A silly historically inaccurate movie

Rating: 6/10 (25 December 2018)

This review contains spoilers
The Patriot is a historical war movie that premiered in 2000. The movie is directed Roland Emmerich and written by Robert Rodat. The movie is set during the American Revolution in 1776. The movie follows Benjamin Martin, played by Mel Gibson. The movie is from the American point of view as the American revolution erupts.
The Patriot absolutely fails as a historical film. This movie is rife with historical inaccuracies. These historical inaccuracies continue to pile on and it comes to a time that shows the movie as an incompetent mess when it comes to historical research. One of the mistakes is that the movie frequently demonizes the British antagonists. The movie culminates in a scene where a church full of American residents are burned by the British. This scene should never have happened. If such an event had happened in history, this event would have been a massive rallying cry for colonials. The movie also paints the French as less helpful than they really were. The French help is simply glossed over until the end of the movie. The movie does these things to glorify the colonials and the United States of America instead of being truer to history.
History aside, the movie can be entertaining to watch. The action scenes feel authentic. The effects are good for its time and they still hold up today. These work to the movie's benefit as the scenes are fun to watch. The audience must turn their brain off to enjoy the movie. The British are portrayed as cruel and sadistic soldiers that it ultimately becomes laughable. The United States are portrayed as noble heroes and are ultimately shown to prevail despite all odds.
The movie does present its war scenes well. The movie feels epic as it shows various battles. for American independence. I wish the movie focused more on these specific battles or even only a subset of the battles rather than all of the war for independence. It would have been more fulfilling to watch a more researched movie than something that only scratches the surface of the entire war. This is however the reason why the movie is meant to be so casual. It is a mainstream Hollywood movie that simply uses its tropes to drive the narrative. Luckily the movie is not boring, but it could have been so much more than what the audience sees here.
The Patriot is not recommended. This movie feels like it could have been so much more. It also presents itself as a historical movie but has so many inaccuracies.
Grade: D