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The death of his great-grandfather in the trenches gave writer Joe Kilna MacKenzie inspiration and, perhaps, fame amid Hollywood's greats, reports Brian Pendreigh
FIVE years ago Glasgow songwriter Joe Kilna MacKenzie was inspired by personal tragedy to write a lament for his great-grandfather, who was killed in the First World War. It wound up on a privately- produced CD he tried to sell at gigs, but he had no idea that one day it might feature in a Hollywood blockbuster.
The song, Sgt MacKenzie, figures prominently in the new Mel Gibson film We Were Soldiers, its inclusion the result of links established between Scotland and Hollywood at the time of Braveheart. Randy Wallace, who wrote the Oscar-winning epic, was sent a copy of MacKenzie's CD by friends in Scotland.
It had such a powerful effect on him that he was determined to use it in We Were Soldiers, which he wrote and directed, even though it sounds like a traditional Scottish folk song and the film is about American soldiers in Vietnam.
Wallace's ancestors came from Scotland; he learned the story of William Wallace while on holiday here and wrote Braveheart as a result. "I always feel connected to Scotland," he says. The connection has paid unexpected dividends for MacKenzie, a singer- songwriter from the Gorbals, getting his big break at the age of 45.
MacKenzie appeared at Madonna's baby's christening at Dornoch as part of Clann...