why does william wallace paint his face blue in the movie braveheart?

Answer 1

That's called woad dye. The ancient Celts painted their faces with it and ran at their enemies screaming at the top of their lungs, thus frightening them. They still used it right up until medieval times.

Answer 2

Braveheart Face Paint

Answer 3

Blue In The Face Movie

Answer 4

Almost all cultures have some form of battle paint, and many still do, including the US in a way. In early times, it was used mostly as a way to identify people of your group, which is where alot of tribal tatoos came into play. Sometimes it was used as a type of camoflauge though to, more in the african and tropical/south pacific areas. Today face paint is still used. Navy SEALS use it for both camo and as part of a mental psych effect IF seen. Blue though has important meanings to freedom in celtic beleifs as well as honor. Blue also stood for clan leadership, which william was part of.

Answer 5

Its was done to ensue fear. MANY tribes/clans and combatants around the world did the same thing.. In some counties they still do. Even to the point of tattooing there faces. Personally the face paint wouldn’t scare me but that BIG broad sword... Ill see you over the next hill.... LOL

Answer 6

In Celtic times it was believd that demons were blue. They painted themselves blue to terrify the enemy. The movie wasn't quite correct. They also doffed all their clothes and painted their whoe body blue. AT night time the blue would blend in with the night and render the warrier almost invisible.

Answer 7

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Not very! 1) The character of Edward I is over simplified and villainized to the the extreme. He wasn't a pagan any more than any other European king at that time.By the standards of his age, Edward I was a competent king who reformed the royal administration and started England on the path to constitutional law. On the other hand, in addition to subjecting the Welsh, and being "the Hammer of the Scots", Edward, who had a terrific temper, terrified the overtaxed English nobles, and even his contemporaries criticized his expulsion of the Jews from England. 2) Edward II did have homosexual affairs, but Daddy Longshanks never killed any of his son's lovers. Edward II also sired five children by two different women, so he wasn't necessarily the totally effeminate caricature Mel Gibson makes him out to be. 3) William Wallace wasn't a commoner, but the son of a knight, Alan Wallace. Needless to say, William wouldn't have dressed in rags. No mention is made of Wallace's older brother Malcolm and younger brother John, who survived him by a year. 4) Andrew de Moray, who is never mentioned in the film, came up with the battle plan for Sterling Bridge and actually commanded more men. No bridge actually appears in the movie. The characters Lachlan, Mornay, and Craig are products of the screen writer's imagination. 5) Princess Isabella was age nine or ten and living in France at the time the film depicts. Marion Braidfute is the young maiden Wallace courted and married in Blind Harry's tale about Wallace, but her existence hasn't been proven. A Sir Hugh de Bradfute, however, is documented as having a daughter named Marion, who would have been about the same age as Wallace. The film gives her name as "Murron". 6) Robert the Bruce was known as 'Braveheart" (in retrospect)--not Wallace. The name "Braveheart" comes from the Victorian era poem "Heart of Bruce" by William Edmondstone Aytoun. 7) Bruce was not present at Falkirk. Bruce wasn't a henchman to Edward I. Robert the Bruce's father didn't betray Wallace, but rather John de Menteith, a Scottish soldier loyal to Edward I did. 8) Wallace didn't support the Bruce's claim to the throne because he didn't claim it until 1307 after Wallace died. Wallace did support the exiled Scottish king, John Balliol, however. 9) The Irish mercenaries hired by Edward I never switched sides to ally with the Scots, but they continued to fight for the English. 10) The film opens in the Western Highlands where it was filmed at Glen Nevis, near Fort William; Wallace was a Lowland Scot. Wallace's traditional birthplace is Elderslie in Refrewshire, although it has recently been claimed that it was actually Ellerslie in Ayrshire. 11) The nobility of Scotland, including the Wallace family, were culturally similar to English nobles. They would have dressed similarly and either spoken a Scottish dialect of English or Norman French. Bruce, of course, was Norman French. Kilts were not worn in Scotland until about 1600 and then only by the Highland Scots. 12) Wallace never penetrated York or attempted to besiege the city. 13) The Picts painted or tattoed their faces with blue paint, but they lived centuries before Wallace. 14) Wallace was dragged through London naked on a horse to his execution, not strapped to a cross on a cart. His last words aren't recorded. 15) No one in medieval Scotland wore a 1980s-style mullet or braided his hair. 16) Wallace was very tall for a medieval man--tall enough to be able to weld a 5 foot, 4 inch (162 cm) sword; some estimates place him at 6 feet, 7 inches, but no one knows how tall he really was. Various web sites place Mel Gibson everywhere between 5 foot, 8 inches, to 5 foot, 11 inches. P. S. -- If you want to started a spirited conversation with a Scot, ask this question! Admittedly, some Scottish historians point to Gibson's movie as a turning point in the devolution movement, but almost all Scots who have seen the film can accurately point out a lot of the discrepancies between the real William Wallace and Mel Gibson's character in minute detail. The Scottish Tourist Board undoubtedly appreciates the international interest sparked by the Braveheart movie. Think of Gibson as a late 20th-century Walter Scott if you really enjoy the movie. Scott's novels about Scotland were about as realistic, but they were the first to romanticize grey, dour Scotland.

Answer 8

Because Hollywood doesn't understand History!

Answer 9

It could be because the Scottish national flag is blue.

Answer 10

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