Analysis of movie "Brave"

[Robofox42]

A few months ago, I did my first ever movie analysis on the movie "Frozen." 

https://board.freedomainradio.com/topic/39347-analysis-of-movie-frozen/

 

Well, I have decided to try it again with the movie "Brave."  Please let me know what you think.  I hope this review isn't too long, but I wanted to go over this movie in detail.  This review is pretty critical of the movie so if you liked it be warned.

 

*** Spoiler alert ***

I am going to be going through the whole plot in detail so don't read if you want to watch the movie.

 

 

Brave is a movie that shows the transformation of Merida to a false self due to her lying to herself about her mother. 

 

  The realization that made this movie click for me is to realize that Mordue is actually Elinor, Merida's mother.  Before going into the plot, I wanted to present some of the evidence that Mordue is actually Merida's mom. Every time we see Mordue, it is when Merida is with her mom.  Also, in each case, right before Mordue appears, Merida sees the will of the wisps.  This is a marker of when Merida is entering fantasy and lying to herself about what is actually occuring. Elinor becomes a bear and twice almost attacks Merida.  Also, as a clue, at one point the father thinks that Elinor (as a bear) is Mordue.  So on to the plot...

 

  At the very beginning, Merida and her mother are playing hide and seek.  They are having a bonding moment and Merida gets a bow and shoots an arrow into the woods.  She wanders off searching for her arrow.  She is led by the will of the wisps back to protect her from Mordue who is implied to be watching her.  I think what actually happens is that she gets lost in the woods and when she returns, she meets the rage of her mom.  Remember that every time she is seeing the will of the wisps, she is entering fantasy and creating a different narrative for what events are actually occuring.

 

  So Mordue attacks and she remembers it as her mom running her to protection and her father facing Mordue.  One thing that is interesting is that at other times in the movie, Merida goes to her father for protection from her mom.  Each time this happens, the father fails to protect her.  The father has lost his leg from Mordue and to me this represents that he has lost a part of himself especially his self-respect due to being submissive to Elinor.  Multiple times throughout the movie, Elinor humiliates her husband and he just submits. 

 

  So after the Mordue beginning scene, Merida talks about fate and talks about how many believe that fate can't be changed.  She implies that fate can be changed and ends with "there are some who are led."  This is interesting because this is completely contradictory.  A person who is led is not changing their fate, but is arguably actually following their fate.  In other words, she is lying to herself that she actually changed her fate.  This becomes clear by the end of the movie. 

 

  So Merida starts talking about how her whole life is controlled by her mother.  Her true self is rightly angered by this and seeks freedom.  On special days, she gets to be herself and she rides shooting arrows and drinks of the fire falls.  She comes home and the father is telling the story of his leg, while the mother is completely ignoring him.  Merida tells him that she drank of the fire falls, and the father is impressed and says "they say that only the ancient kings were brave enough to drink the fire."  I think this means that only in ancient times were people brave enough to be their true selves. 

 

  Elinor gets the news of the betrothal.  Fergus tries to tell Merida and the mother gets impatient and takes over humiliating Fergus.  Merida gets upset and seeks her father's help but he doesn't give it to her.  Merida is justly angry because her mother is about to force her to get married which is really just institutional rape.  The mother is completely out of touch with her own pain she experienced as a child and is normalizing it by inflicting it on Merida.  She acts bewildered on why Merida isn't happy with the news which shows how much she has repressed her own childhood memories and how much she is ignoring Merida.

 

  She comes to Merida's room and tells her of an ancient kingdom.  This story is actually the story of her own history.  The story of Brave is the cycle of the false self is repeated onto the next generation.  Elinor's story is a legend because the mom can't remember what actually happened for real. What is particularly outrageous is that she equates the prince trying to take over the other brother's kingdoms as "following his own path."  She is using an example of going to war to conquer and his fault was following his own path.  She has clearly failed to understand the morality of her own history and is now going to inflict the same injustice on her daughter.

 

  The mother talks to the father about her frustration.  She roleplays and says they are giving her all the things they never had, asks "What do you expect us to do", "Are you willing to pay the price for your freedom", and "We can't run away from who we are."  These are clearly the same things that she was told as a child and she now believes them even though they are obviously not true.  She is asking her daughter to listen, but she isn't listening to the daughter.  What is interesting is that the daughter has in fact listened to her.  The daughter does know her arguments and has countered them.  So the daughter was listening, and the mother wasn't. 

 

  There is a false idea that floats around a lot in family movies that the only real problem with family relationships is listening.  The reality is that those who are oppressed have to listen and be hyper-attentive to those in power for self-protection.  Those who oppress are choosing not to listen because they want to lie to themselves on what is actually occuring.  Listening won't solve anything because it is a symptom, not the root cause.

