The Patriot Film by Robert Rodat - Essay Example

Benjamin is made the leader of the Colonial Militia to fight a course for both his country and family.

Story being told
The director of the movie is trying to tell the story of commitment to one’s nation. The effectiveness of this lesson that the director was trying to put across could however be said to have been plagued by the fact that the commitment or otherwise theme of patriotism that the director was presenting was not based on personal or self-conviction of the character who was made to play the role (Warhurst, 2007). This is because the sense of the character’s patriotism was called to task only because he had a personal family mission of vengeance to undertake. Watching the movie, it could be seen that the director chose the American Revolution of 1776 as the historical piece with which to tell the story because that is a piece of history that has a very strong bearing on the ordinary American to his origins of freedom and independence that he or she enjoys today (Gauja, 2010). This means that the historic piece was selected as one that could appeal to the sense of American patriotism more touchingly.

Most important Moments depicting Director’s Story
There is a common saying in local parlance that it is only a fool who doe not change his or her mind. This adage is used in a very momentous scene by the director to depict the director’s story. This is because, in the judgment of Benjamin Martin, nothing would have made him fight for his nation if he had not lost his son through the events of the war. This was an important moment depicted in the film because the call for patriotism is most often not heeded by most American unless they have a sense of urgency to respond to it (Rubin, 2010). The director, therefore, used that moment to drum home to all countrymen and women that the need to stand and fight for one’s nation should be innate and inspired by personal convection rather than circumstantial events and happenings.

Present Research and Point of View presented in Movie
Research on the actual American Revolution shows that the director of the film did not depict the exact events of the revolution in the film. This is because there were critical aspects of the wars and acts of violence that are more aligned with the Nazis in 1940 than with the American Revolution in the 1770s (Jaensch, 2008). The role that was played by the Nazis was therefore made to be played by the British in the film. This somewhat contradicts the point of view presented in the film. However, further research shows that the theme of the director that depicts the fact that the patriotism of most Americans is provoked by circumstantial factors such as the need to retaliate in terrorism; rather than an innate call of commitment is true about present-day America (Gauja, 2010). This could have been fixed if the director told the American Revolution story just as it was without having to create the story from a fictional point of view.

Personal Lessons and Further Recommendations
Before watching the movie, I had no idea how sophisticated the British rule over the Americans was. Indeed, to the extent that the British would fight till the drop of last blood to ensure that their colonization of the Americans remained intact means that the British saw America as a real treasure that they needed to protect. I would therefore like to learn more about how much America was worth to the British as colonies and why Britain was never ready to let the freedom of America come that easily. On the issue of recommending the film to a friend, this comes with a mixed sense of understanding of the movie.
The first would be that the film will not be recommended on a basis of establishing historical facts about the American Revolution because the plot and storyline of the movie seemed to have been misplaced and represented one line of history with the other (Krugman, 2011). Based on learning about the historical relevance of America to the British as colonial masters however, there remains a lot to be learned from the movie and so I would possibly recommend the movie from that perspective so that the friend would learn about the worth that America meant to the British, for which the British were not ready to let America go.