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Why All Patriots Should Watch The Patriot On America’s 250th Birthday

The Patriot aspires to tell a truly American story.

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If you’re like me, you’re eager to watch a film or two to help celebrate the 250th anniversary of our nation. Sadly, unlike Hollywood’s extensive catalogue of Civil War-era cinema, there is a depressing dearth of even middling Revolutionary War films (HBO’s miniseries John Adams is quite good, but requires some stamina). Though it’s been more than a quarter-century since its release, the 2000 film The Patriot, starring Mel Gibson, is perhaps the best modern depiction of our great struggle for independence. And, as a recent highly acclaimed history of the Revolutionary War in the South shows, there is plenty of truth in it, too.

Filling an Important Cinematic Gap

Americans may wonder why there are so few Revolutionary War movies, let alone good ones. There are, I think, a few reasons for this. The first is that, unlike other American conflicts, battles were comparatively small and infrequent — Bunker Hill, one of the most prominent battles of the war (and one of the earliest), involved fewer than 6,000 soldiers in total, of whom about 1,500 were casualties. Gettysburg, one of the Civil War’s most well-known battles (about which there is a good major motion picture), involved more than 150,000 soldiers, and total casualties were about 50,000. Second, the signature events of the Revolutionary War were less the battles than political events, such as the signing of the Declaration of Independence or the diplomatic success of persuading the French........

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