The Patriot (2000 film)
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The Patriot is a film released in 2000 that was written by Robert Rodat and directed by Roland Emmerich. It is set near Charleston, South Carolina during the American Revolutionary War.
| The Patriot | |
|---|---|
 A promotional film poster for The Patriot. |
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| Directed by | Roland Emmerich |
| Written by | Robert Rodat |
| Starring | Mel Gibson Heath Ledger Joely Richardson Jason Isaacs Chris Cooper Tom Wilkinson |
| Music by | John Williams |
| Editing by | David Brenner Julie Monroe |
| Distributed by | Columbia Tristar Studios |
| Release date(s) | June 28, 2000 |
| Running time | 158 min . |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $110,000,000 USD (estimated) |
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
It is the late 18th century, in South Carolina. Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson) is a veteran of the French and Indian Wars and a widower raising seven children on his farm. Gabriel, the eldest, played by Heath Ledger, is anxious to join the American forces fighting the British in the Revolutionary War, without his father's permission. Martin, who knows from first-hand experience the horrifying carnage that war presents, is anxious to discourage his son from participating.
Against his father's wishes, Gabriel does join up only to return home wounded as he is carrying dispatches between commanders. Martin's second son is killed trying to free Gabriel as he is taken prisoner, shot by the cold-hearted Col. Tavington played by Jason Isaacs. This forces Martin to first free his son with the help of his two younger sons and then join up. During this time, Gabriel marries Anne Howard. However, Anne, her father and mother, along with all the townspeople are burned alive whilst locked in the church, at the orders of Tavington.
After a furious Gabriel discovers what has happened, he and a small group of men ride to engage some British soldiers. During the fight, all but four men are killed: Tavington and a British soldier, and the Reverend and Gabriel. As the Reverend helps Gabriel to finish off the British soldier, he turns to Tavington and is subsequently too slow to prevent himself being shot. As he falls, he throws his gun to Gabriel, who in turn shoots Tavington. Gabriel watches as Tavington groans and falls to the ground, dropping his own gun. Gabriel slowly makes his way over to Tavington, knife in hand. He looks down at him, breathing heavily, before flipping the knife and attempting to stab Tavington. However, just as he does, Tavington turns around and stabs Gabriel himself with a sword. Gabriel lies dying as Tavington runs off and Benjamin finally appears to find his son about to die.
In the final battle, Col. Harry Burwell helps Benjamin defeat the British. It's during this battle in which Benjamin finally kills Col. Tavington, the man responsible for the deaths of two of his sons. As Tavington gains the upper hand in their vicious fight, and Benjamin is staring into the distance, Tavington mutters, "Kill me before the war is over, will you? It appears, you are not the better man..." As he swings his sword ready to kill Benjamin, Martin ducks down, picks up a musket with a bayonet attached and stabs Tavington in the chest. Martin then picks up a detached bayonet and replies, "You're right... my sons were better men!" before stabbing him in the throat.
Meanwhile, a disappointed General Cornwallis sounds the retreat as the rebels celebrate. As Martin narrates, we are told that the British were defeated when the French finally arrived to block the British off. The final scene features Martin and his family arriving at a site where the foundations of homes lie. Occam tells Martin, "Gabriel said if we won the war, we could build a whole new world. Just figured we'd get started right here, with your home". Benjamin's family smiles as he replies, "Sounds good", before shaking hands with Occam and Dan Scott and walking into the forwards with his family, as the film ends.
[edit] Historical inaccuracies & controversies
The film has been heavily criticized for its historical inaccuracies, including the invention or exaggeration of British atrocities. Most criticized was a scene depicting the torching of a church containing a town's inhabitants.
Even supportable atrocities, such as the killing of prisoners are inaccurately depicted, with redcoats sending roving firing squads to dispatch the wounded. In such instances however, the British were known for simply using the bayonet, as powder use in the field had to be controlled due to regular resupply difficulties.
Also in the film, Martin justifies the described atrocities against the Cherokee in the French and Indian War by stating that the Cherokee broke their treaty with the French. Although at war with the colonies of Carolina and Virginia, the Cherokee never formally allied themselves with the French.
Although it went generally unnoticed by casual audiences, historians also criticized the depiction of American-owned slaves being freed to serve in the Continental Army. It was actually the Dunmore Proclamation made by the British Army which first announced conditional freedom to slaves who joined them, a fact which is acknowledged by the film when Colonel Tavington tells blacks working for Martin that slaves who fight for "The Crown" will be granted their freedom upon an English victory. The new American government would maintain legalized chattel slavery until the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified in 1865. Although it is true that Blacks fought on both sides in the Revolution, the South Carolina assembly resolutely refused to allow blacks — either slave or free — into the state militia, contrary to what one sees in this film. Here Martin is no slaveholder, but a farmer who employs black workers for a salary, a labor relationship that was very rare in colonial South Carolina.
There are also characters that are historically misplaced, such as the inclusion of British General Cornwallis at the final battle, which is allegedly based on the Battle of Cowpens.
