The Patriot

The Patriot is a movie made in 2000, that is suppose to depict the war between the Americans and the British in the 1700s.  Mel Gibson the main character is a strong, courageous, soldier and father of 7.  Before this war, Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson) fought in the French and Indian War on the British side.  This previous war experience gives him the ability to start a militia.  This militia uses the Indian ways of fighting instead of musket to musket.  The men in the militia were tough, crude and family based men.  The majority of these men had families back home that were waiting for them.  These families were made up of the father the mother and a lot of children.  The poor women had to wait and worry about their husbands and take control of the plantation and the slaves.  They were the people behind the scenes keeping everything in order.  Changing the subject the loyalists who did not want to fight got over voted by the patriots who wanted to fight.  The movie makes the loyalists seem like these unwilling people who don't want to fight because they don't want to lose their lives.  One fault in the movie was the way that the slaves were treated on Mr. Martin's farm and the maroon black community on the beach where the wedding is.  Another inaccurate creation of hollywood is how harsh and grotesque the British armies were.  Some of their actions were correct but other actions were exaggerated to have the British seem more gruesome, so that the audience does not like the British.  Lastly the Continentals were equally brutal to the other side.  The Patriot is a historically accurate movie, for the most part, but like many hollywood films there are some erroneous parts.  Overall the acting of Mel Gibson and the looks of Heath Ledger make a GREAT movie.