The Patriot (2000) generally functions as a supportive, monumental secondary source, much like Mann's The Last of the Mohicans, despite its romanticization of the French and Indian War, by portraying colorful yet brutal imagery of the Revolutionary conflict within the southern theater, particularly with regard to the Battle of Camden—although it is equally a mere blip in the grand scheme of the war effort and the film. The dual factions, headed by General Gates and Cornwallis (both significant military figures in their own right), marching upon each other, all with the relatively unaltered intention of showcasing the true extent of the British and Continental infantry engaging in a swift and gruesome skirmish. As well as to be, accurately, followed by the Americans' even swifter defeat as Cornwallis' forces “devastated the poorly prepared (Continental) army.” -Bailee Eberenz

For some of the flaws in The Patriot’s historical accuracy, it gets the bigger picture of the Revolutionary War correct. It accurately focuses on the British campaign in South Carolina as being particularly brutal in the context of the war. Many films about the Revolutionary War focus on the early war in New England, or on Washington’s army, but rarely on the war in the South, possibly because of the level of violence it experienced. While the film’s main antagonist is largely fictionalized, General Cornwallis is portrayed rather accurately, in terms of his path through the South, goals in defeating the Americans, and his eventual defeat at the end of the film. These are both fairly accurate historical points as covered in the film. Unfortunately, they are a minority among the details The Patriot gets wrong. - Hunter M.

The Patriot is a very idealistic portrayal of the American Revolution in the south. It was basically an action movie. The biggest inaccuracy I saw in the movie was the portrayal of Black Americans. Benjamin Martin did not own slaves, they were freedmen who worked by their own decision. Nor did his sister in law, I presume, given that their former workers provided them refuge after the British came for Martin’s family. Even though both of them owned plantations in the south. There was a nice appearance of what I assume were the Gullah people, who provided the Martin family and Charlotte with refuge and care. The one slave that earned his freedom by fighting with Martin was apparently slowly accepted by his white colleagues and was just fine with his treatment once they became nice to him. The Patriot was just an objectively bad representation of black Americans in the south and during the revolutionary war. Although the exaggerations done here weren’t unlike other decisions made in the movie. -Katie D.

The 2000s are rather famously known for their major displays of American Exceptionalism in the lead-up to the Post-9/11 conflict in Afghanistan, aptly dubbed the “War on Terror”; films catered to that foundational cultural pride and related martial agenda. This is ably reflected in Roland Emmerich's The Patriot (2000), as it depicts the very genesis of the United States of America, its formation, and the correlated militaristic forces American citizens coveted in the 2000s period. It practically functions as a love letter to the American people's national pride. -Bailee Eberenz

The Patriot dates to a time period of particular American exceptionalism in media. The idea of “patriotic movies” has existed long before the year 2000, but in the wake of the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the sense of the United States being the world’s sole superpower renewed a sense of national patriotism, which would be strengthened even further by the 9/11 attacks after the film’s release. The Patriot taps into feelings of national pride from the period by telling its embellished version of the Revolutionary War, in which the colonists are clearly “the good guys,” and the British are clearly “the bad guys.” The lack of trying to make the British antagonists nuanced in their motivations to hold the colonies exemplifies this further; they appear almost cartoonishly evil at times. Overall, The Patriot leans into its patriotism particularly hard due to the period in which it was made, contributing to some of its issues in historical accuracy. - Hunter M.

The Patriot is one of the few movies I would say historical inaccuracy does not matter that much, if you have knowledge of the American Revolution and can recognize the cartoonish characters. From my understanding, this movie was extremely popular which means it has left a massive impression on a wide audience. But the movie is basically one big action scene, all hinging on one guy’s revenge, with a cartoonishly evil British Officer. While there are definitely problematic representations in the movie, the movie is very obviously not accurate to history, nor is it trying to be. It's an action movie that so happens to be set in the 1790s. -Katie D.