The Patriot/YMMV

• Alternate Character Interpretation: The protagonists are the real villains. Slaveholding, rabble-rousing rebels fighting for very poor reasons, including Benjamin Martin, who only took up the sword because his kid died. It had nothing to do with the Patriot cause; he did it for personal reasons.
  • Exactly the reason Harrison Ford turned down the role. As he put it, the movie made it look like "the Revolutionary War boiled down to one man seeking revenge."
  • He actually breaks down at one point when he realizes his reasons were wrong. "I've done nothing, and for that I am ashamed." He believed in independence, but had been trying to shield his family from the war.
    • Martin never held slaves. They actually owned some of his property.
    • Also, in the climactic battle, he actually throws away a chance to kill Tavington in order rally the faltering American troops, prioritizing the Revolution over revenge.
    • Not to mention that the British actually had a bit of a talent for recruiting for the opposition; the general Tavingston is based on was quite possibly one of the worst choices possible for the area he was in--the majority of the people there likely wouldn't have fought for either side, and have generally been against forceful recruiting. It should be noted that it isn't that far from areas that, during the Revolutionary War, shot at both sides.
  • Interestingly enough, Mel Gibson was disappointed that Martin was not portrayed as a slaveholder, as many rich southern Patriots were. He considered it a cop out on the part of the writers who didn't want to deal with the issue of slavery.
    • That's Hollywood...
• Anvilicious: Though it's shown that the British aren't all bad people, the main villain Tavington is cartoonishly evil, missing only a nice mustache to twirl.
• Base Breaking Character: William Tavington has received criticism for being unrealistic, especially since he's in a movie loosely based on the Revolutionary War. He still has his fans though.
• Complete Monster: Tavington, a psychopathic British colonel his introduced ordering the Martin home burned down after he and his family treated Colonial and British wounded, ordering the rebel wounded killed where they lie, shooting Thomas Martin in the back. He tops himself by killing off an entire town because they gave aid to Martin and his rebels, even after claiming that they would be forgiven if they confessed to what that they had done. Even Cornwallis feels that he was going too far with his efforts to win the Revolutionary War. And it's definitely implied that if Benjamin's family hadn't successfully hid from him, they would have died too.
  • "You know, it's an ugly business doing one's duty... but just occasionally it's a real pleasure."
• Critical Research Failure: While the atrocities showed in the movie often did have basis as real events (the war in the South WAS a very barbaric conflict), the movie overemphasized the British atrocities grossly (which were often the result of the Greencoat Loyalist Americans rather than the redcoats) and forgets many of the equally horrific atrocities committed by the Patriots.
  • Generally, the war in the south was just a bunch of locals using the war as an excuse to settle old scores. And new scores.
• Crowning Music of Awesome: One of its Oscar nominations was in the "Best Original Score."
• Ensemble Darkhorse: 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 amongst fanfic writers, even amongst those who do not have the stereotypical reasons for doing so.
• Evil Is Sexy: Despite being probably the most Evil Brit ever, Tavington still managed to secure himself a nice little fanbase. Being played by Jason Isaacs probably had something to do with it.
  • An especially nice touch including the Draco in Leather Pants linkage in the trope, considering Isaacs is his father.
• 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 (unnamed in the movie).
  • 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 somwhat 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.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The death of Gabriel, who is portrayed by Heath Ledger.
• Lucius in Leather Pants: Colonel Tavington. Especially that scene where he's shaving shirtless.
• Moral Event Horizon: It's questionable when Tavington crosses it, but the most likely moment is when he decides to have a church burned down with a town's population inside of it...even after one of them decides to give him the information that he wants.
• Nightmare Fuel: Some of the more gruesome casualties, including a man getting his head taken completely off by a cannonball, another cannonball snapping off a man's leg at the knee, and the scenes in field hospitals. (It is an R-rated movie, after all.) And of course, William Tavington.
• Tear Jerker:
  • When Susan finally speaks to her father.

Susan: PAPA! Papa, don't go, I'll say anything!

• • When Gabriel is killed and his father doesn't even know what to do with himself anymore.
• Values Dissonance: A crackdown on customs duties and billeting troops on the locals without any say in a distant British parliment was Serious Business back then, but apparently not serious enough for Hollywood now.