“They May Take Our Lives, But They’ll Never Take Our Freedom!” with Randall Wallace—Braveheart Screenwriter

The Aggressive Life with Brian Tome

Crossroads

Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

4.9 • 756 Ratings

🗓️ 7 November 2023

⏱️ 78 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Randall Wallace spent years writing the screenplays he thought Hollywood wanted, only to see them go nowhere. With his back against the wall, he decided to take one final attempt, focusing on the story he wanted to tell. That script, Braveheart, found its way into the hands of Mel Gibson—and the rest is history. From there, Randall went on to write and direct The Man in the Iron Mask, We Were Soldiers, Pearl Harbor, and Disney’s Secretariat. In this conversation, Randall explains how a chance encounter in Scotland led him to the story of William Wallace, how pressure fuels creativity, and what it’s like to push all your chips in. Randall is a creative and aggressive man who will inspire you to keep moving.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the aggressive life. Let's see if you can name that movie.
0:23.2	They may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom.
0:32.1	Oh, my goodness. God bless America. Or actually, God bless Scotland.
0:39.1	Braveheart is one of my favorite movies of all time.
0:42.8	What is there not to like?
0:44.5	Epic speeches, intense battles, a love story, kilts and blue face paints, guys mooning each other.
0:54.0	Oh, it's wonderful. Come on. With us today is the man
0:57.7	responsible for dreaming up this cinematic masterpiece. Actually, I don't think it's mooning
1:03.5	each other. I think they're showing each other the bird. Isn't it, isn't it the beginning of
1:07.2	the opening of their kilts here? Tell me, have you... I haven't seen it that recently to remember.
1:12.7	Yeah, they're on the field of battle.
1:13.9	Well, we're going to find out a little bit.
1:15.1	Okay, we are.
1:15.5	Yeah, they're on the field of battle against England, and they kind of open up their thing.
1:19.6	I don't think they're mooning.
1:20.5	I think they do the bird. because it's been a couple years since I've seen it. I like to remember it the way I like to remember it.
1:28.5	So after taking a trip to Scotland to learn more about his family roots,
1:34.3	Randall Wallace discovered the lenged of the medieval Scottish patriot William Wallace.
1:41.1	Unfortunately, no, they're not related.
1:46.0	Ten years later, with his back against the wall,
1:53.0	he started writing Braveheart. His last attempt to get a screenplay produced, and this time,
1:58.9	it worked. His screenplay got the attention to Bell Gibson, who went on to produce, direct,
	...

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