imbellished but otherwise a great film

Rating: Null/10 (16 April 2002)

The Patriot is one of the best war movies ever made. The entire cast knew exactly what they were doing when they filmed this masterpeice of a film. It has all that people go to this genre for. The Patriot has just about everything, such as realistic combat scenes from that time period and charecters who reflect exactly the way people thought at the time. The way they captured the friction between patriots and loyalists was great and it was the only thing they could have done more with, however what they did depict was almost enough. As I said above, the battle sequence were some of the best I have ever seen filmed, next to Saving Private Ryan.(also a good movie)
Now thought there were many imbellishments in the main context of the film itself, one common complaint I heard about The Patriot was about it's over the top villain, Colenol William Tavington. What very few people know is that the charecter, Tavington was loosely based on a real person named Tartelton, who would order the shooting of anyone from Colonial Officers, surrendering troops, and even innocent civillians. Although, he never actually to my knolledge burned churches. The same goes for Mel Gibson's charecter, Ben Martin. Ben Martin was based on Mariam Fox who lead militia forces against the British to the point where they actually did give him a nickname (Swamp Fox) and put a price on his head. So though they used different names for both charecters and imbellished their deeds a bit, these were still real people.
In retrospect, is The Patriot the best war movie ever made? No, not by far. There are some scenes in there that will make you think you're watching a soap opera. Besides which the film makers could have done a much better job of portraying slavery in a more realistic sense, and not as sugar coated. However put all the flaws in this movie aside and you'll see what a good film overall that it really is. Here's some sound advice: Wait for the fourth of July and after you're done watching the fireworks and having a BBQ, sit down and watch The Patriot. It is a movie that boldly asks: What would you sacrifice to be free.