Portrayal of British Brutality make this a film to avoid.

Rating: 5/10 (22 April 2007)

The Patriot was very formulaic. Yet it had to the potential to be at least a good film. However, the fabricated unhistorical scene in which scores of colonists are purposely burned alive in their own Church by British Soldiers under Colonel Tavington was completely unnecessary to the plot line. We already disliked and hated the villain, Colonel Tavington, we did not have to see him burn women, children and men alive to make him a worthy villain.
Even as the scene was unfolding for me the first time (and the last) I was very confident the British had done no such thing.
Without the church burning scene I would have given "The Patriot" a 7 despite its totally cliché climax. With the church burning scene it drops to a 5 for being totally irresponsible in its portrayal of the Revolutionary War.