People like to quote movie lines. Who hasn’t had a friend say, “Hasta la vista, baby”? A favorite of many is Mel Gibson’s cry of “Freedom!” at the end of Braveheart. That scene tells us something about ourselves. William Wallace was publicly hung, drawn, and quartered. In the film, he appears to shout “Freedom!” at the moment the executioner is showing him his own entrails. We cannot be sure, however, because the camera does not show us: it is fixed on Wallace’s pained, but defiant face. What 14th-century Londoners watched up close and personal, we cannot even see represented on the silver screen. Why? Are we not an “anything-goes” people, freer than those benighted medieval Londoners?
We do not watch Wallace being drawn, because we do not want to see others humiliated. We are too nice for that.
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