The Patriot is a 2000 American historical war film. The film mainly takes place in York County, South Carolina. The movie depicts a story of an American who is swept into the American Revolutionary War when his family is threatened. Benjamin Martin, one of the main figures, is based on four real American Revolutionary heroes being: Andrew Pickens, Francis Marion, Daniel Morgan, and Thomas Sumter. In the movie, Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson), a veteran of the French and Indian War and widower with seven children, is called to Charleston to vote in the South Carolina General Assembly on a levy supporting the Continental Army.
Benjamin decides to abstain for the fear of a war against Great Britain. Some years later, Benjamin is given the rank of colonel to lead the local colonel militia. Benjamin’s militia harass British supply lines, capture goods, and burn half the bridges and ferries leading to Charleston. Cornwallis blames Tavington for creating these reactions and allows Tavington to do whatever is necessary to stop Benjamin’s militia. Tavington then starts to attack family members of the militia and burn their homes.
Tavington assembles all of the townspeople of the village of Wakefield into their church, promising to free them if they give up the secret location of the hideout. When the let loose of the secret, the church doors are barricaded, trapping all of the townspeople inside, and the church is burned down. When Gabriel, one of Benjamin’s sons, gets word of what Tavington had done to the townspeople, he races to attack Tavington. Gabriel had thought to have mortally wounded Tavington, but it turned out that Tavington was faking.
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The War of 1812 and the Mexican-American War are two wars that physically appear two opposites. The War of 1812 involves plenty of naval battles and a few major land battles, while the Mexican-American War involves numerous land battles and few, if any, naval battles. However there are numerous similarities. The War of 1812, The US saw Great Britain as a major problem because of their definition ...
Tavington murdered Gabriel by stabbing him through his heart. Benjamin’s militia, along with a larger Continental Army, confront Cornwallis in battle. Benjamin gets revenge of his sons’ death by killing Tavington in the battle. The battle ended up to be a Continental victory and Cornwallis is forced to retreat. Cornwallis surrenders in Yorktown, Virginia to the Continental Army and the French naval force. Benjamin finally returns with his family and fins his militia men to be rebuilding his homestead.
Although this story may sound to be historically accurate, it truly only is in a broad point of view. When you look at the movie in depth and detail, many factors prove The Patriot to be historically inaccurate. One of the biggest inaccuracies is the omission of Loyalists. A significant section of the Carolinas and Georgia remained Loyal. The Loyalists also constituted one-half of the British army in the South. Although, for some odd reason the only Loyalist portrayed in the film was solider Captain Wilkins.
British soldiers, in the film, were portrayed as evil. The film was said to compare the British soldiers to Nazis. The movie made the British soldiers seem like cruel killers, which in reality they were not. The soldiers’ uniforms also proved inaccuracies within the film. Not all British soldiers wore red uniforms. Very seldom did the Continentals wear blue coats and white trousers. In the film, slavery was almost brushed off. For the first while it was ignored as much as possible.
Benjamin is a planter in the film, meaning he would more than likely own slaves. Instead, he does not have slaves but he does employee free black workers. This was probably the only labor arrangement in the colonial South Carolina. Later on, Benjamin took his family to a “maroon” community of fugitive slaves to hide them from the British, but in reality they were hiding from the Patriots. Thomas Sumter paid his militiamen by using slaves seized from Tory. All in all, the portrayal of African Americans and slaves in the film were very historically inaccurate.
The atrocities by Tavington and his troops were much exaggerated throughout the film. In the film, Tavington murdered one of Benjamin’s sons’ by shooting him in the back. Tavington and his troops also murdered slaves who refused to cooperate and went on a farm-burning spree, killing the wife and child one of Benjamin’s men. Tavington and his troop trap the entire population of the village of Wakefield inside of their church and set it on fire to burn, killing all of the townspeople even after they did what he had asked of them.
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Dr. Joseph Warren learned of the British plans and sent Paul Revere to alert John Hancock and Samuel Adams. Paul Revere promised to warn them when the British soldiers started to march. Since he wasn't sure that he would be able to get out of Boston with the message, he made plans to alert people by putting lanterns in the Old North Church steeple. He would light one lantern if the British were ...
I believe the movie, The Patriot, is historically inaccurate due to the omission of the Loyalists, depiction of the British soldiers and Continentals, views on slavery, and characterization of Tavington. The movie was a very entertaining film that basically told a story of the toll the war took on a fictional family. Whenever you really go into depth of the accuracy of the film you can point out a lot of incorrect details that have been screwed and toyed with to make a historical story more enjoyable to people who aren’t so interested in history.
