Feature: 'Love and Honor,' familiar themes

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 17 (UPI) -- In his new novel "Love and Honor," Randall Wallace returns to themes that will be familiar to fans of his Oscar-nominated screenplay for the 1995 epic "Braveheart": freedom and equality.

Wallace -- who also wrote the screenplay for "Pearl Harbor," and wrote and directed "We Were Soldiers" and "The Man in the Iron Mask" -- has constructed a fictional plot for "Love and Honor" that has Benjamin Franklin sending the central character on a dangerous secret mission to Russia to try to persuade Catherine the Great not to assist England in the Revolutionary War.

The hero, Kieran Selkirk, was born to a working family in Virginia and grew up -- much as Wallace did -- with old-fashioned values of honor and valor, grounded in Christian faith. Wallace told United Press International the gentility of the character is based largely on his own experience growing up in the American South.

"I grew up in an extremely polite environment," he said. "We would have family reunions with 100 people and there would be not one beer in evidence, not one word of profanity spoken. It was akin to the Amish in that way."

At the same time, Selkirk is a warrior, and the book contains vivid depictions of violent battles that lead to decapitation and other gruesome means of death. Also, some of the main characters -- including sympathetic ones -- are earthy and profane.

Wallace said an important element of his worldview came to him when he was a seminary student and came across an observation by 19th-century U.S. theologian Reinhold Niebuhr.

"He said that the genius of Jesus of Nazareth is that he found the holy not among the monastic, but among the profane," said Wallace. "It reminded me that life is to be lived, to be plunged into, rather than withdrawn from. I write about wars and human frailties and passions, which I balance with the idealism and aspirations of love and faith."

Wallace wrote the first draft of "Love and Honor" 20 years ago. It came in at 1,600 pages, and he set it aside, coming back to it occasionally while he pursued other projects -- including the best-selling 2001 novel, "Pearl Harbor."

Along the way, he wrote a screenplay based on "Love and Honor," which made the rounds in Hollywood and helped lead to his being hired to write "Braveheart." In addition to the Oscar nomination, that screenplay also earned Wallace a Writers Guild of America award and a Golden Globe nomination.

Although he typically does not go back and revisit what he has finished writing, Wallace said he has recently attended screenings of "Braveheart" -- occasions that are helping to lay the foundation for observing the movie's 10th anniversary.

"I was emotionally wrenched and moved and inspired by the movie," he said. "I know it sounds like self-worship to feel that way, but the fact is, for me there is an inspiration in that movie that moves me still."

Wallace said he is planning to make a movie version of "Love and Honor," but he won't start on that in earnest until after he has met the demands of promoting his new book. When he does get around to it, he hopes Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie will star in it.

"She's excited about the possibility of playing Catherine the Great," he said, "and I'm excited about it, too."

Wallace said there is considerable interest among Hollywood actors in playing Selkirk, but finding one who possesses all the qualities that make the character so heroic will be a challenge.

"It's not easy to find an actor who can play such an earnest and virile and principled idealist warrior," he said. "It's very much the same kind of role as William Wallace (the central character, played by Mel Gibson, in 'Braveheart'). Actors like Mel are rare."

Wallace said that was likely a reflection of the times.

"Jimmy Stewart, for example, was a tremendously decent human being, and courageous," he said. "There were many other guys in his generation who had postponed their careers and gone off to fight in World War II. It's rare, I think, in the ranks of actors these days, to find people who have had that kind of experience on which to draw. It isn't to say they lack the internal potential, but they haven't shared that kind of experience. And actors tend to draw on experience."

Wallace has gone out of his way to ensure that his idealism doesn't just land on the page. Several years ago he founded Hollywood for Habitat for Humanity, which has partnered with Habitat for Humanity International to help build more than 150 homes in Los Angeles, New York, Virginia, Nepal, South Africa, Mexico, Egypt and Armenia.

"I was seeking grace," he said. "I wanted to do something that helped my soul survive in Hollywood and helped everyone else. I don't think you find faith by reflecting on it in a seat at the library or meditating on it at the ashram. I think you find it by going out and getting your hands dirty and your knuckles skinned, by helping to make the world a better place."

--

(Please send comments to nationaldesk@upi.com.)