338: This Week: Braveheart, Hatfields & McCoys, The Walk, Frost/Nixon

August 5th, 1305. Scotland.

We’ll start with one of the most popular of those ‘based on a true story’ movies, Braveheart, to learn about an event in history that happened 719 years today: William Wallace’s capture. About two and a half hours into the movie, we see Mel Gibson’s version of William Wallace is riding a horse into a village. Besides the castle, which seems to be a small castle—but a castle nonetheless—the rest of the village seems to be made of wood houses with straw roofs. A few villagers are scattered around, going about their daily business.

Inside the castle, Angus Macfadyen’s version of Robert the Bruce is pacing on top of a table when Wallace’s presence is announced. Robert turns and hops off the table. Following him outside is Craig, who is played by John Kavanagh in the movie.

Outside, we see Wallace still on his horse, passing by the castle’s open gate. Robert and Craig start descending the stairs from the castle, and Robert raises his hand to greet him. Wallace responds with a wave.

Robert and Craig continue walking down the stairs as Wallace starts to get off his horse. Hopping to the ground, someone leads the horse away just as Robert and Craig reach the bottom of the castle stairs. Then, the music in the movie reaches a moment of pause…

In the castle courtyard, Robert and Wallace are walking toward each other. The young boy leading the horse looks away suspiciously. Wallace notices this and he looks to the side. Robert notices it, too, and he turns to look at Craig. For his part, Craig looks as if he’s about to signal someone with a slight nod.

Wallace’s head turns back to Robert who yells out, “No!”

Just then, a rush of armed soldiers tackle William Wallace, knocking him to the ground. At least five or six soldiers are hitting him with their wooden clubs, not to kill him but to beat him into submission. Robert rushes forward, trying to push the soldiers off. “You lied! You lied!”

The soldiers start beating him, too. Craig rushes in, pulling Robert aside. As he covers Robert the Bruce with his own body, Craig yells to the soldiers, “Bruce is not to be harmed, that’s the arrangement!”

The true story behind this week’s event depicted in the movie Braveheart

That’s the movie’s depiction of how William Wallace was captured by the English near Glasgow on August 5th, 1305.

And right up front, I should say that there are a lot of details about how William Wallace was captured that we just don’t know. It was 1305 after all, so we’re not going to know the amount of detail we do of more recent events.

With that said, while it is true that William Wallace was betrayed, it’s pretty safe to say what we see happening in the movie is not how it happened at all. There’s a memorial in the suburb of Glasgow called Robroyston where Wallace was captured, the plaque on it gives us some clues about just how different the real thing was:

“This memorial erected 1900 AD by public subscription is to mark the site of the house in which the hero of Scotland was basely betrayed and captured about midnight on 5th August 1305 when alone with his faithful friend and co-patriot Kerlie who was slain.

Wallace’s heroic patriotism as conspicuous in his death as in his life within nine years of his betrayal the work of his life was crowned with victory and Scotland’s independence regained on the field of Bannockburn.”

So, it happened about midnight. Not daytime like in the movie. It says he was with his faithful friend who was killed. Not alone, like we see in the movie. Other sources suggest he was sleeping in a cottage when they captured him, not walking to meet with Robert the Bruce.

But, that doesn’t mean there wasn’t a castle involved.

As the story goes, a Scottish nobleman by the name of Sir John Menteith conspired to capture William Wallace in exchange for land and titles. After William Wallace was captured in the cottage, he was taken to Menteith’s Dumbarton Castle.

Actually, come to think of it, the real castle looks more like what you’d think of as a castle than the one in the movie does, haha! I’ll include a photo of that in the Discord community so you can see for yourself what Dumbarton Castle looks like.

But if you want to watch the event as it was shown in the movie Braveheart you’ll find the sequence starting at about two hours, 27 minutes, and 21 seconds into the movie. We covered that movie many years ago on the podcast, so you can find our Braveheart episode at basedonatruestorypodcast.com/45

August 7th, 1882. Blackberry Creek, Kentucky.

For our next event this week, we’ll switch to the small screen and head a few minutes into the second episode or History Channel’s TV series called Hatfield & McCoys.

