The Patriot- Film Review
Benjamin Martin, played by Mel Gibson, was a father, a soldier, and a hero in the film “The Patriot”. The film was based on his life through the American Revolution and the battles that he and his son fought in. It follows him through the battle of Camden, Guildford Courthouse, Cowpens, and Yorktown, and their struggles along the way.
“The Patriot”, had tons of historical inaccuracies, was riddled with bias, and was based and mixed with many historical figures. However, it was an interesting representation of the battles and hardships of the revolutionary war.

Even though the battles that were represented in the movie were a little off, most of them were represented quite accurately, with a few inaccuracies scattered here and there. The battle of Camden was quite accurate, because the British won, and Gates had to retreat. Another accurate representation in the film is the actual soldiers that are on the Colonist’s side. During the Revolution, most of the soldiers that were fighting for the Colonists were militia, and were highly underestimated by the British. In the film, the militia were accurately portrayed as farmers, especially in the scene when everyone was signing up for the army that Benjamin Martin was leading. Not only the colonists, but the British, too. General Cornwallis was an actual British official, and led the British through many battles. Benjamin Martin, however, was based on many leaders. The greatest one being Daniel Morgan, who fought the British army directed by Tarlington in the battle of Cowpens. In the movie, you can see Tarlington’s and Morgan’s (Tavington and Martin), armies fighting in the battle of Cowpens.

However, there were some inaccuracies. In one cunning scene, Morgan tricked the British into thinking that the Americans had captured some important British soldiers, and the British had to release the captured American soldiers in order for them get back their “officials”. This was an over dramatization and never actually occurred during the American Revolution. Most things were over-dramatized or “mixed” together, but not exactly accurate or inaccurate. The climatic battle at the end of the film, where Tavington and Martin are fighting to the death, was actually a mix between The Battle of Guilford Courthouse, and The Battle of Cowpens. The two battles did happen, but the film mostly showed parts of the Battle of Cowpens. Such as it’s confusing formations that outsmarted the British, and of course, the victory of the Americans. However, the filmed showed very little of Guildford Courthouse, when the Americans lost, but the British lost much of their army. More so, Tavington was killed in the battle of Cowpens/Guilford Courthouse, but his non-ficticious character, Banastor Tarleton, did not actually die during the war or in a battle.

The film did effectively represent not only events, but characters, too. Benjamin Martin accurately represented the character he was based upon (Daniel Morgan) in many ways. The first way, was his role in the American Revolution. Martin was represented as a hero in The Battle of Cowpens, and in history, Morgan was the leader and the “brains” behind the victory. He was the one who came up with ways to outsmart Tarelton (Tavington) and his army, and was a very intuitive and smart leader. I believe that he made a huge impact and his impact was portrayed in the film, especially during the climactic battle at the end of the film.
Like I said, Tavington was based on Banastor Tarleton, who was an important figure in the American Revolutionary War. He was displayed as ruthless, and violent, which is an accurate representation since Tarleton was nicknamed “The Butcher”. He also underestimated the militia, which came back to bite him, in the Battle of Cowpens. After the battle of Yorktown ended, and Tavington and Cornwallis were looking dumbfounded into a sea of fallen british soldiers, I think the movie did a great job of representing the look of astonishment as they were watching “the underdogs” beat the British. Tavington definitely displayed Tarlington in an accurate way, showing his side of loyalty to England, his respect to Cornwallis, and his ruthlessness and violent actions during the war.

Even the tittle “The Patriot” is an obvious introduction to the film’s bias. The film is definitely biased towards the Americans and of course, the patriots. Martin was displayed, as a family man, who didn’t want any war. On the other hand, Tavington, was displayed as violent and cold-hearted. He wasn’t going to let anything or anyone get in the way, and he would do anything to win a battle. The film wants you to feel bad for Martin and his family, especially since the film kept bringing up his late wife. Even though the film was heavily biased towards the Americans, it started to balance that bias when Martin started to have violent episodes. For example, when Martin kept hacking away at a soldier with an ax, and when he killed those who were going to surrender. The movie also represented bias thoroughly with the music. In my opinion, the most biased scene in the film was when the Americans had won the Battle of Guildford Courthouse/Cowpens, and Martin was waving the flag heroically, with the sunlight gleaming in the back and the heroic fanfare playing. The music was extremely biased towards the patriots. From the sad music playing when Martin’s sons were killed, to the heroic music when Martin finally killed Tavington.

Overall, this film was a very good movie, but not a great source for historical information. While most things we re accurate, the film missed a very big chunk of the revolutionary war and combined and overdramatized things. I also think that there is too much bias for this film to be very useful for educational purposes. However, the film is very useful to learn how to recognize examples of bias that maybe aren’t so obvious, and to get to know what life was like during of the Revolutionary War. As a movie, “The Patriot” did a good job representing the American Revolution, but as a source for information, a documentary might be a better way to go.