1 Colin McArthur (ed.), Scotch Reels: Scotland in Cinema and Television, London, BFI, 1982.

2 Trainspotting (Boyle, 1996) and T2 Trainspotting (Boyle, 2017).

3 See: Tim Carrigan, Robert W. Connell and John Lee, “Toward a New Sociology of Masculinity”, Theory and Society, 14, 1985, 551–604.

4 It is to be noted that the film was entirely shot on location in the Scottish Highlands, unlike Braveheart which was filmed in Ireland and, more surprisingly, partly in Arizona...

5 In this respect, the following bit of trivia is telling: Gibson hired 1,700 Irish army reservists as extras to put together the elaborate combat scenes of the epic – a man among men, indeed.

6 In its French version, the film bears the title Rebelle, and Merida’s name means “to rebel” in Hebrew.

7 Even the lock of hair (traditionally associated with femininity) she tweaks out of her bonnet is just a sign of her spiting her mother.

8 Sex is kept at bay, for obvious reasons.

9 The Hunger Games’ protagonist is also a female bow and arrow expert, and the film was released three months before Brave hit the screens, thus creating a form of connection.

10 Robert the Bruce’s father is afflicted by leprosy and is shunned from the rest of the world, locked away in a tower where he can look down on the world around him.

11 In his comparative analysis of Rob Roy and Braveheart in the context of gender politics, James Keller argues that, stemming from the principle that “(t)he American public has been conditioned to conceptualize the gay lifestyle as the inferior half of sociosexual binarism”, both films present “homosexuality as the negation of traditional masculinity” (146). He adds that the excessively negative depiction of Prince Edward in Braveheart is “a throwback” to former representations of gay characters, and that the “potential homophobia” perceptible in the film was met by protests in “nine separate cities” by “the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation” (150). James R., Keller, “Masculinity and Marginality in Rob Roy and Braveheart”, Journal of Popular Film & Television, Winter 1997, Vol. 24 Issue 4, 146–152.

12 In an interview, the actor describes the character he embodies as “high camp”.

13 Following the French philosopher’s theory, one could argue that being without roots and stable values, Cunningham would aspire to emulate Rob Roy’s lifestyle, but, failing to naturally obtain what he desires, he does the next meaningful thing: he destroys his rival’s “possessions”.

14 When considering the particular significance of Mary’s rape in relation to the rivalry between the two men, one could also evoke Eve Kosofsky Sedgewick’s theory of homosocial bonding in which, as James Keller reminds us, “the aggression and desire between two men is mediated through a female” and signals rather bluntly Cunningham’s homoerotic longing for the Highlander (Keller 149).

15 As a very common fairy tale constituent, numbers tend to repeat themselves: there are four sons in the Mor’Du story, four offspring in the current state of affairs in the kingdom, four descendants for the King and Queen.

16 Not unlike Herman Melville’s Ahab to Moby Dick, King Fergus loses a leg to the legendary bear Mor’Du, but the Scotsman is not the one to endlessly chase the arch-enemy.

17 In this perspective, one is tempted to draw a parallel between the fictional princess’ eventual yielding to patriarchal norms and Brenda Chapman’s very real eviction-over what producer Katherine Sarafian and both directors politely term “creative differences”-from the elaboration of the film, which she had carried for six years, to the benefit of a male director, Mark Andrews. Nonetheless, Chapman acknowledges that “in the end, the female voice is still very much there.”

18 To the extent that, poetic license notwithstanding, Braveheart is often cited as the least historically accurate film to date. A number of the liberties taken with historical facts are listed in the lengthy file dedicated to the film at IMDB.com.

19 Which is the last word Wallace utters, incidentally.