Page 5 - The Patriot:
Mel Gibson strikes again Con't
Devlin and Emmerich had been behind the science fiction cult success Stargate
and box-office success Independence Day. Both movies are considered short
on substance and long on melodrama and special effects. Devlin and Emmerich
came onboard after reading a draft of the script by Robert Rodat. Devlin and
Emmerich decided that they wanted Mel Gibson in the starring role. They went
so far as to give the main character a seventh child, when Gibson's wife gave
birth to their seventh child. After more than a year of rewrites and pre-production,
Gibson agreed to come onboard.
During the script rewrites, the main character shifted from Francis Marion,
the Swamp Fox, a real figure from the American Revolution in South Carolina
to Benjamin Martin, a sanitized composite of Marion, Elijah Clarke, Andrew Pickens,
Thomas Sumter and Daniel Morgan. During their research, the filmmakers learned
that Marion had no children at the time of the war. He had slaves, whom he was
known to have raped.
Marion had also been a celebrated Indian fighter and had no remorse about it,
since he had survived an Indian ambush. Rodat's original opening for the film
showed the massacre of French and Indians at Fort Wilderness, led by Benjamin
Martin. In the final theatrical cut, the massacre is mentioned, but not shown,
and only after Colonel Tavington has been established as the film's villain
through his own ruthlessness. The filmmakers needed a sympathetic and marketable
protagonist, so Benjamin Martin replaced Francis Marion.
Using Benjamin Martin allowed for more dramatic license such as minimizing the
issue of slavery. In today's world of political correctness, it is impossible
to do a slavery-period film without making a statement about slavery and not
offend someone. African-American filmmaker Spike Lee joined the British in criticizing
the film concerning the slavery issue. In an open letter to the Hollywood
Reporter, he wrote, 'For three hours, The Patriot ignored slavery…I
kept wondering: "Where are the slaves? Who's picking the cotton? How convenient
was it to have Mel Gibson's character not be a slaveholder?"' In a later
interview on the BBC, Lee said, 'You guys should be upset, because the British
are portrayed like SS storm-troopers'.
As the filmmakers have reiterated, The Patriot is not about slavery.
Adding that issue to the movie would have diluted the movie's focus on the trials
of keeping a family together. Had blacks been omitted entirely, the movie would
have received much more criticism over the omission of minorities, so the black
employees were included. There was some historical precedent for the portrayal
of black employees. Though such an occurrence was unlikely in much of the South,
it was a plausible circumstance.
Charlotte Selton is a plantation owner, but no emphasis or even reference to
her slaves is made and a scene which could have shown some tension at the Gullah
camp was deleted. Blanket statements are made about the film's portrayal of
slaves based on the main protagonist, just as opinions have been formed about
the film's treatment of the British are based on the main antagonist, Colonel
Tavington.
