A film ruined by blatant inaccuracies to target blind patriotism

Rating: 4/10 (5 February 2014)

Thank you, The Patriot, for compelling me so much to sign up on IMDb after being a long-time lurker. There has never been a historical film that infuriates so much as this one. It is possibly one of the least accurate portrayals of the American Revolution I have ever seen, and this film smacked of attempting to curry favour with the American masses. In fact, American patriots would feel disgusted by how badly the events, ideas and people of the American Revolution were depicted in this film.
The fact that this film attempts to target the blind, deep-rooted patriotism in America while blatantly trying to mask the historical inaccuracy and complete bias detracts from what could have potentially been a very good film. The directors didn't even attempt to try to be objective. However, this is what the monitored history in the America education system comes to, so I would expect nothing less.
One scene portrays this particularly well. The British Army burning down a church? Seriously? That is just truly ridiculous. Most British people were still devout Christians at that time; they wouldn't dare commit such sacrilege. Such mindless script-writing just proves the film-makers will stoop to any lengths to invoke American patriotism, to make the American people feel that there is no-one else who are as honourable and chivalrous as they. It is as if they didn't commit any sort of atrocities themselves in the American Revolution. Nobody remembers that before and after the setting of this film, the very same people portrayed in this film who brought America to salvation were the same people who also displayed the real extent of American treachery when they butchered, back-stabbed and reneged on their sham treaties with natives in the American-Indian Wars, but we won't dwell on that. I wonder why there haven't been any films of recent years portraying that conflict.
Every other character in the film laments how the new American nation will be "the start of a new world where all men are created equal." Of course, they fail to acknowledge that America failed to meet this criteria still almost 200 years after the film was set – Martin Luther King realised that. This is all hurriedly justified by the scriptwriters in a 10-second scene where the previously racist white man and the ex- slave make up – an entirely predictable scenario that anyone with a brain could see coming from the instant the two of them met. It is all such poor writing.
However, credit must be given that this film was actually quite gripping and had a very workable storyline that was very interesting. The vendetta of Benjamin Martin against William Tavington was a great storyline. The actual portrayal of the battles was fascinating, and quite accurate from what I was watching, and the fight sequences were also plausible.
War is not pretty, and it is the innocent that suffer the most. The Patriot actually displayed it very well. I am sick of seeing film after film where after the entire film, surprise surprise, none of the main characters have died, except one of course – the sacrificial lamb who's only purpose is to die at the end of the film. This actually makes the film a lot more gripping and interesting, and makes it a lot more realistic too. In war, not everyone comes out alive. It is rare you see this in film, and I am glad to see this occur once in a blue moon.
The story was touching and I could sympathise with Mel a lot. Here was me, thinking that kids were immune from deaths in films! The acting itself was quite good too (apart from Cornwallis, who the writers conveniently decided to portray as a moron, because according to them, British commanders were morons. Things never change I guess!). The action scenes were exciting and enthralling, especially the showdown between Isaacs' skirmishers and Ledger's revolutionaries. The final battle was pretty strong too. It's a shame that what could have been a good film was ruined by such patriotic mindlessness.