We’re outside. A few patches of green grass can be seen on the ground, but mostly there are brown leaves covering the ground and a few trees that look like they’ve already dropped their leaves for the season.

There are a number of different booths, tables, and wagons all set up to make a sort of crude circle. Modest decorations of red, white, and blue are strung between the circle, and if you look closely as the camera moves between the people milling about the event, there are signs hung up on some of the posts.

Does that one say “Thacker?” It’s hard to read as the camera is focusing mostly on the people dancing behind the pole the sign is hanging on. The next one is a lot easier to see. It reads:

District 2 Justice of the Peace
Vote Shadrick Osborn

That explains the red, white, and blue. This is an election.

It also seems to be a shooting contest, as some of the guys are taking aim at targets nearby.

Oh, and it’s a drinking party, too. Lots of the guys are carrying glasses filled with beer, or whiskey—we can’t tell what it is, but it’s clearly some sort of alcohol. Probably not a good thing to mix with shooting.

As time passes, the shooting continues to heat up between the competitors.

Then, we can see Kevin Costner’s version of Anse Hatfield walking arm-in-arm with his wife, Sarah Parish’s version of Levicy Hatfield. They walk one way while walking the other direction is Bill Paxton’s version of Randall McCoy walks arm-in-arm with his wife, Mare Winningham’s version of Sally McCoy. They pass by each other without saying anything or looking at each other.

From each side of the clearing surrounding by the circle of booths, the people start heckling the other side. One side seems to be the Hatfields, making fun of Randall McCoy. The other side seems to be the McCoys, making fun of Anse Hatfield.

The words start to escalate into name-calling. One of the McCoys warns one of the Hatfields about what he’s said, and taking off his coat he charges to the center of the circle. Others throw down their liquor and before long there’s a confrontation in the middle of the circle.

One of the men, Damien O’Hare’s version of Ellison Hatfield, tries to diffuse the situation and get the men to break up. It seems to work, and the Hatfields start walking back…then one of the McCoys marches up and punches someone in the back of the head. He falls to the ground. When he gets up, there are more words. More punches. Ellison tries to break it up again. Before long, it seems to be Ellison punching off the drunken McCoys as they keep coming at him.

Other Hatfields are just sitting back, drinking, and watching the fight as if it’s some sort of entertainment. And for a while, Ellison seems to be doing a good job of holding them off. In the fight, he seems to break one of the McCoys’ arms.

It looks like that’s Michael Jibson’s version of Phamer McCoy.

While on the ground, Phamer pulls out a knife with his good arm. He jumps on Ellison, stabbing him. It happens so fast, the other Hatfields watching and drinking don’t seem to realize the fight has escalated into something deadly. Ellison manages to get the man off him.

Then, Phamer pulls out a pistol. He turns, points it at Ellison, and pulls the trigger.

The true story behind this week’s event depicted in the TV series Hatfields & McCoys

Now it’s time for my favorite part: The fact-checking segment for when one of the most infamous family feuds in American history escalated into bloodshed.

Now, this is one of those events in history where we simply do not know the entirety of the true story. What we do know has to come from those who were there and, as you can probably guess, not everyone who was there had the same story to tell.

For one, witness testimony is never to be relied upon. Plus, this was in the 1800s in rural Kentucky, so it’s not like everything was documented.

On top of all of that, it was a feud. So, of course, those on the Hatfields side would recount the things that happened to favor their side while those on the McCoys side would favor their own side of the story.

With that historical caveat out of the way, for the most part, the History Channel’s series does a decent job of showing how it might’ve happened.

The name we see on the poster that I mentioned earlier, Shadrick Osborn, really was a real person. But, he’s not really involved in the true story we’re talking about today at all.

August 7^th, 1882 was an election day for the area in Kentucky, and there was plenty of alcohol that factored into the escalation of a pre-existing disdain between the families. We don’t really know what the spark was that caused the violence to start. Some sources say it was because of how the Hatfields treated Roseanna McCoy—the sister of the McCoy brothers that started the violence in the series. So, it might’ve been similar to what we see in the series.

