Hollywood vs.History

Hollywood vs. History: The Patriot

The movie The Patriot is about a peaceful farmer named Benjamin Martin and his story during The Revolutionary War. Benjamin was once part of the British Military fighting in the in the French and Indian war. The movie takes place in South Carolina starting in 1776. Benjamin Martin is the leader of a group of men that are not enlisted in the military that are fighting to help gain their own independence from the British Government. He leads a group of men known as patriots that are defending America to fight the British to gain independence.

The American Revolution took place from 1775 to 1783.  It was a war against the British Empire against the original thirteen colonies in North America. The cause of the war was due to the tyranny of taxation without representation. [1] North America citizens faced the challenge of two colonies that had different views of what their nation should be like. The citizens on America had to choose to fight with the British colony, the American colonies or to do nothing. This is what Benjamin had chosen at first. In a scene during the movie Benjamin is confronted as a patriot. He responds, “If you mean by patriot, am I angry about taxation without representation, well, yes I am. Should the American colonies govern themselves independently? I believe that they can, and they should. But if you are asking me, am I willing to go to war with England? Well, then the answer is most definitely NO!” [3] However, later on Benjamin’s son Thomas was shot and killed by a British army officer while trying to save his older brother from being arrested. Out of anger this forces Benjamin to join the fight in the war and leads to the creation of his own army. When comparing the movie The Patriot to what happened in real life, there are a great amount of things we could compare and contrast to historical facts. A few things of the movie that can be compared are the character of Benjamin Martin and the army that he...