Real History is Brutal

Rating: Null/10 (5 July 2004)

While The Patriot never makes claim to being a historically accurate film I have found some of the reviews pretty interesting and thought I would take a moment to rebut. It's lovely how Michael Moore and his "documentaries" are so lauded and a film presented as entertainment gets held up to such scrutiny for the mere fact it celebrates American independence.
First, this film depicts the Revolution as it was -- an amazingly brutal conflict. Perhaps in the hundreds of years removed we prefer to think of an 18th Century war as something tame like our history books. The truth is when you're killing with swords, bayonets, and early firearms the result will be nothing less than brutal. Anyone who thinks this film is glorified gore needs a lesson on the French & Indian War, the American Revolution, and the War of 1812, the major conflicts of this era. The British took 1500 dead before they finally took Bunker Hill, just how do you sanitize that?
Others don't seem to understand characters patterned after or are composites of real ones -- this movie is filled with them aside from the higher ranking military officers. While it deviates from history some what is accurate is the guerilla campaign that was fought in the south that, along with French assistance, led to American independence. Washington spent the vast majority of his time just trying to keep his army together and the British occupied.
There also seems to be this en vogue anti-patriotism as if it is so passe to be patriotic. After all, this project is totally immersed with the great American actor Mel Gibson and the great American director Roland Emmerich. Seriously though, Emmerich's homeland knows a bit about the brutality of war, both in receiving and giving, it seems fitting he directed this film about the brutality of war and the high price of freedom.
Finally, British portrayed as brutal is propaganda? You don't become the largest empire the world has ever known without a little brutality along the way. We would be branded the scourge of the planet (okay, even worse than the scourge we are already branded as) if we burned, for instance, an entire Iraqi village with napalm because our troops were taking fire from a few people in the village. Yet, this is exactly what the British did at Charlestown, Mass. Nor did they have any problems firing into an unarmed mob in the famous Boston Massacre. The British employed brutal tactics in keeping their empire in 20th Century (see India), why would the 18th have been any different?
This film is full of great performances from Gibson, Jason Isaacs, Chris Cooper, and Tchéky Karyo. It gives us a small taste of what type of fight the Revolution was, as Charles Martin said "this war will be fought among us". Perhaps since we haven't experienced an invasion since 1812 that's why so many of us fail to understand it and need to see this film with their eyes wide open.