In spite of this particular historical accuracy, portions of the movie story line raised predicament among audience regarding the factual error of the true event. For instance, the war tactics used in the movie; militia. It seems that the British was held back claiming North Carolina due to the superiority of Ben Martin and ‘farmers with pitchforks.’ This isn’t true as the truth was that the continental army was able to push forward and defeat the British. Another example is the weaponry. Although the guns are precise according to history, the canon is way off the exact history. Canon do exist in those time, but exploding cannons do not and the old canon function was to tore down the defense line/building by shooting big, fast canons. They don’t explode and burn people, however they do roll on the ground in a scary speed that can break your bones. A third prove of inaccuracy is the rights of slave. George Washington has drawn a clear line to not include slave in the war, yet the continental army are short of candidate and bend the rules. The inaccuracies happen when Occam, a dark-skin slave is told that every slave that serve in the continental army for 12 months will get freedom and paid for the months they had served. There is no such offer given to slave, however the slave settlement where the slave are giving few freedom does exist until today. Studying all of these inaccuracies, you can consider it’s affect on the young mind learning fictionist information. As Sydney J. Harris quoted, “The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.” Watching this movie kept young people to continuously reflect on the irony of the battle and it’s inaccuracies to their own selves. They should’ve move forward and expand their horizon by knowing the exact fact and detecting credible source.
By analyzing the specific facts the movie had offered, we can detect various biases that lead us all to take sides instead of the main excuse always thrown by the producer, “It is mere entertainment, no actual harm done.” Young minds, especially tenth grader who will study this topic, always grab the first idea or message a movie offer instead of taking a step back and reconsider if it is the real message the movie is trying to get across. The movie starts out with Benjamin Martin’s family (especially boys) are really excited to fight in war. As Gabriel similarly quoted, “I’m fighting for freedom, what are you fighting for Father? Oh wait, you don’t.” It influence and drive the audience to see that this revolution is good and they have to do whatever it takes to win it. You will be a fool or coward if you don’t take sides with the rebels or patriots (quoted by Anne Howard, Gabriel’s to-be wife). This leads us to another example of bias, viewing the British to be destructive in a very pessimistic way. General Tavington as an illustration kept on appearing in the scene where British are trying to defeat the American army. When you follow the plot of the story, it is as if he was responsible for the British loss. If he didn’t arrest and plan to kill Gabriel, Thomas wouldn’t have died, if he didn’t burn the church with Gabriel’s wife, Gabriel wouldn’t have died, and if he didn’t commence brutal act, the British might have won and he would live contently because Ben Martin wouldn’t have avenge and will stay as a semi-Loyalist. As we can see, the implication you kept getting is the British troops are cruel, loyalists are foe, and patriots are always benevolent, never unfair. If truth be told, using a militia force is considered as unfair advantage. We can’t see the British point of view, therefore it would be unwise and very bias to support the patriots only according to these few fact the movie showed. These biases are very explicit although the director seems to insert certain scenes to cover it up such as the talk Cornwallis had with Tavington or the ‘comedic’ scenes on how the militia uses tricks or in other word cheat to weaken and scare off the British. These biases support the inaccuracies of the facts the movie offers and reason why it is impractical to show young generation a movie that is focus on fictions that alter a very significant history.
Referring back to the media, Hollywood always found a way to entertain massive amount of audience and improvise the plot of entertainment media along the way disregarding quality of authenticity. The Patriot movie was released during the Independence Day, July 4 and was nominated for many awards and hit the box-office, then again quickly faded as controversies of factual error rage in America. Altering history for sake of movie can be witnessed to happen continuously, one way or another is just to entertain the audience and gain business profits. The reason seems acceptable for entertainment, but not in favor of educational reason. Students attend school to learn and expand their knowledge, not to be entertained and hoped to understand the implicit meaning of the subject. We live the life of true knowledge, not fictions and imprecise idea.
Ergo, the doubtable idea of varying actual facts from a course of history isn’t going to enlighten a student in their education. A movie that should’ve been shown to the young generation for educational purpose should only contain precise fact, such as Revolution (1985) Johnny Tremain (1957),John Paul Jones (1959), The Devil's Disciple (1959) (Patriot Source – Other Films). These classics show the real fact not because they intend to, but the lack of modern technology. However, it shows that if the entertainment media want to show the real facts, they could. It is the modern day trend that we’re able to handle countless inadequate cartoons and value sexual immorality, yet defeated by real facts of true events. Stay cautious against Hollywood standards.
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Cummings, Scott. “Facts or Fictions.” The Patriot. 26 October 2009.
<www.thepatriotresource.com>
“Historical Inaccuracies.” Journal. 27 October 2009.
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“Inaccurate and Bias.” The Patriot. 26 October 2009.
<http://tfruge.wordpress.com/2007/09/25/no-2-the-patriot-inaccurate-bias/>
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The Patriot. Produced by Dean Devlin, Mark Gordon, and Gary Levinsohn; directed by Roland
Emmerich; written by Robat Rodat. 2000; color, 160 min. Distributor: Columbia Pictures.
“The Swamp Fox.” The Patriot. 23 October 2009.
<http://www.awesomestories.com/flicks/the-patriot/the-swamp-fox>
