams forehead), then Ill teach you to use this (Argyle lifts the sword). (Argyle an
22、d William leave the farm with William looking back in sorrow.) Robert the Bruce (narrator): Many years later, Edward the Longshanks, King of England, supervised the wedding of his eldest son, who would succeed him to the throne. As bride for his son, Longshanks had chosen the daughter of his rival,
23、the King of France. It was widely whispered that for the princess to conceive, Longshanks would have to do the honors himself. That may have been what he had in mind all along. (Wedding ceremony. The priest lifts Isabellas veil. Prince Edward is shocked and distressed. He looks over his shoulder, pa
24、st Longshanks, to his friend Phillip, who returns an intimate smile. The prince reluctantly kisses his bride. Its a hurried, embarrassed kiss on the cheek. Isabella looks up at the priest in confusion and disbelief.) (In Longshanks Council Chamber) Longshanks: Scotland; my land. The French will grov
25、el to anyone with strength, but how will they believe our strength when we cannot rule the whole of our own island? (Princess Isabella enters the chamber) Longshanks: (to Princess Isabella) Where is my son? Isabella: Your pardon, my Lord. He asked me to come in his stead. Longshanks: I sent for him
26、and he sends you? Isabella: Shall I leave, my Lord? Longshanks: If he wants his Queen to rule when I am gone, then by all means stay, and learn how. Please. Longshanks: Nobles. Nobles are the key to the door of Scotland. Grant our nobles lands in the north. Give their nobles estates here in England,
27、 and make them too greedy to oppose us. Advisor: But sire, our nobles will be reluctant to uproot. New lands mean new taxes, and they are already taxed for the war in France. Longshanks: Are they? Are they? The trouble with Scotland is that its full of Scots. (Everyone laughs except Princess Isabell
28、a) Perhaps the time has come to reinstitute an old custom. Grant them prima noctes: first night. When any common girl inhabiting their lands is married, our nobles shall have sexual rights to her on the night of her wedding. If we cant get them out, well breed them out. That should fetch just the ki
29、nd of lords we want to Scotland, taxes or no taxes. Advisor: A most excellent idea, sire. Longshanks: (curtly) Is it? Robert the Bruce (narrator): Now in Edinburgh were gathered the council of Scottish nobles. Among these was Robert, the 17th Earl of Bruce, the leading contender for the crown of Sco
30、tland. (In the castle courtyard, Robert greets incoming riders, then returns to Lords Craig and Mornay.) Robert the Bruce: I hear that Longshanks has granted prima noctes. Craig: Clearly meant to draw more of his supporters here. Robert the Bruce: My father believes that we must lull Longshanks into
31、 our confidence by neither supporting his decree nor opposing it. Craig: A wise plan. And how is your father? We missed him at the council. Robert the Bruce: Ah. His affairs in France keep him long overdue. (Looks up to see his father walking on the battlement.) But he sends his greetings, and he sa
32、ys that I speak for all the Bruces, and for Scotland. (William, now a man, returns to his boyhood home and smells the air.) (Outdoor wedding celebration. Music is playing and people are dancing. Murron watches as William walks among the crowd. A large man steps in front of William and drops a large
33、rock at his feet.) Man: Ah, its all over now. William: You dropped your rock. (To the man standing on the other side of the rock.) Hamish: Test of manhood. William: You win. Hamish: Call it a test of soldiery, then. The English wont let us train with weapons, so we train with stones. William: Well,
34、a test of a soldier is not in his arm, its here. (William points to his head) Hamish: No, its here. (Hamish points to his arm, then punches William, knocking him to the ground.) William: Hamish? Hamish: Mm-hmm. (Winking at William) (William throws the large rock first, the crowd approves.) Campbell:
35、 Here you go, son. Show him how. Come on! Morrison: Come on, Hamish! (Hamish throws the rock further.) Campbell: Haha, my boy! William: Thats a good throw. Hamish: Aye. Aye, it was. William: I was wondering if you could do that when it matters. (Hamish gives William a mean look.) As it, as is matter