Regardless of how it started, though, we do know that the violence escalated when Ellison Hatfield was stabbed multiple times. Some sources say it might’ve been as many as 24 stab wounds.

We also see Ellison getting shot in the series, and while people there did say that happened, it probably didn’t happen while he was still standing up like we see in the series. After being stabbed, it’s more likely Ellison was on the ground when he was shot. He didn’t die right away, but there also wasn’t anything that could be done.

And as you can probably guess, there was retaliation from the Hatfields. It was led by Ellison’s brother, Anse—he’s played by Kevin Costner in the series. After local law enforcement was called, the McCoy brothers were arrested.

Conveniently enough, some of those law enforcement officers just happened to be Hatfields. So, it’s probably not too much of a surprise that Anse and some of his other family and friends were able to get the McCoy brothers out of the law’s custody before they made it to the closest jail.

After Ellison Hatfield succumbed to his wounds, Anse and his posse of vigilantes killed the McCoy brothers. Some sources say they fired over 50 bullets into the three McCoys.

And as you can probably guess, there was retaliation from the McCoys. And so, the feud between the Hatfields and McCoys turned into an especially bloody one this week in history.

If you want to watch this as it happened in the History Channel series, the segment we started today with is about five minutes into the second episode of 2012’s Hatfields & McCoys miniseries.

August 7th, 1974. New York City, New York.

I think I forgot to mention in the last segment that anniversary is on Wednesday this week. Well, that’s the same for our next event. In fact, Wednesday marks the 50th anniversary of an event that was the subject of the Robert Zemeckis movie called The Walk.

We’ll start about an hour and a half into the movie, as the camera is overlooking the city, giving us a beautiful view of the buildings below. The sun is just starting to rise in the distance. In the foreground, stretching from left to right across the frame is a wire of some sort. We can’t see what’s on either end, but the wire is in focus leaving the cityscape below to be slightly blurry.

Slowly, the camera pans to the right. As it does, we can see what the wire is connected to as a massive metal structure starts to fill up the frame. The camera stops as a foot enters the top of the frame. Wearing what looks like a black slip-on shoe of some sort, the foot reaches down until it steps onto the wire. We can also see at least one leg of what we can assume are black pants.

Then, the camera pans up the leg and back slightly.

Now we can see who the foot and leg belong to: Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s version of Philippe Petit.

Behind him, the structure we saw a moment ago is also easier to see. It’s the rooftop of a big building. At least it looks big, part of it seems to be obscured by the morning fog. Another man is standing up there with him. He’s handing Philippe what looks like a long, metal rod.

The camera cuts back to looking at his feet now. Except instead of looking at the structure where he’s at, the shot is looking from behind his feet, across the wire, to the other side.

So, now we can see on the right side of the frame is the structure that dialogue in the movie confirms is a building. One of Philippe’s feet is on the building. The other one is a step down, carefully placed on the wire. That wire stretches from the building Philippe is partially on, across a gap covered in fog and to a building on the other side of the frame—that building is also partially covered by the fog.

A few seconds pass, and the fog rolls by a little bit more, covering up whatever we could see on the other side. Now the wire just looks like it’s going into nothingness. The fog continues to grow, as Philippe’s inner monologue explains that the sounds of New York faded below him: All I could see was the wire.

A moment passes as Philippe surveys the scene in front of him.

And then, carefully, Phillipe takes his foot off the building and places it on the wire.

The true story behind this week’s event depicted in the movie The Walk

That depiction of Phillipe Petit walking the high wire stretched between the two World Trade Center buildings in New York City really did happen on August 7^th, 1974.

And not to spoil the ending of the movie, but he did make it across. I’m guessing you already knew that part of it is true, too, since they probably wouldn’t have made a movie about it if he hadn’t been successful.

To quote from Sony Pictures’ official summary posted over on IMDb, “Twelve people have walked on the moon, but only one man – Philippe Petit (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) – has ever, or will ever, walk in the immense void between the World Trade Center towers.”

The walk between the towers wasn’t some random event.

Walking between the towers was something Phillipe Petit wanted to do ever since he found out they were being built in 1968—well, technically, the construction for the towers began in 1967, but Petit found out about them in 1968.

