A Critical Analysis Of The Movie The Patriot

The Movie ‘The Patriot’ shows that due to the American Revolutionary War, freedom was granted to the colonies and Kickstarter a new way of life on the continent. The movie connects the American Revolution because it shows the hardship and struggles that the Americans had to go through during the war. The film ‘The Patriot’ takes place in South Carolina in 1776 during the Revolutionary War, a group of militias, led by Benjamin Martin (The Ghost), take control and lead Americans through the Field of Camden. The movie is about a man named Benjamin Martin who is a widowed father of 7 children. After the redcoats raided the home and killed one of Martin's Sons and burned the house, he followed them with two of his other sons and took out a whole group alone. This started a personal wat between Benjamin Martin and Col. William. Martin's Oldest son Gabriel asked people in towns to volunteer for the war, which is what most did during the time of the actual war, and also any slaves that participated and fought in the war for a year were to be set free and get paid five shillings per month. This just shows how much detail and explanation the film has. The film does show both sides, but mostly the American side which is a sort of bias. After reviewing my notes and the movie the message was not shown in the film. I state this opinion because it shows a revenge story rather than focusing on the war. They had very little significant events in the movie related to the war and they also only focused on the patriots rather than both.

The main message of the film was to be a revenge story. After Benjamin Martin’s son was shot and killed by the loyalist, the revenge started. Benjamin proceeded to kill British officers and leaders in command leaving the armies helpless with no leader. There were many battle reenactments (“Battle of Camden, Charleston, South Carolina, Battle of Cowpens, and Battle of Yorktown”), the main focus was on Martin’s family showing only one perspective of the war/film. There are secondary messages in the movie, for example, death, when Martin’s oldest and youngest son died during the war. Another example is revenge, after Martin’s youngest son died, as it was stated earlier, Benjamin Martin took revenge by killing officers and leaders of the British army. The final example, in my opinion, is love, it shows the message of love because Gabriel loved Anne and he promised her he would come back to her after the war, it tragic because they both died. One quote that could sum of most of the battles in the movie is, “Aim small… Miss Small”- Cap. Benjamin Martin. This simplifies the ‘Rules of War’. It shows that if you do not fatally hit your target, you could be the target. There were some parts in the movie where it did not show any realism, especially where Cap. Martin snuck upon a group of loyalists (British Army) and they had their guns pointed at him but he killed them with an ax before they could get a shot off. The film showed a revenge story but it focused very small amounts of awareness on the Revolutionary War.

The film begins with the war active, which could cause confusion to the audience and have them question what started the war? 'Yes, they had weapons! Do you think there's a script for fighting a war without pissing someone off? Follow the rules and nobody gets hurt? Yes, innocent people probably died. Innocent people always die but I did not exceed my orders.' — Col. Terry Childers, 'Rules of Engagement'. This goes to show how the Patriots are the only ones to have a cause to fight for. The Film does include historically accurate on the Patriots side of the story, showing very little detail or attention to the loyalists (Put aside that this an American made film). Overall, the film should’ve equally represented. It only focused on four major battles, with patriot victories (with the help of the French Army finally arriving). One scene in the movie where Col. William told his soldiers to kill the wounded redcoats just gave the audience more reason to dislike the British because it shows no mercy or independence.

‘The Patriot’ specifically means American Soldier, in this case, this is probably why the movie is based on only American events that happened in the war and more towards a revenge story of a veteran captain. “Colonel William Tavington: It appears that you are not the better man. Gabriel Martin: You're right. My sons were better men(stabs him in the neck)”. This quote states and proves that this is a movie about a man who takes revenge on a Colonial Loyalist that killed his two sons, and has rarely anything to do with the facts of the Revolutionary War. For a movie with so much meaning to two countries fighting for their lives, it represents the Americans very much more than the loyalist. “...After all, history is always written by the winners”. Unbelievably this is to show the people who lose a battle or a war never get their side of the story to be spoken.

In conclusion, the film ‘The Patriot’ is poorly reflected in the British and American Revolution and is given a false account of honesty. The film would've gotten big and made more money if it didn’t depend on a revenge story rather than the actual war. There was an absurd amount of lives taken on both sides. This war set the path to what America is today, but it was falsely stated by a movie.