Alternate Character Interpretation: Nathan, one of Benjamin's younger sons, displays Troubling Unchildlike Behavior in the film's early scenes. For one thing, he seems almost excited by the prospect of there being enemy troops near his home. Later he is chillingly cool-headed when his father asks him to gun down the column of red coats who have arrested Gabriel, later remarking "I'm glad I killed them." An endearing Little Mister Badass? Or a budding sociopath?
The roundshot fired by cannon actually was aimed toward the ground, and the cannonball actually does bounce repeatedly off the ground the way it does in the film.
Heath Ledger being allowed to sleep next to his girlfriend by her parents as long as her mother can sew him in? He calls it "bundling", and yeah, it was totally real. Though not always successful, as her parents' dialogue makes clear...
The film was not well received among British audiences and reviewers due to its perceived anti-British sentiment, by giving them a Historical Villain Upgrade and depicting them engaging in atrocities to the level of Nazi Germany, such as shooting prisoners of war, and burning down a church with civilians trapped inside, which never happened during the Revolutionary War.
Dutch and Hispanic crowds have been also unsatisfied at the film not including any mention to their historical contribution to the American Revolution, most blatantly the Spanish campaign that was being waged at the time by Bernardo de Gálvez in the relatively nearby Florida (although they do get a mention, sort of, in the abandoned Spanish mission the rebels use as headquarters in the film).
Anvilicious: Tavington is cartoonishly evil, missing only a nice mustache to twirl.
Ass Pull: Tavington somehow survives Gabriel's gunshot (the same wound that's fatal to anyone else in the movie), even running (not limping) away afterward. This is never explained, making it feel like blatant Plot Armor until the Final Battle. More than that; as Gabriel is dealing with another officer, Tavington throws his sword away and then he and the Reverend compete to reload their weapons, with Tavington throwing away his ramrod. Both succeed, but Tavington fires first and kills the Reverend, who throws his weapon in slow motion to Gabriel as he dies. BUT! Tavington is able to reload his pistol AGAIN while the Reverend's rifle is in midair, throwing away the ramrod a second time (he is apparently able to store his gear in Hammerspace) as he does. Gabriel DOES succeed in shooting Tavington first, who then falls to the ground. The impossibly reloaded pistol doesn't really matter, though, as Tavington instead uses the previously thrown-away sword that does not appear to be anywhere near him to kill Gabriel instead.
Awesome Music: John Williams does not disappoint, earning the movie an Oscar nomination for "Best Original Score."
Catharsis Factor: Benjamin killing Tavington can cause this for many viewers.
Common Knowledge: Many believe that Benjamin Martin is a straight-up No Historical Figures Were Harmed version of Francis Marion. While the filmmakers did take some inspiration from Marion, Martin isn't just based on him. Rather, he's a Composite Character with elements taken from a number of significant Patriot commanders; for example, his anti-slavery views were inspired by those of John Laurens, while his very personal reasons for fighting the British were based on those of Andrew Pickens and Thomas Sumter.
Complete Monster: Colonel William Tavington is introduced having wounded soldiers gunned down and having freed slaves press-ganged into the British army. He proceeds to take one messenger, Benjamin Martin's eldest son Gabriel, to be hanged. Gabriel's brother intervenes, for which Tavington callously guns him down and sneers "stupid boy" at his shell-shocked father. Tavington's savagery earns him furious rebukes from General Cornwallis, until Tavington convinces the general to allow him free reign, bargaining himself to be a new landowner as his methods will render him persona non grata back in Britain. Tavington corrals a town full of innocent people in a church when none of them will talk about the location of Martin's forces. When he gets his answer, Tavington has the townspeople locked in the church and then has it set afire, adding the forgiveness of the people is between them and God. Tavington later kills Gabriel in combat and when facing Benjamin in a Duel to the Death mocks him for being a lesser man.
Director Displacement: Whenever this film is mentioned, it's usually described as "Mel Gibson's The Patriot". It's actually directed by Roland Emmerich and Gibson only plays the lead, but since Gibson is also an accomplished director in his own right and the movie is actually closer to Gibson's Signature Style than the big-action summer blockbusters that Emmerich is mainly known for, it can give some people the impression that Gibson himself directed it.
Draco in Leather Pants: Amazingly enough, Big Bad Tavington is far and away one of the most — if not THE most — popular characters in the eyes of the fandom, and certainly among fanfic writers, even among those who do not have the stereotypical reasons for doing so.
Evil Is Cool: Tavington, due to Jason Isaacs' portrayal. He's an evil bastard, but goddamn, is he good at being one.
Genius Bonus: The movie isn't quite faithful to the timeline of the Revolutionary War in the south, but a few bones are tossed to serious students of the Revolution.
A wounded Gabriel mentions the Green Dragoons cutting down the Virginians, an event that actually happened at the Battle of the Waxhaws, which goes unnamed in the movie. As an extra bonus, the Battle of Waxhaws was one of the more infamous deeds of the real life inspiration for Tavington.note Although that was arguably more his troops' fault, what with Tarleton (the inspiration for Tavington) being trapped under a dead horse at the time (they thought he had been killed during a truce and the Virginians were pulling an I Surrender, Suckers; his horse was shot from under him just as a flag of truce was raised, something not all the Virginians noticed at first).