 

Now the day comes where the clans arrive and Merida is wearing a tight outfit which is representative of the tight control she is being submitted to in order to be someone her mom wants her to be.  The mom has a moment of connection with the daughter where she is about to have empathy because it is reminding her of her own past.  The mom can't handle it and reverts back to her false self and tells Merida to smile. 

 

  The clans arrive and the clans really represent extended family.  The father is trying to address the clans and struggles and the mom humiliates Fergus by taking over again.  The clans are all about false image and pretending their sons are better than they really are.  The clans get into a fight and it is clear that the clans have pretty violent relationships. The mother ends the fighting because she in fact has the real power and is in charge. 

 

They have the archery contest and Merida rips her dress to fire the arrows and this represents she is refusing to conform to her mom's tight restrictions.  She defeats the suitors arrows and is met with rage by her mom.  The mom doesn't care about her daughter as much as she cares about her own embarrassment ("YOU EMBARRASED THEM AND YOU EMBARRASED ME!").  She demands that Merida listen to her.  Merida protests and says that "you were never there for me."  This line is important because it comes up later several times.  In her true self anger, Merida sees that her mom doesn't care about her.  Merida rips the tapestry with her sword.  The mom cares more about the tapestry then about what she is about to do to her daughter.  The mom then burns her bow and realizes in a moment of anguish the corruption of her false self.  Note that she doesn't use this moment to change because when Merida gets back, she still wants to appease the clans.

 

Merida runs away.  She reaches the circle of stones and falls off her horse.  The stones represent the cycle of abuse from generation to generation.  First, the stones are in a circle and are ancient which means ancient cycle.  They have a strong connection to "fate" in the story.  The stones also have an ominous feel to them.  Almost every time the stones enter the story, there is something violent that has happened or is about to happen.  The first time they are encountered is when Merida fell off her horse.

 

She sees the will of the wisps and follows them representing again going into fantasy.  This time, she is creating a fantasy that she can change her mom.  She meets the witch and she is a wood carver of bears.  I think the choice of bears is interesting for the film.  Bears have two natures to them.  On the one hand, bears are nice, cuddly, and fuzzy (think teddy bears).  On the other hand, they are strong predators that can be very violent and dangerous.  This represents the splitting that is about to happen in Merida's mind about her mom's nature. 

 

This dual nature also applies to the witch herself.  She is a wood-carver but also with a snap of her fingers, her home changes and has a brewing cauldron.  She acts nice at first, but then becomes very threatening with the floating knives, then changes again to being nice when offered Merida's medallion.  She also acts nice but is very violent with her crow.  I am not entirely sure what she represents, but it has something to do with the dual nature.  Even the cake is dual natured and pretends to be a cake when it really isn't.  When Merida gets the cake and turns around, the witch's cottage is not there which further confirms that this was all fantasy.

 

Merida returns and the mom acts concerned about her being lost, and acts as if nothing had happened before.  She is concerned that Merida might of got hurt, but is oblivious to the tremendous harm she is about to put her daughter through to appease the Clans.  The mother is completely suppressing the moment of realization she had before and needs to pretend that nothing is wrong to avoid her realization.  Merida gives her the cake and she eats it and turns into a bear.  They have to escape the castle.  Notice that only the boys and Merida see the bear.  Fergus smells the bear, but no one believes him.  Corrupt people are very good at putting a front to hide their nature from others.

 

They get to the stones and Merida can't see the wisps.  Now what happens next doesn't make sense in terms of the story plot but does in terms of the meaning behind the film.  The mother starts to walk and she in fact knows the way to the witch's cottage.  This tells us that she has been here before.  The story of the ancient kingdom is in fact her story and she knows about the fantasy of the cottage.  They get to the cottage, and no one is there, but a message was left.

 

"Fate be changed,

look inside,

mend the bond,

torn by pride."

 

This is the illusion of the false self.  To change your fate, you must look inside yourself and create a fantasy so that you can mend the bond with corrupt people by believing it is your fault (your pride).  Next Merida throws in all the bottles and the witch's cottage is destroyed.  The cottage being empty when there are no wisps and it later being destroyed are clues that this is fantasy.  When the mom is despairing, she has a flashback where Merida was scared by lightning, and Elinor remembers promising that "I will always be there for you."  This promise she obviously has not kept and it is in her moment of despair that the true self is showing the truth to her.

 

The next morning, the mom is trying to make breakfast and later the mom and Merida have a bonding moment catching fish.  Interestingly, the mom leaves her crown.  The mom stops being her false self for a while and that is why she is able to bond with Merida.  However, the mom can't handle being her true self and becomes a wild bear (begins to become like Mordue).  Right as this is happening, Merida again goes into fantasy because another will of the wisp appears. They travel to the ancient kingdom. 

