#The patriot 2000 movie costumes series#

A very small number served with patriot forces (most notably with Marion - one of the characters GibsonвЂ™s Martin is based on) but most were forbidden to serve except as labor. Slavery was ubiquitous in South Carolina during and after the war and many leaders of the state were enormously afraid of the threat of slaves revolting or joining the British. The most generous way I can describe it is that it is a Disneyfied version of what was an extremely complex and often brutal affair.

The elephant in the room in The Patriot is its treatment of slavery. The outfits looked more like something from a Disney set than real clothing worn by people living in the rough world of the 1770s. No patches, missing buttons, or loose threads. EveryoneвЂ™s outfit looks fresh, crisp, and like it was just picked up at the dry cleaners. The biggest flaw in the clothing department is that the costumes look like just that - costumes. Positively, the sets and costumes were great, much due to the filmmakers having consulted with the Smithsonian Institute. It goes down easier if you donвЂ™t get too caught on the details (Tarleton was only 21 when the war broke out, so way younger looking than Isaacs) and think of them as composites, but if you breath this stuff some of it can get annoying. Gibson, for instance, is a mash up of an American insurgent named Francis Marion and South Carolina militia leader, Andrew Pickens, while his arch-enemy, Colonel Tavington - played by Jason Isaacs - is a knockoff of British cavalry officer Banastre Tarleton. While it does include a handful of real figures, notably General Cornwallis ( Tom Wilkinson - Selma), most are fictional or only loosely based on actual people. That forced me to look at this movie both as history and a story.ДЄs history, it is a pretty mixed bag. Watching The Patriot was a little challenging for me because when IвЂ™m not writing groovy movie reviews, my main gig is as a History professor - specializing on the American Revolution. The Patriot zooms in on the war in South Carolina, focusing on the action (and thereвЂ™s a lot of it) of plantation owner, French and Indian War veteran, and politician Benjamin Martin ( Mel Gibson) and his family (especially his son, Gabriel, played by Heath Ledger) as they are drawn into the war. Over the next 8 years, the war cost the new Americans almost 25,000 men and the British and their allies twice that before the British throw in the towel and the United States was recognized as an independent nation. history class you already know the big ones: Back in 1776, thirteen British colonies decided they wanted to go their own way, Britain wasnвЂ™t cool with that and sent about 48,000 Redcoats (along with 30,000 German mercenaries and 13,000 Native American allies) to change their minds. WeвЂ™ll tread light on Spoilers, but if you were awake for 3 minutes in your 10th grade U.S. But there havenвЂ™t been a whole lot of big screen movies on it.

#The patriot 2000 movie costumes series#

The American Revolution has received a fair amount of attention over the last decade or two, with solid books by Joseph Ellis ( American Creation) and David McCullough ( 1776), television series like Turn and John Adams, and even a musical - Hamilton. вЂњThis is not a war for the independence of one or two colonies, but for the independence of a nation.вЂќ