Scotland and "Scottishness" in Film

 

The mid 1990s saw rise to two films that would dominate the public perception of what Scotland is like; the Mel Gibson acting and directorial vehicle Braveheart (1995), which depicted the story of 13th century Scottish soldier Sir William Wallace and his war against English invaders; and the 1996 Danny Boyle directed Trainspotting, which follows the ex-addict Renton looking to choose life over another hit of heroin. While both would be critical and commercial successes both internationally and within Scotland herself, the two films present two extreme opposites of Scotland and its people, which is somewhat indicative of how Scotland is depicted on film; the films made from outwith Scotland conform to the ideas of tartanry, depicting the Highlands as the land of the noble, but savage, kilted warrior, usually pre-20th century; whereas films made within Scotland conform more to the concepts of Clydesideism, portraying an industrialised, modern Scotland, primarily with the cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, often filled with crime, class division and black comedy. While there are some exceptions - which will be explored - the majority of films set in Scotland fit into one of these categories broadly speaking.

Tartanry traces its origins to the defeat of the Jacobites in 1745, which saw the introduction of laws to reduce the “Scottishness” of Scotland, as a means to prevent further rebellion and to speed up the desolation of the Highland clan system, which would allow the London-based British government to have stronger political and social control over the region. These laws included the banning of the tartan, under the Dress Act in 1746. However, these bans would not last, and once the threat of any further Jacobite rebellions had subsided, the tartan was re-introduced to the Highlands, and would become part of the military dress for Highland regiments — this is likely the source of the notion of the “Scottish noble savage”, as they wore the garb of a conquered people who had become assimilated into the “civilised” society. The romanticised ideal of the Highlands, and Scotland in general, would gain international appeal thanks in part to the works of James McPherson (known for the Ossian cycle) and Sir Walter Scott (known for Ivanhoe and Rob Roy) and further reinforced by the royals, particularly Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, who created the similar notion of “Balmoralism”;

“Over the next eight years Balmoral would be transformed into Victoria’s principal Scottish residence, and its version of Scottishness would crystallise across Scotland. […] It was a tartan fantasia […] Victoria enthusiastically patronised Highland games with their pageants of loyal, be-kilted rustics, and the royal pair were depicted in full Highland dress. Her inspiration in all of this was Scott.” (Kelly, 2010)

This history of savage otherness and the co-opting of a perceived elitism has created the paradoxical image of the Highlander that has penetrated the international cultural zeitgeist of what the pre-industrial Scotland was like — and in some extreme cases, what Scotland is currently like. Film scholar Duncan Petrie describes an “abdication of any engagement with the realities of the modern world […] the popular imagination seeks shelter in the retreat into a nostalgic mythic past” (2000: 3), suggesting that those from outside of the country are content with the cultural stereotypes and enjoy the larger-than-life, almost legendary aspects of that country as if there were fact. This is reflected in the success of films set in Scotland (but not made by Scotland) that conform to the tartanry tropes, such as Braveheart, which has become one of the most recognisably “Scottish” films.

While Braveheart was received well by critics, tripled its profits at the box office and won five of the ten Academy Awards it was nominated for, the film has been criticised for the numerous inaccuracies, from the character relationships to how Scotland is depicted, both through the people and the locations shown. One of the most damning criticism comes from Irish historian Seán Duffy, who noted that; 

“We could have done without the tartan kilts, the ludicrously named ‘clan’ chiefs, the sacking of York, the love-affair with the future Queen Isabella of England, or the portrayal of Robert Bruce as an indecisive weakling, while, on the other hand, the battle of Stirling Bridge could have done with a bridge.” (1995)

This criticism is echoed by Peter Traquair, who described the appearance of William Wallace (as portrayed by Mel Gibson) as being “farcical”, due to it having the visage of “a wild and hairy highlander painted with woad (1,000 years too late) running amok in a tartan kilt (500 years too early).” (1998; 62). Yet in large part, the amalgamation of warriors from different periods of history of the region — the blue face paint of the Pictish warrior of the Early Middle Ages and the more modern version of the tartan kilt — has become a popular image of a Scot since the release of Braveheart, and the film itself has been embraced by Scotland, becoming a driving force in tourism and political movements calling for freedom and independence.

Another film that has been similarly embraced by Scotland despite historical and cultural inaccuracies is the Disney/Pixar animated film Brave (2012), which has, to this day, been heavily promoted within Scotland, from a lavish premiere in Edinburgh, to a collaboration between Disney and VisitScotland, likely due to its inclusion of Scottish iconography like the Highlands, the castles and Billy Connolly. Arguably, this film can be excused for its inaccuracies more than Braveheart, due to its fantasy setting and its animated style, as historian Richard Oram stated;

“… historians like me have to be prepared to suspend their disbelief. But you can see the film-makers have done their homework, even if they’ve mixed up their periods a bit. So we get male characters covered in body paint, as we might have expected in the late Iron Age; and high-status females wearing coifs and wimples, as they would have done in the 14th and 15th centuries.” (Barnett, 2012)

There are several parallels that can be made between Brave and Braveheart — aside from the similar names — for instance, a shared landscape of the Highlands, the hyper-masculine warrior culture of the clans, we even see a character that bares a striking resemblance to Mel Gibson’s William Wallace in Lord Macintosh (voiced by Craig Ferguson), who wears similar blue war paint and tartan plaids. It is interesting to note that throughout the film, there is no mention of ‘Scotland’ (which would be accurate to the fantasy-medieval time period), so the inclusion of recognisable Scottish elements, such as the tartans and the landscape, as well as the anachronistic accents provided by a mostly Scottish cast, help establish where the setting is supposed to be to an international audience.