In 1971, he walked between the two towers of the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. He got arrested for that since it’s illegal to do that. But, he got free and in 1973, he walked between pylons on the Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia. Back in New York City, the two towers of the World Trade Center had their ribbon-cutting ceremony in April of 1973.

Then, in early 1974, Petit visited New York City. He also knew he’d have to compensate for both the wind as well as the towers moving, too. Standing 1,360 feet tall, the towers were designed to sway in the wind. So, he had a lot of preparation to do.

He took reconnaissance photos. He practiced on similar distances.

But, the walk itself was just part of it. They had to get the line secured. And they had to do it in a way that no one would know they’re doing it. After all, what he did was technically illegal.

In fact, many people have called his feat the ‘artistic crime of the century.’

The night before, on August 6^th, Petit and a few people helping him, snuck up to the south tower. Well, most of them.

A couple of the guys helping him went to the north tower. From there, they used a bow and arrow to shoot fishing line between the towers. Since it was dark and fishing line isn’t very easy to see to begin with, it took a while for Petit to find on the other side.

He even had to take off his clothes to feel around with more of his skin to find the line. Once they did, the steel wire was pulled between the towers and after much effort, finally secured.

The walk itself took place at about 7:15 AM local time on August 7^th, 1974.

It took about 45 minutes for Petit to span the distance between the towers. But, then again, he didn’t do it just once. All that work wasn’t for a single trip. He went back and forth eight times.

Oh, and to do some conversions, the towers are 1,360 feet tall so about 414 meters with a distance between them of 200 feet, so about 61 meters. Although I also found some sources saying Petit’s cable was 131 feet long, so about 40 meters, which could make sense that whoever measures the distance between the towers aren’t measuring for a cable connecting them, haha!

Just like we see in the movie, a crowd below gathered to see it happen. And as you can probably guess, police showed up on the other side to arrest Petit as soon as he stepped off the wire. He was released that afternoon—after a psych eval to make sure he was okay, of course. The only condition of his release was that he do a free performance in Central Park.

If you want to watch the event that happened this week in history, check out the 2015 movie called The Walk. The sequence we started our segment with today starts at about an hour, 28 minutes and 11 seconds into the movie.

August 8th, 1974. Washington DC.

I’ve got a quick fourth bonus event for you this week, and it comes about four minutes into the 2008 movie Frost/Nixon.

We’re looking over the shoulder of a man as he’s reviewing the papers on the desk in front of him. From somewhere off-screen, we can hear a man saying, “15 seconds, Mr. President.”

The camera cuts to…well, another camera. There are two red lights above the camera as the countdown continues.

“Five, four…”

We can see the President’s cufflinks in a closeup shot as he straightens the papers. They’re in his hands, now.

Then, he begins the speech.

“Good evening, this is the 37^th time I have addressed you from the office,” he says into the camera on the other side of the desk.

The true story behind this week’s event depicted in the movie Frost/Nixon

As I said, it’s a quick scene in the movie, but that’s how the 2008 movie called Frost/Nixon depicts an event that happened this week in history when, on August 8^th, 1974, President Richard Nixon announced to a live television audience that he would resign the Presidency effective the following day, making him the first president in the history of the United States to resign.

And that really is how Nixon started his speech that day, but in the movie we don’t see much of the speech before it cuts away. And I can understand why they decided to do that in the film—if for no other reason than the speech was about 15 minutes long.

That’s a lot to include in the movie, especially since the point of the movie is what happened after the speech and not the speech itself. But since they show how the speech began in the movie, let’s hear the first few minutes of the real speech…and then if you want to see the original television broadcast, I’ll include that over at basedonatruestorypodcast.com/338

Good evening.

This is the 37th time I have spoken to you from this office, where so many decisions have been made that shaped the history of this Nation. Each time I have done so to discuss with you some matter that I believe affected the national interest.

In all the decisions I have made in my public life, I have always tried to do what was best for the Nation. Throughout the long and difficult period of Watergate, I have felt it was my duty to persevere, to make every possible effort to complete the term of office to which you elected me.

