![]() ![]() Tartanry is an emphasis on the old-fashioned, kilts and tartan, noble warriors and wild untamed lands, a Romantic Scotland untouched by modern civilization, as if from an antiquated and bygone age (Craig 1982). TartanryĬontributing to Scotch Reels, a 1982 collection of essays critiquing various aspects of the Scottish film industry, Cairns Craig highlights one of the most widespread types of stereotyping used to represent Scotland in film: Tartanry. I hope to explore the ways in which images of Scotland and Scottish people are constantly reproduced, from silent cinema up to the present, so we can see the near impossibility of an undisputedly realistic representation of Scots, whether attempted by Hollywood, British filmmakers, or indigenous Scots themselves. The nation of Scotland and its people has been reproduced on screen throughout cinema’s history, by numerous producers in a variety of ways. Why do these sorts of image come to mind? Are they an accurate representation of Scotland and Scottish-ness? Or maybe even this!: Groundskeeper Willie from The Simpsons If I asked you to think of a Scottish person, you might think of this: From Wiki Commons If I asked you to picture Scotland in your head right now, you may well imagine this: Photo by DAVID ILIFF. But why did Freed have a pre-conceived notion of Scotland, and how is it perpetuated? Clearly, Freed was not seeking to reproduce Scotland itself, but rather reproduce his quaint, romantic idea of an old-fashioned magical Scottish village. It is a musical telling the story of a Scottish village that appears for only one day once every 100 years, and may be the most famously inauthentic representation of Scotland in film. Brigadoon was eventually filmed on MGM sound stages in California. His reaction to and rejection of Scottish scenery for his film clearly shows there are pre-conceived notions of imagined Scottish-ness which have been shaped by popular literature and amplified by cinema. ![]() After taking in the scenery “Arthur Freed went back to Hollywood and declared: ‘I went to Scotland but I could find nothing that looked like Scotland’” (Hardy 1990, p. In preparation for the production of the film Brigadoon (Vincente Minnelli, 1954), producer Arthur Freed was shown possible filming locations around Scotland by Forsyth Hardy, Scottish film critic and co-founder of the Edinburgh Film Festival.
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