Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

It is late 18th century South Carolina. Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson) is a veteran of
the French and Indian Wars and a widower raising seven children. Gabriel, the
eldest, played by Heath Ledger, is anxious to join the American forces fighting the
British in the war for independence. Martin is anxious to discourage his son from
participating. Against his father's wishes, Gabriel does join up only to return home
wounded as he is carrying dispatches between commanders. Martin's second son is
killed trying to free Gabriel as he is taken prisoner which forces Martin to first free
his son with the help of his 2 younger sons and then join up. Martin takes the battle
to the British leading his ragtag band of farmers and ex-Indian fighters as the
Americans defeat the British and he gets his revenge on the one who killed his sons.

Public reception

The movie was a box office success, earning its production cost back in American
theaters. However, some viewers and critics strongly disapproved of the film because
of its historical inaccuracies, predictability of the plot, and what was felt to be
gratuitous bloodshed.

The Patriot was one of several films produced by Sony Pictures Entertainment that
were promoted using fictitious positive reviews attributed to David Manning.

Historical inaccuracies & controversies

The film has been heavily criticized for its historical inaccuracies, including the
invention or exaggeration of British atrocities. Most criticized was a scene depicting
the torching of a church containing a town's inhabitants, which was inspired by a
WWII Nazi war crime committed at Oradour-sur-Glane. Although it went generally
unnoticed by casual audiences, historians also criticized the depiction of American-
owned slaves being freed to serve in the Continental Army. It was actually the
Dunmore Proclamation made by the British Army which first announced
conditional freedom to slaves who joined them, a fact which is acknowledged by the
film when Col. Tavington tells blacks working for Martin that all slaves who fight for
"The Crown" will be granted their freedom upon an English victory. The new
American government would maintain legalized chattel slavery (primarily of blacks)
until the *Emancipation Proclamation during the American Civil War. The movie
however, implied at several points that the Revolution also aimed to free blacks.
Other Revolutionary War historians, including Timothy Shannon of Gettysburg
College, criticized the film's portrayal of the overall relationship between slaves and
American slaveowners as being too friendly.

There are also characters that are historically misplaced, such as the inclusion of
British General Cornwallis at the final battle, which is based on the Battle of
Cowpens. Benjamin Martin is a combination of Brig. Gen. Francis "Swamp Fox"
Marion and Col. Daniel Morgan, whose strategy for the Battle of Cowpens Emmerich
imitates in the climax. Col. William Tavington is based on General Sir Banastre
"Bloody Banny" Tarleton.