Brigadoon, Braveheart and the Scots: Scotland in Hollywood Cinema

The films Brigadoon and Braveheart have an enormous resonance both for Scots throughout the world, and the wide audience of non-Scots for whom such films provide general impressions of ‘Scottishness’. This provocative book discusses the films' representations of Scotland and the Scots, using the notion of the Scottish Discursive Unconscious – that cluster of images and stories whereby Scotland is (mis)recognised and yet often comes to be ‘known’. Colin McArthur follows Brigadoon through the worlds of 1940s Broadway theatre and 1950s Hollywood, and documents the contempt the film has elicited, particularly from the Scots intelligentsia. He succumbs to Brigadoon's charm, but finds no such mitigating features in Braveheart. Tracing the film's appropriation by political, touristic and sporting figures, he argues that, far from its being ‘about’ Scottish history, it is primarily ‘about’ Hollywood and its cinematic traditions. He looks at the way the film distorts history and examines Braveheart's sinister appeal to the proto-fascist psyche.