Even then, the time of year is wrong, and the numbers of troops and artillery greatly exaggerated. Benjamin Martin is a combination of Thomas Sumter, Andrew Pickens, Brig. Gen. Francis "Swamp Fox" Marion and Col. Daniel Morgan, whose strategy for the Battle of Cowpens Emmerich imitates in the climax. Col. William Tavington is based on General Sir Banastre "Bloody Banny" Tarleton.
The fighting ranges of the battles shown in the movie are too short. The lines progress until they are 40 to 50 yards close to each other before opening fire, while in reality common ranges for musketry laid between 100 and 300 yards. Therefore the gunfights of open field-battles lasted much longer than shown in the movie.
Another point is the accuracy of pistols. In the movie pistols are shown as quite accurate weapons, while in reality they were highly inaccurate. Someone who hit a man from a distance of 10 yards with a pistol was said to be a good shooter.
In the film, a modern American flag is used, with fifty stars and thirteen stripes, which was not commissioned until 1960. The film downplays the importance of the French involment in the war without which the rebels would have been unlikely to succeed.
[edit] Historical accuracy
The ending incorporates the Siege of Yorktown, where Cornwallis surrendered to the colonists and their French allies; it incorporates key factual elements from that campaign, especially the French naval victory in the Battle of the Chesapeake which directly led to the colonists' victory at Yorktown.
It also accurately depicts Generals George Washington and Rochambeau, in addition to Cornwallis, as being present at the siege; though none of them participated in the surrender ceremony itself, that is a common mistake found in many portrayals of Yorktown, including paintings of the day.
The fictional French major in the film, Jean Villeneuve, was loosely based on Lafayette; though the real Lafayette fought with Washington in the North (unlike Villeneuve), Villeneuve's penchant for self-promotion is consistent with historical accounts of Lafayette. The change of Martin's group from disdain to respect for Villeneuve, after Admiral de Grasse finally delivered on Villeneuve's constant promises of French help, is probably more of a commentary on the history of U.S.-French relations than historical fact; but that is appropriate considering that most of the leading characters (except for Cornwallis) are fictional.
[edit] Trivia
- As originally written, Benjamin Martin had 6 children, but in the movie Martin has 7 children. This was changed based on the number of children Mel Gibson has.
- The producers and director chose Heath Ledger to play the role of Gabriel Martin because, in their opinion, Ledger was a man who possessed "exuberant youth."
- Mel Gibson's character was originally scripted to be the real historical figure Francis Marion, "The Swamp Fox", but after historians informed the filmmakers of some of the more sordid aspects of Marion's life (slaughtering Indians, raping his female slaves) they decided to create a fictional story and a more likeable hero.
- Chris Cooper, who played Colonel Harry Burwell, was to be "Lighthorse Harry" Henry Lee, the father of Robert E. Lee; at the end of the film, when Cooper's character tells Benjamin Martin the name of the former's newborn son, Cooper was to say Robert. The chronology of the Lee family was off, however (Lee would have only been 20 in 1776 and just a captain) and the idea was dropped.
- When teaching Mel Gibson and Heath Ledger how to shoot a muzzle-loading rifle, technical advisor Mark Baker gave them the advice to "aim small, miss small", meaning that if you aim at a man and miss, you miss the man, while if you aim at a button (for instance) and miss, you still hit the man. Gibson liked this bit of advice so much he incorporated it into the movie, just prior to the ambush scene.
- One of the "redcoats" that is floating face down in the river after the trap is a dummy of John Travolta.
- Harrison Ford declined the lead role, feeling the script had boiled the Revolutionary War down to a "one-man's-revenge" melodrama.
- Heath Ledger performed his own stunts.
- Screenwriter Robert Rodat wrote 17 drafts of the script before there was an acceptable one.
- In an earlier version of the script, Anne is pregnant with Gabriel's child when she dies in the burning church.
- While the villain William Tavington is killed in the final battle scene, his real-life inspiration, Banastre Tarleton, survived the war to return to serve in Parliament until his death at the age of 77.
- Laurence Olivier Theatre Award winning British actor Ben Daniels received a role alongside Mel Gibson in this film, but refused the offer, citing that the "money was good, but it wasn’t for me"[1].
- Around the same time as Sony's infamous fictitious writer scandal, it was revealed that a Sony marketing executive had hired her assistant and another employee, both African-American, to pose as a couple for an "outside the theatre" testimonial. Fearing that black audiences would be turned off by an action film set during slavery, the employees referred to the film as a "great date movie".
[edit] Awards
- The Patriot was an Oscar nominee in 2001 for the following categories: Best Cinematography, Best Music, Original Score
- Nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Action/ Adventure/Thriller Film in 2001
- Won the ASC Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Theatrical Releases
- Nominated for the Excellence in Production Design Award for the following category: Feature Film- Period or Fantasy Films
- Won the BMI Film Music Award.
- Won the Blockbuster Entertainment Award for the following category: Favorite Actor- Drama (Mel Gibson), and Favorite Male Newcomer (Heath Ledger)
- Nominated for Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Villain by Internet voting (Jason Isaacs)
- Won the Bogey Award in Germany
[edit] References
[edit] Resources
- "The Patriot: The Official Companion" by Suzanne Fritz Rachel Aberly
- "The Patriot: A Novel" by Stephen Molstad
