I’m not giving this film the deep dive I think it truly deserves (I may revisit it properly some day), but I watched this the other night and felt the need to get down a few things about it that I think of every time I watch it. So there are no transitions here at all. Speaking of no transitions…
My Patriot-inspired College Final Project
I took a class in college called History of the English Language (you know, to meet chicks), and for our final we each had to make a presentation about the English language. I decided to go with British vs. American English. Not to bore you with the details (which I can’t exactly remember anyway), but it was basically about how British English is considered better or “smarter” than American English, in part simply because of the accent.
Anyway, as part of the visual aid for the presentation I included a picture of Mel Gibson from this movie. It allowed me to use this line near the beginning of my spiel: yes, that is a picture of Mel Gibson using the American flag as a weapon. To this day, I am sincerely proud of that presentation for that one aspect alone.
The Gibson of It All
Mel Gibson is a great example of cancel culture not really being a thing. Sure, he went to Hollywood jail for a minute, but he seems to be doing whatever he feels like at the moment. For instance, it was recently announced that he would be starring in and directing Lethal Weapon 5.
I’m typically good at separating an artist from the art. I grew up loving Gibson’s work. I still love the movies I grew up watching, but I have to admit that his real life issues (mysogyny, anti-Semitism and racism) come to mind every time I watch one of his movies. Perhaps it’s because he’s presented as such a perfect person in this movie. For fuck’s sake, he plays a plantation owner in this, and the film goes out of its way to say that he doesn’t have slaves; instead, they are all free men working that plantation by choice. And Gibson works the land with them! What a good American!
So when I see silly shit like that, I stop and think, “Did he insist on that or something to keep up his public image?” And it takes me out of it for a moment. Still, I love this movie enough that I can get past it. Maybe that makes me a bad person, but it is what it is.
Illegal Satellite
This might be my most watched movie of all time, but not because it’s my favorite. I do love this movie, and I watch it by choice about once a year or so. But I watched this countless times in high school thanks to illegal satellite cards. For any young’uns reading, let me explain.
Back in the late ‘90s / early ‘00s, satellite dish systems operated with a card. It looked like a credit card, and it had the information on it to let the system know your account and what channels you get. As you can imagine, people figured this system out and would sell cards to people that gave them access to every single channel available, including pay-per-view. (Yes, that includes the adult channels, but that’s a story for a different article.) Hopefully, the statute of limitations expired on this, but we had one of these cards.
The way pay-per-view worked for new release movies was that multiple channels played each movie at different times. On demand wasn’t a thing yet, so you had to buy access to a movie, and wait for the start time. Or, in my case, wait for one of the four channels showing the movie to start the movie again.
The Patriot was a big release while we had access to one of the satellite cards. I originally saw the movie in the theater and loved it. So when it showed up on the pay-per-view channels, I was in hog heaven. If I couldn’t find something new to watch, I just put it on a Patriot channel.
On top of this, my dad fucking loves this movie, mainly for that scene when Mel Gibson chases a dude down and hacks him to pieces while in the midst of a parental rage. I wasn’t sure if my dad’s love of this moment should make me feel safe or in danger. Thankfully, no British soldiers ever attempted to burn our house down, so I never had to find out.
So I watched it a lot, and when my dad would be in control of the TV, he liked to watch it, too. We were very much a Patriot household.
The Fort Wilderness Story
Throughout the movie, characters keep referring to Gibson’s past at Fort Wilderness during the French and Indian War. It serves as an example of Gibson’s brutal past that he is now ashamed of. But all the soldiers around him think it’s fucking awesome.
I only bring it up because it leads to one of my favorite line readings of all time. I’ve embedded the clip below if you want to check it out (the clip is on the long side, but the line I’m referencing is in the first thirty seconds). The French guy is telling the despondent militiamen that the French soldiers will arrive soon. A militia member basically tells him to fuck off, with another guy (I think it’s Jack Moore as Curly, but I can’t confirm this) adding, “We got Benjamin Martin. You know what he done to the French.” His expression when he says “French” gets me every time.
It gets even better when we finally find out a moment later just what Benjamin Martin did to the French. He cut them into fucking pieces and sent those pieces around as a message. So ol’ Curly is telling this French fuck, “We don’t need your pussy soldiers. Our guy straight up mutilates motherfuckers.”
Historical Accuracy Schmaccuracy
Another knock against this film is that it’s historically inaccurate. This shit used to bother me, but I don’t really care about it anymore. First off, if you’re watching a Roland Emmerich movie for your history, then you’re a moron. Secondly, real life is rarely cinematic, and even when it is, it isn’t cinematic in easy to consume 90+ minute chunks. So things need to change to make the story work. I’m fine with that, though I do have to remind myself that a lot of this stuff is bullshit.
While it’s nice to have a clear, evil villain like Jason Isaacs; he just didn’t exist. The guy Isaacs was based on, Banastre Tarleton, was known for being brutal, but that was probably due to propaganda. The main example of the guy’s brutality was that his soldiers killed a bunch of surrendering Colonials. This is recreated in the film when Isaacs orders all the wounded to be killed at Gibson’s house. In reality, the Colonials were surrendering, and while the white flag was flying a stray bullet took out Tarleton’s horse. His men took that as the Colonials faking surrender to kill their commander and attacked on impulse, killing the surrendering and wounded men. This is still shitty, but it wasn’t done on any orders, and it certainly isn’t like the shit that happens in the movie. You know, like when he orders a church full of civilians to be burnt alive?
But still, in a movie like this, it’s enjoyable to have such a clear-cut bad guy that you want to see killed. That is why I’m also okay with Gibson’s character being presented as almost impossibly good. I’m not watching this movie to get the uneasy feeling of a slave owner fighting for “freedom.” Yes, that is the actual historical case, but I leave that to actual history. I watch The Patriot when I feel like a simple “rah rah America” good time.
Is a movie being this historically inaccurate dangerous? Maybe, but in today’s world of misinformation and people just flat out denying true shit they just don’t want to believe, who cares about the accuracy of movies? I know I don’t. I know movies are entertainment, and when my children get old enough to watch stuff “based on a true story,” I’m going to go out of my way to be the buzzkill who either explains the real history to them, or at least points them in the direction to find the truth on their own.
I’m all for important and accurate movies, but I first fell in love with movies for escapism and entertainment. Because of that, I can ignore any issues with The Patriot’s actors and plot and anything else. Sometimes, I just want to see Mel Gibson stab a Redcoat motherfucker in the heart with an American flag and not worry about any of the implications of enjoying such a spectacle.
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