*The Patriot* broke my heart

No matter how many times I see it, Susan's Papa gets me every time 😢

Jason Isaacs plays a bad guy so well that I'm always surprised when he does a film playing a good guy. This is one of his most memorable roles by far.

the little girl speaking to her dad the first time always kills me. i can see myself as a father like that if i was one

When I was a young boy on my 2nd or 3rd day of Kindergarten school I ran out the doors after my dad as he headed off to work. He stopped and got out of the car and hugged me. Whenever I see the scene with the little daughter asking her daddy not to go I'm always reminded of that moment in my own life. I love this movie and I wish more people would want to learn about the history that founded my nation. Anymore it feels like people want to erase history rather than learn from it.

"Lord. Make me fast and accurate." A good man's last words of sanity and sentience before he becomes hell.

"I have done nothing..and for that, I am ashamed." - 💔 I know that feeling.

It is my understanding that "aim small, miss small" means that you aim at something small on the enemy, like a button or whatever. And if you are to miss doing that, you are still likely to hit some part of your target.

That little girl talking to her Dad for the first time, gets me every single time.

Mel Gibson's character is very loosely based on a man very well known here in South Carolina. His name was Francis Marion. The "Swamp Fox". His guerrilla tactics tied up and harassed the British Army for a couple of years here in SC. The Colonel Tavington in the movie is loosely based on Colonel Banastre Tarleton, a Dragoon, under the command of Lord Cornwallis. Tarlton is well know as being very ruthless and cold blooded. The final battle scene in the movie is based on an actual battle. The Battle of Cowpens, near the small town of Chesnee, South Carolina, which was a victory for the Americans, and the turning point in the Revolutionary War. Francis Marion was not at this battle, but Tarlton was. Also, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel of the 2nd World War, studied the tactics of Francis Marion the "Swamp Fox" and applied some of them in WW II and hence was to be known as the "Desert Fox". Playing off of Marion's "Swamp Fox" name.

Jason Isaacs as Col. Tavington is one of my favorite performances in any movie. He is so remarkably despicable that you just HATE him while watching this movie. Completely steals the show. It takes real skill as an actor for a guy as funny and likeable as Jason Isaacs IRL to be THAT good of a villain on screen.

3:13 " should I trade one tyrant 3000 miles for a 3000 tyrants 1 mile away." That quote is so relevant in these times,

In the early days of America when the closest neighbor could be miles away, if a man wanted to Court a young lady, he would have to spend the night to spend time with her. The cabins were usually not very big so the girl and guy would have to share a bed. They would sew them into a bag and place what they called a bundling board between them, so her parents didn't have to worry.

When I was deployed to Bosnia, we got a sneak preview of this movie when it premiered, with a special forward by Mel Gibson. When his character said the line "start with the officers and work your way down." there was a huge cheer in the gym. Our officers got pretty uncomfortable after that. 😆😆 And yes, there were a lot of grown men crying when Susan spoke to him the first time.

The reason the French officer treated Benjamin with contempt at the start is that "Fort Wilderness" is referring to a battle in a war fought 15 years or so earlier, called the French and Indian War in North America. The French and Indian allies fought the British, the American colonists and their Indian allies. So he was identifying as a former enemy. The American colonists freeing themselves from the English king led the French several years later to revolt against their king. Their road was much longer, almost the entire 19th century. By then, the French, British and Americans had slowly become allies and they remain so still.

This movie is total fiction but based off of some real events and people. Mel's character is loosely based off of Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox . He was also a pioneer of guerrilla warfare. This is one of my favorite Heath Ledger movies, A Knights Tale will always be #1 though.

A bunch of historical battles were bunched together in the battle scenes and the church burning scene didn't happen but Mel Gibsob's character was based on a real person named Francis Marion who was nicknamed The Swamp Fox. Part of what won us the war was the guerilla tactics our soldiers used that they learned while fighting the Native Americans.

Aim small miss small means that if you just aim at a target, you may miss the target entirely, but if you focus and aim at the bullseye, you may miss it, but still hit the target

This movie fits in the same list as gladiator and braveheart, one of the best.

Last time I was this early, America was still a British colony. Only just got around to finally watching this movie myself, surprisingly enough considering how much of a patriot I am. It was quite common for very young boys to serve in armies as drummers. There was one kid, named John Clem, who was 9 year old when the Civil War broke out. He ran away from home when his mother was killed in a train accident. He first tried to enlist with the 3rd Ohio Infantry but was rejected due to age and size. He then tried the 22nd Michigan but was also rejected for the same reasons. He tagged along with them anyway and they eventually adopted him as a mascot and drummer boy. Officers chipped in money to give him a regular soldier's wage each month and when he was 11, he was officially enlisted with the regiment. The same happened in the Revolution with a boy named Nathan Futrell who was 7 when he became a drummer boy. Things were different back then lol I'll hand it to those boys. Even obviously terrified out of their wits, they still stayed accurate and hit their targets. Their father trained them well. That first battle depicted was the Battle of Camden. The primary reason Gates lost was because his force was mainly made up of militia. By this point in the war, Continental Regulars were more than capable of at least holding their ground against British regulars. Militia, however, were part time soldiers and had less training and discipline and so often broke when faced against the professional soldiers of Britain. It also didn't help that Gates wasn't the best commander and was appointed to the post he had during the battle by Congress over the objections of Washington. After Camden, he wasn't punished but never held a command position again. The final battle is based on the Battle of Cowpens. The strategy used was one that negated the weakness of the militia, the inability to stand firm against British regulars. The strategy, what we now call defense in depth, consisted of three lines. The first being riflemen. With their rifles, they could engage the British at a longer effective range but due to the rifling, reloading took longer. Once the British reached their effective range, the riflemen would fall back to avoid casualties and to add their fire to the second line. The second line was the militia. The fact that they could not stand against regulars was meaningless as they did not have to. They were ordered to only fire two volleys before retreating. Finally came the third line of Continental regulars. It would be here that they would make a stand and where the first two lines would stop so that the entire force could be used against the advancing British. As I mentioned before, Continental regulars were a match for British regulars due to their proper European style training given by Friedrich Steuben. The strategy worked perfectly. Tarleton's men (Tarleton is who Tavington is based on), already exhausted and malnourished from an all night forced march, were whittled down and exhausted even more by the short skirmishes with the riflemen and militia, whom they chased after with the assumption that their retreat was a rout. Once thoroughly and completely rendered basically combat ineffective by the night march and skirmishes, the British force was shattered by the third line. In total, the Americans captured over 700 prisoners and Tarleton's force was broken as a fighting unit, though Tarleton himself was not captured and survived the war, becoming a member of parliament. The victory set into motion a series of actions and battles that would eventually lead to the British being besieged at Yorktown and being forced to surrender, effectively ending the Revolution. The movie overall is historical fiction. Some parts are based on history, such as the battles of Camden and Cowpens, but there are many completely fictional elements, such as Cornwallis being at Cowpens, the depiction of how Cowpens was fought (as I described in WAY too much detail), and Gibson's entire character (though it is based on parts of many real people). I suppose the best thing to call it is an American propaganda film. Regardless, it is a great movie and one I think every American should watch.

Canadians are still British. "You put the queen on your money. You're British." ~ Dr. Gregory House 😉