In the past few days, however, it has become evident to me that I no longer have a strong enough political base in the Congress to justify continuing that effort. As long as there was such a base, I felt strongly that it was necessary to see the constitutional process through to its conclusion, that to do otherwise would be unfaithful to the spirit of that deliberately difficult process and a dangerously destabilizing precedent for the future.

But with the disappearance of that base, I now believe that the constitutional purpose has been served, and there is no longer a need for the process to be prolonged.

I would have preferred to carry through to the finish whatever the personal agony it would have involved, and my family unanimously urged me to do so. But the interest of the Nation must always come before any personal considerations.

From the discussions I have had with Congressional and other leaders, I have concluded that because of the Watergate matter I might not have the support of the Congress that I would consider necessary to back the very difficult decisions and carry out the duties of this office in the way the interests of the Nation would require.

I have never been a quitter. To leave office before my term is completed is abhorrent to every instinct in my body. But as President, I must put the interest of America first. America needs a full-time President and a full-time Congress, particularly at this time with problems we face at home and abroad.

To continue to fight through the months ahead for my personal vindication would almost totally absorb the time and attention of both the President and the Congress in a period when our entire focus should be on the great issues of peace abroad and prosperity without inflation at home.

Therefore, I shall resign the Presidency effective at noon tomorrow. Vice President Ford will be sworn in as President at that hour in this office.

And then Nixon continued the rest of the speech for a few more minutes. If you want to see the full speech, you can watch a clip of the original broadcast over at basedonatruestorypodcast.com/338

But that’s not the only thing from this week in history relevant to the true story.

The next day, at about noon on August 9^th, 1974, President Nixon officially stepped down and the office of the President was transferred to Vice President Gerald Ford who, then, became the 38^th President of the United States.

And then almost exactly a year later, on August 10^th, 1975—so also this week in history—David Frost bought the rights to an exclusive interview with former President Nixon. That’s the story told in the 2008 movie Frost/Nixon, so if you want to see the event that happened this week in history, the text on the screen saying it’s August 8^th, 1974, is at about four minutes and two seconds into the movie. And then the rest of the movie is about David Frost’s interview with Nixon.

And we covered that movie way back in the single digits—episode number four of Based on a True Story.

Historical birthdays from the movies

Let’s move onto our next segment now, where we learn about historical figures from the movies that were born this week in history.

On August 5^th, 1930, Neil Alden Armstrong was born in Wapakoneta, Ohio. And I probably butchered that pronunciation, so if you’re from Wapakoneta, or however you pronounce it, and you want to let us know, join the Based on a True Story Discord to share the correct pronunciation. But, Neil Armstrong was an astronaut best known as the first person to walk on the Moon. We learned all about that just last month during the anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission where we relied heavily on the way history was depicted in the 2018 biopic about his life called First Man. You can learn more about the historical accuracy of that movie over at https://basedonatruestorypodcast.com/144

On August 7^th, 1876, Margaretha Geertruida Zelle was born in Leeuwarden, Netherlands. She was better known as Mata Hari, which was her stage name as an exotic dancer and courtesan. Although, history perhaps best remembers her as a woman who was executed by a French firing squad after being convicted of being a spy for Germany during World War I. We dug into her story based on the movie about her life, which you can listen to at https://basedonatruestorypodcast.com/74

On August 10^th, 1874, Herbert Hoover was born in West Branch, Iowa. He was the 31^st President of the United States so it’s probably not too surprising that he’s been portrayed in a few different movies—if you’re looking for one to watch, I’d recommend The Day the Bubble Burst. Fair warning, it’s a highly fictional account about the stock market crash in 1929, but Hoover was played by actor Franklin Cover in the movie.

‘Based on a True Story’ movie that released this week

Time now for our segment about ‘based on a true story’ movies released this week in history.

We’re going back to the late 2000s for this one, for the comedy-drama film called Julie & Julia, which released 15 years ago, on August 7^th, 2009.

Directed by Nora Ephron, Julie & Julia intertwines the lives of two women who share a passion for cooking. It covers Julia Child’s early years in the culinary world and Julie Powell’s year-long blogging project.

