To the editor:
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Later, Puccinelli asserts that “Wallace [played by Mel Gibson] seems to be the only Scotsman who wears short sleeves, probably because Gibson associates heroism with muscle.” If Reader reviewers aren’t going to be required to pay close attention to the films they are writing on, they ought to at least glance at the publicity stills sent with their press packets: the one printed with Puccinelli’s review shows Gibson next to another actor, who got plenty of screen time as one of Wallace’s lieutenants, both of them wearing identically short-sleeved tunics. A number of bare arms, presumably belonging to Scots, are visible in the background, as they were throughout the film.
Such trivial details meant little to my enjoyment of the film, but bungling them tends to undermine the credibility of a reviewer. What little of that he had left, Puccinelli threw away with statements like, “Is Braveheart historically accurate? The narrator charges that history is written by hangmen, so probably not.” Actually, a cursory glance at a couple of basic texts could have answered the question, at least at the level of sophistication exhibited here (the answer is, yes in the essentials, no in many details and some chronology).
Oak Park
