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To: PJ-Comix
I can tell you this, and I'm sorry because I know it's such a popular flick among FReepers...Mel Gibson's "The Patriot" is one of the MOST historically inaccurate films produced. The general air of it "feels" colonial to people who don't know much about the period, but to people who know a bit about the war, it's a joke. I personally cannot even watch it.

The stuff about 5 shillings a month and freedom for every black who joined the Continental army is utter hogwash. The brutality perpetrated by the British is fantasy as well -- "Tavington," presumably supposed to Tarleton, (who survived the war, contrary to the film), got his reputation for brutality mostly from Waxhaws, which wasn't even as brutal as commonly thought. Burning down churches filled with women and children? No, not so much. Speaking of Waxhaws, Abraham Buford was in command of the continental forces, not General Gates. The scene where someone on a horse, shoots somebody else galloping on a horse in the distance with a pistol -- I don't know how many of you have actually shot flintlock pistols, but I can tell you, hitting a tree at 20 yards is iffy, never mind a galloping man 60 yards away! Great Danes, were not known by that name until much later than the movie is set. The guy talking about "killing a thousand redcoats" at Bunker Hill -- British casualties were actually about 200 killed, 800 wounded. There is when the Patriot is talking about butchering French soldiers and sending their remainders up the Ashuelot River...Which is in New Hampshire. Oops. The Patriot pays for supplies with a five dollar bill bearing Abraham Lincoln's mug. I could go on and on. They got the uniforms and a lot of the other clothes wrong, the weapons wrong, they even got the spurs and the window blinds wrong! The film is a joke. An absolute joke.

109 posted on 11/07/2014 6:40:39 PM PST by Wyrd bið ful aræd (Asperges me, Domine, hyssopo et mundabor, Lavabis me, et super nivem dealbabor.)
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To: Wyrd bið ful aræd
I liked Braveheart mostly because of my distant relatives called Bruce. I need to do some reading on that and about 1000 other ancestors.
119 posted on 11/07/2014 6:49:29 PM PST by mountainlion (Live well for those that did not make it back.)
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To: Wyrd bið ful aræd

Well then it’s right up there with one of Mels other works “Braveheart”. The weapons were wrong , Scots back then wore Breeks or trews (pants), not Kilts, etc. etc. It was cinematic, but inaccurate.

CC


154 posted on 11/07/2014 7:36:06 PM PST by Celtic Conservative (sufficient unto the day are the troubles therof.)
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To: Wyrd bið ful aræd

Thanks for your post about the complete inaccuracy about “The patriot”, a lot of people were very upset about it when it first came out.

But Abe Lincoln on a five, now that is just s.t.u.p.i.d.


178 posted on 11/07/2014 8:28:37 PM PST by jocon307
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