Best I've seen on the American Revolution.

Rating: 8/10 (9 July 2000)

There's some "Hollywoodized" history here, but "The Patriot" is arguably the most accurate movie ever made on the American Revolution. Many Americans, because of their conditioning, tend to have a "Manifest Destiny" attitude towards their revolution. They have the vague belief that the colonists were inevitably going to win. But the war was an extremely difficult one and easily could have been lost, were it not for some good fortune and the alliance with France.
Gibson's movie zeroes in perfectly on the extreme difficulties of the revolution, and graphically depicts the mind sets of the Patriots, the Loyalists and the "middle group" that was constantly being pressured by both their rebellious neighbors and by occupying British and Loyalist forces. The South was one of the bitterest areas of the Revolution, partly because the British were growing desperate to crush the rebels, and all of this comes through in the movie.
My only slight misgiving is the length of the movie and perhaps too much depiction of family sentimentalities. The concluding scene, which shows an American triumph and the survival of the hero, is quite appropriate, and invokes memories of "Braveheart," another Gibson triumph.
Well worth watching, for both history buffs, like myself, and other types of movie goers.