Historical Movie Review: The Patriot Essay

The delineation, The Patriot, is the story of a southeastern Carolina plantation owner, Benjamin Martin, who leads a local reserves against British parade in the South during the beginning of the American rotatory War. Martin, who is a widower with vi children and a veteran of the French and Indian War, wants nonhing to do with the state of war until a brutal British Col atomic enumerate 53l, William Tavington, kills one of his tidingss and takes his firstborn son, a member of the Continental Army, prisoner. Martin, whos character is loosely based on Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox, uses guerrilla warf atomic number 18 to combust British supply lines and attack outposts in an attempt to slow General Charles Corwallis from association British forces in the North. art object the primary election purpose of the depiction is to entertain, it does nearlyly exist historic take downts of the early years of the Revolutionary War. However, numerous details within the pic were changed to improve the drama and action. These were about famous in whatever ways they envisioned colonial society and details meet the war itself. First, the movie was not absolute in how it depicted slavery in South Carolina.Benjamin Martin was a delicate plantation owner and the movie specifyed him having a group of free dimmed workers. If this was true, he would have probably been the only one in South Carolina. Second, there were hardly a(prenominal) slaves shown on either side of the competitivenesss when twain sides used slaves as passs. One soldier in Martins militia say he was offered five schillings a calendar month and freedom after 12 months of advantage by George Washington. While Washington did analyse an incentive for black soldiers, none was any offered (citation). Indians were likewise left out of the movie altogether when Indians fought on both sides peculiarly with the British. Finally, the movie has Martin and his family going into a unavowed black colony for protection. When they arrive, they are met with spread out arms. While there were colonies of free black men and women at the time, the likelihood of them have a group of white plantation owners is unlikely.Another societal inaccuracy in the movie was how they changed the dialogue to be to a greater extent entertaining. In some of the scenes, the characters let the cat out of the bag in the exponents English, which would have been common during the period. However, a letter written from Martins oldest son to his girlfriend is quite conversational and informal. mayhap the director thought the emotion in the letter might not be as strong written more(prenominal) formally. Lastly, the movie has a scene where a new woman stands up in church to chastise the men for not supporting the cause for freedom. Women were important members of most colonial churches and some were even allowed to chatter from the pulpit (citation). However, such a young women would not lik ely be allowed to hail the congregation and certainly not permitted to speak down to its male members. The director murder numerous changes to details regarding the war to make the movie more enjoyable to watch.During a 1775 town hall meeting, Martin said, Massachusetts and Virginia are at war, solely not South Carolina. In fact, Massachusetts was at war with the British, scarce Virginia didnt join the contravene until 1777 (citation). Battle scenes in the movie show a large contingent of the Continental Army in formal uniforms. However, hardly a(prenominal) members would have had the formal uniform and most would have been dressed in militia uniforms (citation). The dispute signalises in the movie also were not entirely accurate. A hardly a(prenominal) of the battles show state militia swags which were appropriate, but one flag shown was not even created until years later. Martins son is shown resort a flag he salvage from a battlefield, which Martin uses in the final ba ttle scene to rally the troops. The flag shown is the Betty Ross flag with thirteen stars in a circle. This flag was not created until 1779 (citation). Another thing inaccurately added to the battle scenes was exploding munitions.These added to the action on the screen, but Lieutenant NameShrapnel would not invent exploding stem balls until date (citation). The movie also added some drama to how brutal the British troops were to the rebels families. While it is record that rebels did lose their homes as a toll for being disloyal, it was more often make by loyalists within the colonies and not the British (citation). The scene that was most sensationalized was the burning of the church with the congregation locked inside. Had this really occurred during the Revolutionary War, it would be in every history sustain and would have become a battle cry similar to Remember the Alamo The absence seizure of loyalist in South Carolina and in the British army is also an oversight.While the movie does show one officer, who is a native South Carolinian, the state was cognize to be fairly split among rebels and loyalists. Surely there would have been more than one local person among the British troops. Despite being almost deuce-ace hours long, I thought The Patriot was exceedingly entertaining. I didnt find the historical inaccuracies distracting at all and probably wouldnt have considered them had I not interpreted this class. Two things that the movie brought to my attention were the number of French and Indian War veterans on both sides of the conflict and how close the battles were fought to citizenrys homes. The scene where Benjamin Martin puts his children to retreat and then goes to the front porch to watch a battle unfold in a nearby field was particularly moving. Overall, I think The Patriot is a mightily historical novel.