Very well made film,but not quite historically correct...

Rating: Null/10 (14 April 2001)

Well,where do I start with film,firstly I will commend the makers themselves on what is a well crafted,panoramic film,but I`m afraid,thats where my milk of human kindness ends!! You may well of noticed,that I`m a Brit,so what!,I`m used to Hollywood making us the bad guys over the last few years,don`t know why?Are we seen as a threat to their capitalist nation? can`t see how,as we are capitalists ourselves!Forgive me,I digress,but the point I`m making,is,that at the time of the war of Independence,Brit(and German,as a lot of the soldiers used by British army at that time,were German,a point the film-makers did`nt even mention!) was essentially fighting Brit!How is this you ask,well,let me enlighten you.If you take,as a very good example,Johnny Depp`s "Sleepy Hollow".The film(as was the story it was based on)is,like the The Patriot,set in the 18th century,so how is it then that American accents are pretty much non-existent in "Sleepy Hollow" while VERY much prevalent in "The Patriot",I mean,even Johnny Depp`s character in "Sleepy Hollow" speaks with an English accent! Another thing,which I find quite amusing,is the arrival of the French.It is believed,that is if you believe "The Patriot`s" take on history,that they arrived in 1781,when in actual fact,they arrived in 1778!The French,were a pivotal force,as far as the Americans were concerned-if they had`nt helped,the U.S. would have been a British colony for a considerable time longer and would of qualified as Commonwealth nation,of which they would only of benefited. Then we have the tricky task of sorting out the flag!! I`m going to refer once again to "Sleepy Hollow".There is a scene quite early on in the film,where Depp is in front of a judge(played by Chritopher Lee).It`s whats behind the judge you should look for-a flag.So,it`s a flag,you say,look again....it`s the flag that history has pretty much forgotten.This flag had stripes,where stripes are today,but instead of the stars in the left hand corner,we have a canton of the Union Flag.This flag was also sported on BOTH sides of the war of Independence,albeit minus the Union Flag canton on the side of the Americans. I could go on and on about this jingoistic,flag waving film,but what i fear the most is,this is starting a worrying trend,and British actors are contributing to it,that is "lets shove how great America is down everyones throat".Everyone on this planet knows the U.S. is a fine and great country,I`ve been there many times myself and enjoyed it imensely.Surely they were a bit worried about releasing this film in the U.K.,because I can tell you,this film has bred some contempt in and around certain cities.By shoving the "elitist" U.S. attitude in peoples faces,is causing a wave of anti-Americanism