The Patriot
Very loosely based on the guerrilla warfare in the American South led by real-life heroes such as Thomas Sumter and Francis Marion, The Patriot makes the British Army, in the form of the fictional Colonel Tavington, an 18th-century version of the Waffen SS. Prisoners are routinely executed, civilians heartlessly butchered, and Americans – rebels and loyalists alike – are considered a subspecies to the man who hopes to one day sit as lord and master over vast estates beyond the Ohio River. His commander, Lord Cornwallis, is depicted as a battlefield genius lacking the ability to control his troops – or even his pet dogs – against superior American leadership.
In reality, the American Revolution in the South was both a civil war and an armed rebellion, with both loyalists and rebels committing atrocities over long-held grudges with furious regularity. Banastre Tarleton – the basis for the fictional Tavington – was not known for showing mercy or taking prisoners, but he was not a butcher who burned churches full of innocent civilians.
Looting and burning of plantations, lynchings, the killing and/or stealing of slaves, and many other crimes occurred with alarming frequency in the Southern campaign, nearly always committed by Americans of one side or the other. The majority of the loyalists who fought did so independently of the British army, in the same manner as the American guerrillas whom they opposed, often over ancient grudges rather than over liberty.
The Patriot fails to show an aspect of the American Revolution which is generally ignored in nearly all films which touch upon the era. Over two-thirds of the population of the 13 American colonies did not support seeking independence from England and nearly half of those actively fought or supported those who fought, against it.
In nearly all instances where colonial troops took the field against each other, the fighting was noted for its ferocity and lack of mercy. These traits exhibited by Americans against Americans were particularly present in the Revolution’s Southern campaign, as they would be again four score and seven years later.