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The Patriot Movie Historical Accuracy

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In a movie based in fact, there is almost always some fudging of details to be had. In the movie The Patriot, there was a fair bit of detail, but also plenty of inaccuracies. Despite the amount of truth that it presented, there were also some glaringly obvious mistakes, both for the betterment of the movie, and, certainly, some unwitting negligences. The first thing that I noticed about the movie The Patriot was that the main character’s name was Benjamin Martin. This in itself is historically inaccurate, as there is no recorded soldier named Benjamin Martin who did that which he did in the movie. In my research, I discovered that he was a mix of multiple men, most notably Francis Marion, as well as Andrew Pickens, Thomas Sumter, Daniel Morgans, and Elijah Clarke. Among them, Francis Marion was the closest to the character, with the nickname “Swamp Fox” (Cummings). He trained his men to become proficient in guerrilla warfare, which is what Martin did in the film. This could have been corrected by merely choosing to name the character Francis Marion, and sticking more closely to what the man did in truth. …show more content…

In the timeframe of the Revolutionary War, gentlemanly warfare was still practiced. If soldiers were in military garb, they could not be charged with espionage, as they were clearly not trying to hide their patriot status (Andrews). In the movie, the British officials were planning to hang Gabriel for spying, while in patriot uniform. If they had done that in real life, it would have been illegal. Martin does attempt to point this out to the official, but he goes ahead with it anyway. This part was only put in to further the plot, not to follow historical fact, and could been avoided altogether. However, this cruelty brings me to my final

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