36、s in battle. Could you crush a man with that throw? Hamish: I could crush you, like a worm. William: You could? Hamish: Aye. William: Well then do it. (Asking the crowd) Would you like to see him crush me like a worm? (William walks to the spot where Hamishs last throw landed, picking up an egg size
37、d rock on the way.) Crowd: Aye! William: Come do it. Hamish: Youll move. William: I will not. Campbell: (handing Hamish a large rock) Hell move. Come on there, boy. (Hamish misses) Man: Well done. (William hits Hamish in the forehead with the small rock) Campbell: Fine display, young Wallace. Willia
38、m: You alright? You look a wee bit shaky. Hamish: I should have remembered the rocks. William: Aye, you should have. (Hamish falls onto the ground.) Get up you big heap. Its good to see you again. Hamish: Aye, welcome home. Oh, me head. William: Well, you should have moved. (William walks up to Murr
39、on and is about to ask her to dance.) Toothless Girl: William, will you dance with me? William: Of course I will. (English ride in on horses) Lord Bottoms: I have come to claim the right of prima noctes. As lord of these lands, I will bless this marriage by taking the bride into my bed on the first
40、night of her union. Brides Father: O by God, you will not! (Morrison swings at an English soldier. English soldiers hold him with knives to his throat.) Lord Bottoms: It is my noble right. (The bride gently moves the knife from her husbands throat with her hand and then whispers something along the
41、lines of “I will be okay. I love you. I will be okay“ and kisses him. Then the English soldiers ride off with her.) Smythe: Ha ha. Ha ha. (Later, William stands in his former house while the rain drizzles through gaping holes in the thatched roof.) (William rides to the MacClannough residence) Willi
42、am: Good evening, sir. MacClannough: Ah, young Wallace. Grand soft evening, huh? William: Aye, tis that. I was wondering if I might have a word with your daughter. MacClannough: What do you want to have a word with her about? William: Well, ah, Murron, would you like to come and ride with me on this
43、 fine evening? Mother MacClannough: In this? Youre out of your mind. William: Oh, its good Scottish weather, madam. The rain is fallin straight down, well slightly to the side like. Mother MacClannough: She cannot go with you. William: No? Mother MacClannough: O no the noo, anyway. MacClannough: No
44、the noo. William: No the noo? MacClannough: No the noo. Well see you later. Murron: O the weathers just fine. Its hardly raining. (Murron runs from the house and joins William on his horse.) Mother MacClannough: (calling out to her daughter as she and William ride away.) Did you no hear what I said?
45、 MacClannough: Murron Mother MacClannough: Now get- (turns to her husband) Its you she takes after. (William and Murron ride off to the top of the mountain) William: How did you know me after so long? Murron: Why, I didnt. William: No? Murron: Its just that I saw you staring at me and I didnt know w
46、ho you were. William: Im sorry, I suppose I was. Are you in the habit of riding off in the rain with strangers? Murron: It was the best way to make you leave. William: Well, if I can ever work up the courage to ask you again, Ill send you a written warning first. Murron: O it wouldnt do you much goo
47、d. I cant read. William: Can you not? Murron: No. William: Well thats something we shall have to remedy, isnt it. Murron: Youre going to teach me to read, then? William: Ah, if you like. Murron: Aye. William: In what language? Murron: Ah, youre showing off now. William: Thats right. Are you impresse
48、d yet? Murron: No. Why should I be? William:(in French) Yes. Because every single day I thought about you. Murron: Do that standing on your head and Ill be impressed. William: My kilt will fly up but Ill try. Murron: You certainly didnt learn any manners on your travels. William: Well, the French an
49、d the Romans have far worse manners than I. Murron: Youve been to Rome? William: Aye, my uncle took me on a pilgrimage. Murron: What was it like? William:(in French) Nothing that was even close to your beauty. Murron: What does that mean? William: Beautiful. But I belong here. (Back at Murrons home; night. William drops Murron off. She waits, hoping to be kissed.) Mother MacClannough: (calling from inside the house) Murron, come in now. (Murron starts to leave but William stops her, handing her a cloth he
