Using The Patriot as an example of the “films about revolution” genre, what are the main themes for how this kind of film portrays the revolution itself, its objectives and ideals, and its heroes and villains? [See the “What to Watch For” above for guidance]. Answer the questions by developing at least five rules about those themes that you might expect to find in other movies about revolutions. Make you rules generic to revolutions in general rather than specific to the American Revolution because, later in the course, you are going to use those rules to assess the movie The Liberator on Simon Bolivar and the Latin American Revolutions.
USE SPECIFIC EXAMPLES FROM THE PATRIOT AS EVIDENCE TO DEMONSTRATE YOUR RULES!
The Patriot is available on multiple streaming services, including Netflix. If you need me to provide you with an account to view this film please let me know.
I have attached the essay grading rubric in the files.
Here’s a list of what to look out for to aid you in your writing.
What to Watch For: The Patriot
Themes of Revolution.
The Patriot is part of a long tradition of movies on revolution (and particularly movies produced by filmmakers from the country for which that revolution represents that nation’s founding moment). Seen as a whole, this genre of film shares certain “rules” or storytelling conventions that transcend time, place, and subject matter. That is to say, movies on revolution tend to have similar elements whether there were produced today or nearly a century ago and whether they are an American film about the American Revolution (such as The Patriot) or a Venezuelan film about the Latin America revolutions (such as The Liberator, which we will watch later in the course). Those conventions have to do with the overall tone and message of the film, how it selects and depicts its heroes and “villains,” how it deals with the revolution’s ideals and objectives, and how it handles conflicts and division between different factions of revolutionaries.
For this essay on the The Patriot, I want you to focus on how the film portrays several of the central elements of the American Revolution. I’m not asking you to fact-check the movie (we will talk about the relationship between film and historical reality in Debate #3). Rather, I want you to analyze the film on its own terms and try to understand the choices filmmakers made in how they portrayed the issues and conflicts at the heart of the Revolution and the War of Independence. The goal is to use The Patriot as a window into themes that are common to feature films on the American Revolution and to revolutions in general. Your objetive is to try to tease out the rules of the genre by analyzing the different themes portrayed in The Patriot.
What to Watch for:
Tone and Message: What’s the overall message and tone of The Patriot? Does it want to complicate our understanding of the Revolution or is it largely celebratory? How would you characterize the main story? Is it mostly “Things are Not What They Seem,” “Antiheroes as Heroes,” “Triumph Over Adversity,” “Good Guys vs Bad Guys,” or something else altogether?
Revolution’s Causes, Objectives, and Ideals: Why are the revolutionaries rebelling? What did Britain do to upset them to the point of taking up arms? Are their grievances specific or vague and general? What ideals are they fighting for? Are those ideals specific or general? Does the film give a clear sense of what the Patriots wanted the Revolution to accomplish in terms of specific changes or policies?
Heroes: Who are the heroes in the movie? How complicated are those characters as far as their motivations, decisions, and actions? How do they treat others? How moral and ethical do they seem to be? Are they more anti-heroes (deeply flawed characters you root for despite their moral or ethical shortcomings), complicated figures with a mix of good and bad traits, or traditional film heroes who are largely good and whose flaws make them even more sympathetic?
Patriots: Who are the Patriots? What class do they come from? How do Patriots from different classes, races, ethnicities, religions, etc. interact with one another? How deeply does the film explore those differences and the potential for them to cause conflict among revolutionaries? When there is conflict/tension between the Patriots what is it about? To what extent are those tensions related to the core issues at the heart of the Revolution (i.e. the reasons for fighting, Revolutionary ideals, or the Revolution’s larger objectives)? Or are the tensions related to factors more specific plot concerns (i.e. attack now or wait, advance or retreat)? Do the tensions play out along lines of class, race, etc.? Or are they not clearly tied to any particular group?
Loyalists: Who are the Loyalists? Why do they support Britain (or oppose the Revolution)? How diverse are they as a group? Are they from a specific class or do they represent a cross-section of society? What are their ideals? How do they behave? Are they complicated characters with complex motivations or simplistic caricatures with equally simplistic motives? Or does the movie not even explore their ideals or motives in any real sense?
British: How are the British represented? To what extent is the British perspective taken into consideration? What seems to motivate the British and shape their actions? What kinds of characters represent the British? Are those characters given depth and complexity? Or are they largely stock villains?