The Battle of Camden (never named in the movie, but named on the DVD chapter) references Horatio Gates' flight, and his faulty dispositions with militia units vs. British Regulars, both historical facts.
Daniel Morgan and Nathaniel Greene, two not-quite-household-name Revolutionary War figures, make cameos right before the Battle of Cowpens. Morgan led the Americans at Cowpens, Greene at Guilford Courthouse.
Greene even mentions the unreliable militia performing badly at Kip's Bay and Princeton, both real battles where yes, the militia performed poorly.
The Battle Of Cowpens (a mish-mash of Cowpens and Guilford Courthouse) correctly highlights the "Militia-Fires-Two-Shots-And-Retires-On-Regular-Army" tactic used with great success at Cowpens, with somewhat less success at Guilford.
Martin's letter to Charlotte mentions Cornwallis feigning illness so he wouldn't have to personally surrender at Yorktown. A small, amusing, irrelevant to the story — yet true — detail.
Charleston, South Carolina is referred to as Charles' Town, which was its actual name during that time period.
Love to Hate: Tavington is a horrible, horrible man, but is easily one of the most popular characters in the film, due to Jason Isaacs A: doing it so well, and B: making it look so good.
Memetic Mutation: A shot of General O'Hara smugly grinning is often used whenever people bring up British imperialism in Youtube videos (typically captioned; "*LAUGHS IN BRITISH*).
Mel Gibson frequently gets criticized for making the film and adding so much anti-British sentiment and pro-American propaganda. In reality Gibson just acted for the film and had almost nothing to do with the script. In fact Mel had problems with the version of the screenplay that filmed and stated he would not have left out some of the unsavory element such as Martin being a slaveholder if he was the writer or director.
Going hand-in-hand with the above, the film is bashed as a an example of Americans white-washing history and being a mindless movie aimed to make cash to the masses. However the original screenplay did indeed have stuff such as Martin owning a big plantation of slaves and some of the nasty stuff the Colonists had committed. It was the director Emmerich who ultimately called the shots to take out the historically accurate stuff for Rule of Cool and Emmerich is not American but German. Not just Gibson, but also some of the screenwriters and studio's employees protested the final filmed version as being too sanitized, ironically.
Tavington crosses this when he murders one of Benjamin's sons. And if he somehow didn't cross it with this, he certainly did with three simple words: "Burn the church".
Cornwallis presents himself as an Officer and a Gentleman and actually dislikes Tavington for his cruelty and making their campaign against the revolutionaries much harder. But after being slighted by Benjamin due to being forced to exchange prisoners, he gives free reign for Tavington to carry out war crimes and mercilessly hunt down anyone associated to Benjamin in order to get back at him, which leads to the spoilered incident in the above entry.
Tavington burning down Benjamin's home, shooting one of his sons in front of him, and ordering that another one be hanged. Keep in mind that all this was in his first few minutes of screentime.
Some of the more gruesome casualties, including a man getting his head taken completely off by a cannonball,note The way it bounces in your face! is kinda funny, though another cannonball snapping off a man's leg at the knee, and the scenes in field hospitals.
Benjamin's description of what he and his men did to the French at Fort Wilderness. It's quite obviously this for him in-universe as well.
Benjamin's actions after Thomas' death. Although done in the name of rescuing Gabriel, he not only slaughters every British soldier in view, he has two of his youngest sons providing cover fire for him, putting them in direct danger. The cherry on top is that the boys have a front row seat to Benjamin hacking a man to death with a tomahawk, rising from a puddle absolutely drenched in the man's blood. Young Samuel witnessed this after traumatically taking his first life, and he looks ready to cry and vomit at the same time.
The scene where Tavington traps villagers inside their church and sets it on fire. Reportedly, it was based on Nazi war crimes like the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre.
Signature Scene: Benjamin's tomahawk massacre of the British detachment in the forest. More controversially, there's also Tavington ordering the church full of people burned. Not only for being a major leap over the Moral Event Horizon, but for being a lightning rod for the criticism over the film's historical accuracy, namely having the British commit Nazi-esque war crimes.
During the scene when Martin and the other sons go to save Gabriel, when Martin shoots an officer, the musket ball can be clearly seen bouncing off him.
During the final battle with Tavington, a bayonet appears and disappears impaled in Benjamin’s stomach, sometimes within the same shot.
In the same scene, the bayonet on the musket Benjamin is leaning against is clearly made of rubber.
A crackdown on customs duties and billeting troops on the locals without any say in a distant British parliament was Serious Business back then, but apparently not serious enough for Hollywood now.
Young, unmarried women would not kiss in public then.
. While the filmmakers did take some inspiration from Marion, Martin isn't just based on him. Rather, he's a Composite Character with elements taken from a number of significant Patriot commanders; for example, his anti-slavery views were inspired by those of John Laurens