Clydesideism is the contemporary concept of the depiction of modern life in urban Scotland, originally focussing on Glasgow and the shipbuilding industry and the culture that developed around it, as Angus Calder describes it as;

“… the nostalgic idealisation of the working class in heavy industries now on the verge of extinction and the associated all-male culture in which class bitterness was combined with football.” (1994: 230)

However, as Douglas Bicket notes, the term; “… has taken on darker connotations in recent years, following the actual collapse of most of these heavy industries and the resulting unemployment and social dislocation.” (1999: 6), and has gone to expand beyond the Clydeside shipyards to be set in the other large cities of Scotland, most notably Edinburgh, where dark comedies based on the works of Irvine Welsh such as Filth (2013), and most famously Trainspotting, have gained acclaim and notoriety for their portrayal of a modern Scotland.

A persistent theme in ‘Clydesideist’ films is a sense of hopelessness and bleakness that comes with, not necessarily just from living in a Scottish city, but from living in Scotland as a whole. Where tartanry would feature nationalist and cultural pride in being Scottish, Clydesideism is a lot more pessimistic about the country, perhaps due to the economic and industrial decline of the twentieth century, possibly coupled with an increasing defeatism created by the failed Jacobite rebellions, which put an end to physical conflict between Scotland and England, but did not end anti-English sentiment in the north of the British Isles, and has created a desire for distinctiveness in Scotland. As Meech and Kilborn said; “Scottish collective identity defines itself, to a significant degree, by differences in attitudes, values and behaviour between the Scots and the English.” (1992: 246) This can be seen in films that are set pre-Acts of Union 1707 like Braveheart, depicting the English as ruthless villains who still practise Jus primae noctis, as opposed to how the Scots as depicted as the brave protagonists on the moral high ground, and it is frequently used in films set post-Acts of Union as either dramatic beats like in Trainspotting, or very often for comedic effects.

This sense of despair and self-hatred can be seen in Trainspotting, when the boys to the ‘Great Outdoors’ outside of the city, and see a landscape that would inspire national pride in a ‘tartanrist’ film like Braveheart, but is instead met with apathy. Even when Tommy tries to rally the others into enjoying the landscape and Scotland as a whole, Renton angrily responds with;

“It’s SHITE being Scottish! We’re the lowest of the low. The scum of the fucking Earth! The most wretched miserable servile pathetic trash that was ever shat on civilisation. Some people hate the English. I don’t. They’re just wankers. We, on the other hand, are colonised by wankers. Can’t even find a decent culture to get colonised by. We’re ruled by effete assholes. It’s a shite state of affairs to be in, Tommy, and all the fresh air in the world won’t make any fucking difference!” (Macdonald & Boyle, 1996) 

It is important to note that films made by Scottish filmmakers, and set in Scotland, tend to fall under the ‘Clydeside’ ideology rather than the ‘Tartanry’ ideology. This may be due to the aforementioned cultural pessimism of modern Scots, but it may also be a conscious rejection of the romanticised image of Scotland popularised by the ‘Balmoralism’, which has been continued by American Hollywood films. However, there is a Scottish co-produced film that portrays a romanticised, yet modern Scotland; What We Did on Our Holiday (2014), directed by Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin (the duo who created the BBC series Outnumbered) and co-produced by BBC Films and Creative Scotland.

The film follows Doug and Abi (David Tennant and Rosamund Pike), a husband and wife in the midst of a messy divorce, pretending they’re not as they travel up with their three eccentric children to the Scottish Highlands for what could be the grandfather Gordie’s (Billy Connolly) last birthday party, which has been blown to ridiculous proportions by Doug’s social-climbing brother Gavin (Ben Miller). The film opens by showing the dichotomy of life in London with Doug and Abi’s family, and the picturesque lochs that Gordie, Gavin and his family live next to in their manor house. London, and other parts of England that are shown, is shown to be tight and almost claustrophobic, to signify an urban oppression of modern cities and motorways in perpetual gridlock, which is in stark contrast to the vast and open air of the Highlands, which may be to represent a sense of freedom that Gordie seeks in his final days, and the lesson he imparts onto his grandchildren.

It is possible to read the characters as being representative of the two countries shown at odds with each other; Gordie represents Scotland, with his fun-loving, mischievous nature and the aforementioned desire for freedom; whereas his two sons and Abi are representative of England, as they are more authoritative as the parents and carers, much like how England is the authoritative influence over Scotland within in the United Kingdom. Gavin in particular seems to be the English stand-in, with his self-consciousness about his social standing, his technological prowess and the wealth he has acquired through his job as a short seller. This somewhat makes Gavin’s excessive Scottishness ironic if interpreted this way, especially with his jabs at Doug for having become “… so English you’re practically French!” The grandchildren - Doug and Abi’s three children, and Gavin’s son Kenneth - learn from Gordie to loosen up, and to establish personal freedom from their parents to become self-actualised, much like how Scotland has grown to  make itself more distinct from England by demonstrating its own cultural identity.

In conclusion, while there is no way to succinctly and completely depict what a country is like, many of the films made by or set in Scotland tend to fall under two main categories; that of tartanry and Clydesideism. And while there are other depictions of Scotland (e.g. Kailyard, etc.), tartanry and Clydesideism are the most frequent versions of the country that can be found, depicting a proud, yet pessimistic nation of ‘noble savages’ and disillusioned urbanites, living in a near-mystical land polluted by industrial cities in decline. It can be debated how accurate this is to the real world nation - not just in how Hollywood portrays it, but in how Scots present themselves - but for the majority of the world, whose only context is what they are presented with on-screen, Scotland will be a land of magic, kilts and fierce patriotism in the face of foreign oppression.

Bibliography

• Barnett, Laura (2012). ‘A Scottish historian on Brave’ theguardian.com, 29 August. Accessed 1 December 2019. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/aug/29/scottish-historian-view-brave
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