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The Patriot

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The Mel Gibson film "The Patriot" has a lot of flags, produced under the guidance of Whitney Smith to "assure absolute authenticity".

The Smithsonian Institution was the principal historical advisor on the film. Unfortunately the result is an adolescent and very historically offensive romp through an impressive array of authentic museum pieces, many of which are used very inappropriately.

As tempting as it is to trash this dreadful movie, I will confine myself to the flag content

The British in the film also carried very accurate regimental Colours (flags), but had no idea what to do with them. Most, if not all, British infantry in the film wore red coats with dark blue facings (collars, lapels and cuffs). The facings are supposed to match the Regimental Colour (the whole idea being ease of identification and a rallying point in the very thick smoke of battle), but the "blue" movie troops carried a variety of white, green and yellow flags sprinkled around liberally as colourful decoration. (This is, after all, what movie makers call "set decoration".) One flag fell ignominiously to the ground (a sign to the viewer that things are not going well for the British!) and was ignored by Brits and Americans alike. In reality, a cluster of British soldiers would have sacrificed their lives to keep it aloft and out of American hands, and the Americans would have fought just as hard to capture it. Capturing enemy Colours was the greatest battlefield prize and generated the most incredible heroics.

And then there is the solitary French soldier (inspired by Baron von Steuben) with a beautifully accurate French marine Colour (of a unit not seen in North America after 1763!) staked outside his tent. Horrors! These are not personal camp flags; they are the sacred symbol of a regiment. Another museum piece abused.

For an intelligent review of the film as art and social commentary (but without the historicity problems) see: http://movie-reviews.colossus.net/movies/p/patriot.html

And Rotten Tomatoes has an impressive display of good and bad reviews, adding up to a consensus that it is a rotten movie: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/movies/titles/patriot/reviews.php
T.F. Mills, 6 July 2000

First - I would not have ever used the Smithsonian as the historical consultants for the film - not with the problems they have had of late properly dealing with history (e.g. the Enola Gay fiasco for one). The latest issue of their magazine has an article about the film "The Patriot" that even mentions how they could not agree among themselves if the "Betsy Ross" style flag was ever used by Continental regiments. The film's producers decided to go with the "Betsy Ross " flags as they were something that modern American audiences could relate to.

According to the definitive book on Rev War flags ( Edward Richardson's "Standards And Colors Of The American Revolution") such flags were not used (though variants of Stars and Stripes flags were though mostly by naval units). The proper Continental Army colors only showed up once in the film that I could see - those of a Rhode Island re-enactor units that was in the movie. There were no Rhode Island Continental units in South Carolina (some Virginia, but mainly Maryland and Dela