 

Notice that Elinor leaves her crown.  This I believe can have two possible meanings.  The first meaning is from the crown representing her status as Queen.  The mom has to leave the crown in order to bond with Merida and stop being a bear.  However, I think another meaning that I agree more with is is forshadowing. The crown is not just a symbol of her being Queen but also a symbol of her marriage with Fergus. She has left the crown and this is forshadowing that becomes more clear later in the story.

 

So Elinor and Merida travel to the ancient kingdom (remember that this is all fantasy that is created right as Elinor is about to attack Merida as a bear).  They travel to the kingdom and there is a wasteland that has lots of pillars that look very similar to the circle of stones.  This ancient kingdom is the destruction of Elinor's childhood.  Merida comes across "the strength of ten men and fate be changed."  The false self is created because it convinces the person that it can have much more strength to fight corruption, this is the meaning of strength of ten.  Also the false self lies and says that it can control destiny (fate be changed).

 

Mordue attacks Merida and again while in fantasy, Merida believes the mom as the good bear is protecting her from Mordue. They escape and reach the circle of stones.  They return to the castle and the clans are fighting.  Merida acts just like her mother and gets the clans to stop fighting.  She then tells them she was selfish (remember, she is selfish for not willing to sacrifice herself to the clans).  She tells them of the ancient kingdom and unites the clans.  At this point she is becoming dominated by her false self and making herself a sacrifice for others.  The mom is now happy she has become like her and now lets her decide who she gets to marry and tell the clans this through sign language of sorts.  I think basically this means that when a child becomes the false self, it is a form of protection from parental harm. A parent is less dominating and when a child has become the false self, they loosen their dominating force.  This is why a child becomes the false self to avoid harm. 

 

So Merida and Elinor go up to the tapestry and again Elinor becomes wild.  Fergus believes that Mordue has killed Elinor and attacks Elinor.  Elinor easily knocks out Fergus.  Notice that Fergus is never really a match for Mordue or for his wife Elinor and not just when Elinor is a bear.  Elinor runs away and is chased by the clans.  Fergus locks up Merida and Merida believes it is her fault that Fergus is after Elinor. This part of the story confused me for a while until I realized that at this point, Elinor has revealed herself to be a bear to Fergus and to the clans. 

 

What I believe is actually going on is that Fergus and Elinor are going through a divorce.  The father and the clans are going after Elinor because she is Mordue.  I think it is very likely that whoever was mainly in charge of the story has gone either through a divorce themself or seen their parents divorce as a child.  I think this is possible the meaning of the forshadowing of the Queen losing her crown.  Notice that Fergus says to Merida, " I am not willing to risk losing you too."  Also, Elinor did actually hurt Merida.  Merida is unable to see that it is not her fault what is going on and believes that Fergus is divorcing Merida because of her.  This metaphor emotionally captures the feelings of a child watching their parents divorce.

 

The boys help Merida escape and she rides to the stones with the guidance of the will of the wisps.  Again, she is going into fantasy.  She is sewing the tapestry which she believes will fix everything.  Elinor is trapped at the circle of stones, and Merida believes that she rescues her mother.  Then Mordue appears.  When Mordue appears, the clans and Fergus are no match.  Mordue almost kills Merida and Elinor breaks free and fights Mordue.  I think this actually has two meanings.  First, Merida is believing that her mom is fighting Mordue and protecting her which is a repeated fantasy.  Also, I couldn't help getting the feeling watching the two bears fighting thta this is what it is like for children to witness their parents fighting.  Everyone is cowering in fear watching two goliaths in combat. 

 

Merida believes that her mom kills Mordue and this is done by breaking the circle of stones or breaking the cycle of violence.  The prince appears as a will of the wisp again showing that this is fantasy.  Merida throws the tapestry over her mom and everyone is sad that the mom is still a bear.  Notice that the boys are bears too which is showing that the cycle will continue with them as well.  I think what is really happening is that everyone is crying over watching the marriage dissolving.  At the end, Merida says that it is all her fault, and "you were always there for me."  This is a child who is so desparate to believe that she can fix her mom and fix everthing by taking responsibility for her mom's corruption.

 

Elinor changes back and everything is a happy ending, however, as the mom and Merida are riding on their horses, you see another will of the wisp signifying that this is a fantasy. 

 

At the end she says again says that there are those who say fate can't be changed, but she knows better, that to change fate you just need to be "brave enough to see it."  Basically, she believes her fate has changed because she is willing to believe a delusion.