[Blake#1]

This movie could be a wonderful reawakening for this Christian nation. One caution however, Mr. Gibson "hatred" of all things Protestant English makes him exagerate. One example, the British burning the congregation in a church in the film "Patriot". Never happened! Why would he put it in the movie?

[af_vet_1981]

This movie could be a wonderful reawakening for this Christian nation. One caution however, Mr. Gibson "hatred" of all things Protestant English makes him exagerate. One example, the British burning the congregation in a church in the film "Patriot". Never happened! Why would he put it in the movie?

Artistic license to inflame the audience against the British

[safisoft]

the British burning the congregation in a church in the film "Patriot". Never happened!

To be fair, Mel never said it did. The Patriot was a collection of various stories from the Revolutionary War. The reality, is that the British DID do something very similar at Kings Mountain - they torched a tavern with people in it and did not let them escape. Mel's creative license was simply and RIGHTLY showing how shallow the British "gentlemen's" rules were. They were brutal, and history records that - and Mel rightly added to the picture for our understanding in that regard.

[Captain Peter Blood]

It's called poetic license & Suspension of Disbelief. It's a movie. The church burning was put in for dramatic effect and to instill a greater hatred of the British.

[Diplomat]

I always felt that the burning church scene was put in to parallel the Waco fiasco. Besides, it seemed to me that the movie portrayed the British as very noble and honorable, with of course the one exception, the main bad guy, i.e. not Cornwallis. I doubt Tarlenton? Tarkenton? was that evil in real life either, but someone had to make it interesting.

Also, did Mel have creative control over Patriot?

[EternalHope]

One caution however, Mr. Gibson's "hatred" of all things Protestant English makes him exagerate. One example, the British burning the congregation in a church in the film "Patriot". Never happened!

That scene caused a minor furor. The initial reaction from what turned out to be uninformed commentators was that it never happened.

However, long after it was out of the public eye, published reports came out documenting that it did. These reports provided the details, all the way down to a specific church burned with congregation inside.

[Robert Drobot]

"....the British burning the congregation in a church in the film "Patriot". Never happened!

Your source(s), please.

[cinFLA]

One example, the British burning the congregation in a church in the film "Patriot". Never happened! Why would he put it in the movie?

It's a movie. Ninety percent of the things in the move never happened.