8 / 10
The Patriot is a Roland Emmerich film about the American Revolutionary War starring Mel Gibson. That sentence describes most of what works and most of what does not. Gibson plays Benjamin Martin, a South Carolina plantation owner and veteran of the French and Indian War who has sworn off fighting until British dragoons murder his son. He raises a militia. He fights a guerrilla war against the British. He eventually meets his nemesis, Colonel Tavington, on the field at Cowpens. Heath Ledger plays his eldest son Gabriel. Jason Isaacs plays Tavington. Joely Richardson plays his late wife’s sister.
The film is a hundred and sixty-four minutes of well-made revolutionary war spectacle that is also a serious problem as history. Both things are true at once.
What Works
The battle sequences are excellent. Emmerich knows how to stage large-scale action. The Battle of Camden is shot with attention to the actual tactics of eighteenth-century line infantry. The musket volleys. The reloading. The bayonet charges. The film teaches the audience how Revolutionary War battles worked, which most films about the period skip.
Gibson is good in his most violent register. The fight in the woods where he kills Tavington’s dragoons with a tomahawk while his sons watch is among the most disturbing things in Gibson’s filmography, which is saying something. Heath Ledger gives a textured supporting performance. Jason Isaacs makes Tavington magnetically evil in a way that the script does not entirely deserve but absolutely needs.
For Writers
An antagonist needs to be more interesting than the protagonist for any revenge film to work. Tavington is the engine of The Patriot. Without him, Benjamin Martin is a man with a tragic backstory. With him, Benjamin Martin is a man with a target. The lesson is that revenge stories live or die by their antagonists. The protagonist’s grief is generic. The antagonist’s specific cruelty is what makes the revenge feel necessary. Spend your writing time on the villain.
The History Problem
Benjamin Martin is a composite of several real South Carolina militia leaders, most prominently Francis Marion. The historical Marion was a slaveholder. He committed atrocities against Cherokee civilians during the French and Indian War. The Patriot scrubs all of this. Martin’s plantation is worked by free black laborers who, the film implies, are happy to be there. This is a substantial historical lie.
Tavington is based on Banastre Tarleton, a British cavalry officer who was indeed brutal but who did not, for instance, herd civilians into a church and burn them alive, which Tavington does in the film. The script invents German-occupation-era atrocities for its eighteenth-century antagonist because the script wants the audience to want him dead. The British military has objected publicly to the portrayal. Their objections are reasonable.
For Writers
Historical fiction that inflates the antagonist’s evil while sanitizing the protagonist’s morally compromised reality is the most common form of historical dishonesty. The Patriot does both. It makes Tavington into a Nazi while making Benjamin Martin into a saint. The lesson is that inventing crimes for a real-or-real-derived figure is a serious choice. It is sometimes justified. It is more often the writer’s laziness. If you cannot make the audience hate your antagonist using what actually happened, you have not yet found the real story.
The Family
The family scenes are stronger than the script needs them to be. The seven children. The dead wife. The brother-in-law. The household functions as a working economic unit, which most films set in this period do not get right. Children of the period worked alongside their parents because the household was a small business. The film shows this.
Ledger and Gibson have real chemistry as father and son. The middle section, where Gabriel returns from the army wounded and the family hides him, is the best sustained drama in the film. The conflict between father and son about whether to fight is treated with more nuance than the marketing suggested.
For Writers
A family in a historical drama works best when the household is shown as a working economic unit rather than as a modern nuclear family in costume. The Patriot gets this right in the home scenes. The children have jobs. The household produces. The brother-in-law has standing because his economic contribution to the operation is visible. The lesson is that pre-modern families were structured around production, not around emotional intimacy. Write them that way and the period feels right.
Craft Note
Roland Emmerich directed. Robert Rodat wrote. Mel Gibson as Benjamin Martin. Heath Ledger as Gabriel Martin. Jason Isaacs as Colonel William Tavington. Joely Richardson as Charlotte Selton. Chris Cooper as Colonel Burwell. Tcheky Karyo as Major Jean Villeneuve. Tom Wilkinson as General Cornwallis. Released June 2000. Approximately one hundred and ten million dollar budget. Two hundred and fifteen million worldwide gross. John Williams scored. Loosely based on Francis Marion, Daniel Morgan, Andrew Pickens, and Thomas Sumter.
The Verdict
8/10 as cinema. 4/10 as history. The action sequences are excellent. The family material works. The performances by Gibson, Ledger, and Isaacs are strong. The film’s relationship with the historical record is dishonest and the dishonesty was a deliberate creative choice. Watch it knowing what it is doing.
FAQ
Is Benjamin Martin a real person?
He is a composite, primarily based on Francis Marion (the Swamp Fox), with elements drawn from Daniel Morgan, Andrew Pickens, and Thomas Sumter. The historical Marion was a slaveholder and was involved in raids against Cherokee civilians.
Is Tavington a real person?
Based on Banastre Tarleton, a British cavalry officer who was brutal but who did not commit some of the atrocities depicted, particularly the church burning.
Did the church burning happen?
No. The film invents the incident. The scene is sometimes compared to the Nazi massacre at Oradour-sur-Glane in 1944, which it resembles. There is no record of any such incident during the Revolutionary War.
How is slavery handled?
Badly. The film implies Martin’s plantation is worked by free black laborers. This is not historically defensible.
How is the action?
The action is the film’s strength. Emmerich stages period combat with real attention to tactics. The Battle of Cowpens climax is well-made.
Who else is in it?
Tom Wilkinson as Cornwallis. Chris Cooper as Burwell. Tcheky Karyo as the French liaison. Adam Baldwin in a small role.
Should I watch this?
For the action and the family material, yes. For Revolutionary War history, no. Read Hugh Bicheno or John Buchanan instead.