The movie The Patriot was a very good and well produced film. Although there were a couple of misleading parts to the movie. It still really helped me understand all about the war and fight for freedom from Britain. The movie mentions three different battles and two different fighting styles.
The movie starts off in South Carolina where a farmer by the name of Benjamin Martin, who was a French and Indian war hero. But since the death of his wife, Benjamin has renounced violence and quietly tends his crops, raising his seven children alone. His two sons Gabriel and Thomas are nothing like their father because they are eager to fight battles as soon as possible, while their father Benjamin didn't want anything to do with the fight against Britain. The family owns land and some working slaves. But when South Carolina decides to join the rebellion against England, Gabriel immediately signs up to fight without his father's permission. But when Colonel William Tavington infamous for his brutal tactics, comes and burns the Martin Plantation to the ground that is when tragedy strikes. Benjamin quickly finds himself torn between protecting his family, and seeking revenge along with being a part of the birth of a new, young, and ambitious nation. This is when Benjamin gets an army together to attack the British. He takes all of them to some big battles such as the battle at Camden, Charlestown, and Yorktown. During all these battles they introduced a new type of fighting style called Gurilla Warfare. Gurilla Warfare is when you break a formation and attack from different directions and when least expected. By introducing this new kind of fighting it helped the Patriots defeat the British in many battles despite the difference in numbers of men and their skills.
Although the movie did a very good job of representing some of the events that occurred in the American Revolution, some parts were not historically accurate. There were three battles that the movie referred to, the battle at Camden, Charlestown, and Yorktown. The battle of Camden, which was based on a real battle, was the one that Gabriel and Benjamin watched after they have decided to leave the war effort. The battle of Charlestown, which resulted from the Siege of Charlestown, was not shown, but the results serve as a time transition in the movie. Yorktown, which is also based on a real battle, wasn't really shown. There was also an unknown battle that was based on occurrences in the Battle of Cowpens and the Battle of Guilford Courthouse. The movie also did a really good job portraying the way the men dressed and the formations they took. But one thing they did wrong was when Benjamin's milita goes out on the battle fields to fight and you can see the cannon balls flying over the soldiers and the cannons in the back of the battlefield. Armies only used cannons at the beginning of a battle because there was a high risk of hitting their own men because they weren't very accurate. The cannons are supposed to be fired over the soldiers to hit the opponents artillery until they felt it was safe to move in with the men. The last thing I noticed was that Benjamin Martin was not a real person and he didn't get a militia ready to fight the British. He was just created for the making of the movie. Last thing that was portrayed was that the British weren't usually this gruesome. In the movie it showed them buring down a Church with a whole town inside of it. They did not do this in real life. The movie was fairly accurate except for these couple of false scenes.
This film portrays the Colonists or Patriots to be innocent people and that the British are brutal and will go through town to town killing innocent people. Just like the Martin family didn't want anything to do with the war until the British came and burned down their plantation and killed one of Benjamim's sons. It was very unnecessary for them to kill and innocent child. The family didn't even do anything to ignite the British to go and attack the Martin family. Another thing that showed the Patriots innocence was when the British took out a whole town and burned the towns people on the Church. This was unessesary because the towns people didn't oppose a threat to Tavington and his men.
Some things I learned in the movie was how and what Gentalmens Warfare fighting style of each and the new type of fighting style, was where they would not attack in formation and break it. I also learned about all the battles and who won them. I learned a lot from this movie and it also made it easier for me to understand what was going on during the Revolutionary War. I really enjoyed this movie and learned a lot of new facts about the War. The Patriot really made me take the side of the Patriots because of how cruel the British were portrayed throughoutnthe fight for freedom.
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