Replies

I always felt that the burning church scene was put in to parallel the Waco fiasco.

Exactly. It was an artistic way of portraying the assault of the "enlightened" amoral world upon the Christian world.

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.

It did indeed. Cornwallis was portrayed as great but flawed. Tavington (I think he was based on a real person) was portrayed as an amoral, atheistic, materialistic child of the "enlightenment." His character was a direct shot at the post-Christian "modern man," I thought. So it only makes sense that he would have no qualms about burning a church with people inside. I thought he was one of the most effective villains I've seen on the screen. The actor who played him was truly hatable.

"Tavington", thank you. Oddly enough, this topic came to me in thought today for some reason at work, and I thought to myself, "Torquenton". Yea, he was one of the best screen villians I've seen protrayed too. Never thought about it before. Couldn't name the actor who played him either.