Review of The Patriot (2000) by Thomas S — 03 Jul 2011

Mel Gibson's fictional character Benjamin Martin is loosely based on Francis Marion, a militia leader in South Carolina who was known as the 'Swamp Fox'. Challenging the film's accuracy, the British newspaper The Guardian condemned Francis Marion as 'a serial rapist who hunted Indians for fun', and quoted historian Christopher Hibbert as saying: 'The truth is that people like Marion committed atrocities as bad, if not worse, than those perpetrated by the British'.

Ben Fenton, commenting in the British Telegraph on the sadistic character of Colonel William Tavington, purportedly based on Colonel Banastre Tarleton, wrote: 'there is no evidence that Tarleton, called 'The Butcher' in rebel pamphlets, ever broke the rules of war and certainly not that he ever shot a child in cold blood'.