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Hollywood vs History Essay

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History vs. Hollywood
The Patriot The Revolutionary war, sparked by the colonist's anger towards taxation without representation, was a conflict between the United States and its mother country Great Britain. This event had been considered the most significant event in the American history. It separated the thirteen colonies from the tyrannical ruling of King George. The revolutionary war was not a big war, "The military conflict was, by the standards of later wars, a relatively modest one. Battle deaths on the American side totaled fewer than 5,000"1. However, the war proved that the thirteen colonies were capable of defeating the powerful Great Britain. Over the years there were many Hollywood films made based on the revolutionary …show more content…

During the revolutionary war, slaves were not treated the way that they were treated in the movie. Also the scene it showed a message by George Washington stating that "slaves who fought one year in the war for the continental cause were freed and paid five shillings a month"3 This was fictional and speaking of fictional, in the Patriot only one black man fought for the continental army, in reality there were many black man fought against the British army.1 With award winning actors and screenwriters, the Hollywood version of the revolutionary war must be "kicked up". Much additional and fictional information were added to the movie, just to make the movie more exciting and do well in the box office. Two kids and one man with couple rifles killing a dozen British soldiers seems a little too over the top, but it does add a little excitement. The use of flag waving was just too magical in the movie. Every time something goes wrong for the Continental army, Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibbson) waves the flag and all the soldiers are pumped and ready for war. The Hollywood version of British commanders is very different from the real commanders. In the movie, the commander was cruel and brutal, and the movie version of Cornwallis is gullible and doesn't care about the war. In reality, the commanders obeyed orders and followed the laws of war and Cornwallis was a great

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