Leftists have always hated the Revolution. They hate it because it worked. It yielded so much freedom, prosperity and equality for Americans that, to this day, even the most skillful agitator has trouble persuading us that we need socialism. So the left has counterattacked through the schools. Cynicism about our Revolution and Founding Fathers has been sown very deeply in our culture.
Many film critics end up parroting the Marxist line without even knowing it.
The educational system has done its work well, with these two critics. Hornaday attacks the filmmakers for failing to present a sufficiently ugly picture of white colonials. The Gibson character Benjamin Martin is a wealthy planter whose farm is worked by black freedmen, not slaves. Neither of these beliefs would be accurate. Yet Hornaday implies it is Hollywood's duty to foist them on us anyway.