Clans, armies and an epic battle

Filming for most of the big battle scenes took place in various locations in Ireland; County Meath, County Kildare, County Wicklow and County Dublin.

With up to 1600 extras required for the battles, the production drafted in members of the F.C.A., the Irish version of the territorial army.

Subsequently, a rumour abounds that some of the battle scenes seen in the movie are far more realistic than intended, with rival companies using the occasion to settle a few old scores.

“In terms of the scope of the battles,” says Toll, “just trying to recreate the period and the environment and the sets and, you know, the general feeling, we really knew we were doing the best we possibly could.”

“You could feel that on a daily basis.  Just by showing up for work you just feel the vibe in the sense that things are working, and we were able to get that on screen, which isn’t always the case.”

“It could have just been a chaos fest,” adds Gibson. “Some days there were three thousand people there.  With the crew and everybody, and everything had to kind of like find its way.  So that took some doing.”

In order to get into character, Gibson lived and worked closely with a group of Scots he’d drafted in as extras.

“There was this one group of Scots who worked with us.  Who called themselves the ‘Wallace Clan.’ He recalls.

“They were this group of about thirty or forty guys, and they were sort of like a travelling troop - they would go to various fairs and live the medieval lifestyle as much as they possibly could, “ remembers Toll.

“It was like they had just stepped out of that period, they became a part of our permanent troop and actually had trained themselves in handling those weapons so they really knew what they were doing.”

Gibson smiles, “If you look at the film and you see the hairiest scariest dudes, it’s those guys. They're from Glasgow, you know, and the way they look at you, like they're going to bite ya. 

“There was something kind of carnivorous and savage about those guys.”

“We put them in the front row because they were the best looking guys we had. There’s a dolly shot at the end of the movie that goes up to Robert Bruce. 

“And all the guys in that shot are the Wallace clan, because they looked the most legitimate and historically correct.”

With the shoot wrapped in Ireland, the production moved to location shoots in Scotland for six weeks, but what effect would the gruelling schedule and the punishing weather take on Gibson?

Next: Leading from the front