The Patriot

In the movie, The Patriot, we follow a family of Americans who are entangled in the epic Revolutionary War against Great Britain. The main protagonist, Benjamin Martin, does not want any involvement in the war at first because of his past experiences in the French and Indian War but eventually enters the fight to avenge the death of one of his children. The murderer of his son is none other than Colonel William Tavington, the cold-hearted red coat commander who will become the main antagonist throughout the rest of the film. Martin, with his rag tag militia, does tremendous damage to the British forces stationed in America and eventually turns the tide of the war.
I didn’t need to finish this film to know that if Davidson and Lytle were sitting right next to me, they would find many reasons to call this movie a huge myth. The picture that The Patriot paints is “Americans are amazing, just good men while the British are tyrannical monsters”. Colonel Tavington is delineated as a man without a conscience in this movie. It just happens that he kills off two of Benjamin Martin’s sons to further grip the viewer’s heart. One scene to take note of is when Tavington barges into a church and promises to spare the lives of those who give the whereabouts of the militia. When a man, out of fear, gives the hard kept secret away, Tavington leaves the church, locks the door and burns everybody inside to the ground. The camera goes into the burning church to show the panic and pain of the people while we also see the face of Tavington show no remorse. Even more heart gripping is the fact that the eldest son of Benjamin Martin’s wife and family burned in the church as well. A blossoming love story is crushed by the main villain; where have we seen that before?
Martin is portrayed as a superhero throughout the movie. He takes down countless British soldiers, even when the odds are against him. Of course, the hollywood explanation behind his sudden power boost is that he needs to rescue his eldest son from being hanged. The last battle is twisted up with music and slow motion action to make Martin’s victory more epic than it should be. All in all, The Patriot is as authentic as my chances to attend Harvard.