The story begins with Julia Child (Meryl Streep) in the 1950s as she and her husband Paul (Stanley Tucci) move to Paris. Eager to find a purpose, Julia enrolls at Le Cordon Bleu, a prestigious culinary school. Despite facing skepticism and gender bias, she becomes determined to master French cooking. With her friends Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, Julia embarks on writing a French cookbook for American housewives. The process is long and challenging, but Julia’s perseverance pays off when the book, “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” is finally published, revolutionizing American cuisine.

Parallel to Julia’s story is Julie Powell (Amy Adams), a government employee in New York City in 2002. Feeling unfulfilled in her job, Julie decides to cook all 524 recipes in Julia Child’s cookbook within a year and blogs about her experience. The blog quickly gains popularity, and Julie finds herself dealing with the pressures of her ambitious project while balancing her personal life with her supportive but sometimes frustrated husband, Eric (Chris Messina).

Throughout the film, the stories of Julia and Julie run in tandem, highlighting their respective challenges and triumphs. Julia’s journey shows her transformation into a culinary icon, while Julie’s journey depicts her struggle for self-fulfillment and recognition. The film culminates with Julie visiting a reconstruction of Julia’s kitchen at the Smithsonian Institution, paying homage to the woman who inspired her.

The movie ends on a poignant note, showing the impact both women had on each other’s lives, even though they never met.

And the movie is correct to show Julia Child’s reaction to Julie Powell’s blog. In the true story, Julia Child considered Powell’s blog more of a publicity stunt than a serious culinary endeavor. According to an article on The Cinemaholic, Julia Child’s exact words about Julie Powell was, “I don’t think she’s a serious cook.”

As you can probably imagine, when Julie Powell found out about this, she was crushed upon hearing her culinary idol’s disapproval.

The portrayal of Julia Child’s time at Le Cordon Bleu is also historically accurate. Julia Child was one of the few women studying at the prestigious culinary school in the 1950s. She faced significant challenges and skepticism from her male counterparts and some instructors, who doubted her capabilities. However, Child’s determination and passion for cooking shone through, and she excelled in her training, eventually co-authoring “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” with Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle.

Switching to how the movie shows Julie Powell’s blog project, it is true that her blog project was to cook all 524 recipes from Julia Child’s cookbook in one year. Powell started her blog in 2002, documenting her daily experiences and challenges of cooking in her tiny New York apartment kitchen. The blog quickly gained a large following, leading to a book deal and transforming Powell’s life. Her memoir called Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen became a bestseller and was used as a basis for the filmmakers.

But that doesn’t mean getting published was easy for Julie or Julia.

The film accurately portrays the long and arduous process Julia Child faced in getting her cookbook published. Julia and her co-authors spent several years perfecting the recipes and manuscript, and were rejected by publishers time and time again finally securing a deal with the publisher Alfred A. Knopf.

Julia’s book called Mastering the Art of French Cooking which published in 1961 was a significant milestone, marking the beginning of Julia’s impact on American culinary culture.

The depiction of Julie Powell’s life in New York City, including her job and her strained relationship with her husband, Eric, is accurate enough to get the gist across. It’s always a good idea to remember that dialogue in movies is often one of the most made-up things, so the general plot points around a strained relationship can be accurate even if the specific conversations that strain the relationship are made up for the movie, if that makes sense.

Although, it’s also a good idea to remember that this movie was based on Julie Powell’s memoir, so maybe some of those conversations were real, but there’s no way that I, the filmmakers, or anyone else who wasn’t there would be able to prove that. At least, for the parts about Julie. The filmmakers also the book that Julia Child co-wrote with her great nephew Alex Prud’homme called My Life in France. I’ll add links to both of those in the show notes, of course.

But, it is true that the real Julie Powell worked at the LMDC handling calls related to the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. For a bit of context, the LMDC, or Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, was formed in November of 2001 with the purpose of reconstructing lower Manhattan in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.

She wasn’t happy at her job, so that’s a big reason why she threw herself into the blogging project as a creative escape.

If you want to watch how the movie portrays the relationship between Julie and Julia, hop into the show notes to find where you can watch it right now.