Post #2: The Patriot vs. the Big Bad Wolf
The Patriot is an over dramatized depiction of the American Revolution. It focuses on the life of a farmer and his struggle to protect his family which eventually becomes his struggle to protect his nation. The movie does have an accurate portrayal of the revolution for the most part but with a lot of exaggeration. In The Patriot, Americans were depicted as very rational, big hearted, innocent people while the British were evil, heartless killers who caused the Americans to fight fire with fire.
The Americans in this movie were portrayed as very innocent and patriotic people. The movie’s hero, Benjamin Martin, was a very kind and loving family man. He was friendly with his slaves. He had seven kids who he loved and lived for. He was happy with no worries in sight. But as soon as the British crossed the line by messing with Martin’s family, Martin became a powerful fighter that could not be brought down by any means. All of the other Americans were portrayed exactly as Martin. They were all big hearted Americans who were willing to die for their family and nation. What also made the British look so bad was the fact that Martin did not want to fight until the British compelled him to take action when they killed his son. The fact that a good and pure hearted man who was against violence wanted to fight because of the wrongdoings of the British made the British look so much more evil.
The British were shown to be very ruthless. Throughout the movie there was not one time a British person was shown in a positive way. The defamation of the British started in the movie when one of the British colonels shot Martin’s kid. Then the colonel ordered to shoot the rest of the injured and have Martin’s oldest to be hanged. The British even burned down a church full of innocent townspeople. These are just a few of the many evil things the British did in the movie. All of the things done by the British seemed to also show that the British did not go by the rules. They killed whoever they wanted. They burned down towns. This made the Americans look like poor little victims.
A big reason why the British had to be depicted as such evil people and the Americans as such rational kind souls was probably to make it seem like the Americans had a right to stand up for themselves and defend themselves. And also to make it look like the Americans were being wronged by the British. There was already a big reason for the Americans to fight, for independence and freedom and equality. But the movie focused mainly on the revenge the Americans wanted to take against the malicious British for personal pleasure rather than a national cause.
