Leadership In The Film Braveheart

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When our group first got together, we brainstormed traits we thought effective leaders possessed. While we came up with many different traits and characteristics, one remained constant throughout the discussion; inspirational. Then we tried to think of a movie in which a character was an inspirational leader. We immediately came up with Mel Gibson’s 1995 movie, “Braveheart”. It was produced by Mel Gibson and written by Randall Wallace. It starred Mel Gibson as William Wallace and Angus McFadyen as Robert the Bruce, and was released May 24, 1995. It won 5 Oscars, and 15 other awards (IMDb.) “Braveheart” is a story about William Wallace, a Scottish rebel trying to free Scotland from the English who are ruled by Edward the Long shanks. Set in 14th century Scotland, Wallace rallies his village in a revolt against the attacking English and once they succeed, he leads the rest of Scotland in its fight to freedom. Other than the fact that William Wallace actually existed, and that he led the Scottish revolt, most of the movie is not very historically accurate (Ferguson). There were 2 main leaders that were prominent in the movie, William Wallace and Robert the Bruce. Wallace was more of a charismatic, team-player leader, and Robert the Bruce had legitimate power passed down to him. While both managed to develop their skills throughout the movie, they both had room for improvement in leadership styles. William Wallace was a charismatic leader who motivates others and makes team goals clear. Envisioning goals and motivating others toward collective goals are important functions of leadership to make goals become true. William Wallace wants him and his followers to have true freedom. His followers were scared to fight England’s big army and tried to run away, because they thought they would die in the battle. He gets them inspired when he speaks, saying things like “fight
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