Goofs for
The Patriot (2000) More at IMDbPro »

• Factual errors: There are a number of inaccuracies in the representation of battles and other incidents surrounding the War of Independence, as well as in details of personnel, equipment and uniforms. This is not a documentary.
  
  
• Factual errors: On the wanted poster for "The Ghost," the name of General Cornwallis is misspelled as "Cornwallace." Arguably fair, since spelling was less standard in those days, though you'd expect the name of a high government official to be spelled consistently in government documents. (This could have been an in-joke reference to Braveheart (1995)).
  
  
• Continuity: When Benjamin is talking to General Cornwallis, the straps on Benjamin's shoulder move.
  
  

• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: For a split second, on an American tent at the end of the movie, a flag is seen that does not use the circular star arrangement, but the star arrangement was not yet standardized.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: When the militiamen return to the town after the massacre, a building is brightly lit; while it looks like an electric light to some, others have said this was reflected sunlight.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In the Charleston scene exiting the town hall, an extra is wearing visible, foam ear plugs.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When Tavington is searching for the child hiding under the table his boots are clearly visible and certainly of the "Left-Right" variety. Boots were made on straight lasts until the 1800s.
  
  
• Continuity: When Benjamin, carrying the flag, rides up to the column of militiamen, he is first shown carrying the flag in his left saddle holster; the next shot shows him with the flag in the right holster.
  
  
• Continuity: In the battle scene where militiamen turned back from retreat by Benjamin clash with the first line of the English infantry, Benjamin, carrying the flag, is shown twice clashing with the enemy.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Modern snare drums.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The ships attacking Cornwallis' army at the end are carrying the modern blue, white and red French flag but this was only adapted after the French revolution: French ships during American Revolution should be carrying the royal fleur-de-lis insignia.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the scene where the militia ambushed the British by hiding in a field, they attacked them from parallel lines on either side. This is a blunder. Under no style of war would anyone fire on someone in that formation without being at an elevated position because they could end up shooting each other.
  
  
• Miscellaneous: In the scene where the British raid Charlotte's plantation, Tavington looks under the tablecloth to see if anyone is hiding under the table. At this time, Nathan is hiding on the outside of the table on the right side. The tablecloth hangs several inches from the floor, so Tavington should have easily seen Nathan hiding on the other side the tablecloth through the gap between the tablecloth and the floor.
  
  
• Factual errors: Many of the dresses worn by Charlotte would have been considered quite revealing and scandalous at the time and wouldn't have been worn by a woman of high society who valued her reputation.
  
  
• Factual errors: Near the end, when the French fleet is bombarding Cornwallis' army, French ships's hulls are painted black with yellow stripes along the gunports. This scheme was characteristic of the Royal British Navy and it only became popular during the Napoleonic wars: French ships of the time were either black and white or natural wood color
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: Many times throughout the movie when the fifes and drums are playing, the fife player's fingers and the drummer's sticks do not match the music.
  
  
• Factual errors: Benjamin Martin shoots a British soldier who is on a moving horse using a flintlock pistol at a range of approximately 100 yards. A ball from a black powder pistol would not even reach that sort of distance and hitting a moving target at that distance would be difficult even with a modern pistol. The effective range of a blackpowder pistol is about 20 feet as the barrel is too short to allow all the powder to burn before the ball leaves the barrel (too low a muzzle velocity to achieve any sort of range)
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Aunt Charlotte Selton and Captain Wilkins have reverse suntans (raccoon eyes), obviously from wearing sunglasses out in the sun. The weight of the glasses left actual imprints on the side of her nose, which are easily seen in several close-ups.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In the first shot of the film, two of the children are seen playing with alphabet cards. These famous "Hotch Potch, posture master" cards weren't printed until 1782. However the scene takes place in 1776.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When the militia are about to be hanged, just before Benjamin Martin rides in, you see the British prepare for the hanging by testing tying sandbags to the noose and opening the trap doors. In actuality, hanging with trap doors didn't happen until after the war. (In the DVD commentary, the director acknowledges this and says they did this because "it looked cool".)
  
  
• Continuity: In his monologue Gabriel says that his friend fell at the Battle of Elizabethtown, however, when you see him writing the letter it says that his friend was killed at the Battle of Monmouth.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Supposedly stabbed in the chest by Tavington, Gabriel can briefly be seen with the sword between his side and his left arm.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: When the British officer asks who the messenger is, Gabriel says it was him and walks down the stairs towards the officer. The shot cuts to the officer then back to Gabriel, who is now wearing a blue coat, which he didn't have on in the previous shot. However, he's seen picking it up.
  
  
• Continuity: When Susan Martin runs to Benjamin on the South Carolina shore to protest his leaving, her right braid switches position from on her back to on her chest, depending on camera angle.
  
  
• Continuity: When Benjamin Martin has his first fight with redcoats, he hides behind a tree as it is hit, tearing the bark. When he comes from behind to return fire the bark is perfect.
  
  
• Continuity: When Gabriel is reading the letter he is writing home aloud, the only line in the entire letter that matches what he has said is the line he is currently writing. Nothing in the long letter before the bottom line comes even close to what Gabriel read.
  
  
• Continuity: When Gabriel is in line to enlist, he is facing different directions when Benjamin is talking to him.
  
  
• Factual errors: At least twice (at the fight at the river and at the battle near the end) Tavington loads his pistol and discards his ramrod after he's done with it. This would make it impossible to reload the pistol again, and it is unlikely that a highly trained British colonel would do such a thing. At the river, dropping the rod is understandable, given the pressure, but tossing it some distance away isn't.
  
  
• Continuity: When Tavington kills the preacher and then Gabe, he is twice seen tossing his ramrod rather far away in successive shots.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In the final battle, a cannonball rolls on the ground and cuts off the legs of several soldiers in its path. One soldier's leg falls apart before the ball even makes contact with it.
  
  
• Factual errors: When the militia is coming over the hill to see the British military lined up and waiting for the final battle scene you see a distant cannon fire and almost immediately impact very close to the American lines. With the range of the shot it would have taken 2-3 seconds for the ball to cover the distance.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: The final battle is the battle of Cowpens, while some thought that it was just a made up battle, although the facts are stretched a bit. For example, only 12 Americans died in the real battle. The real Battle of Cowpens was a mostly cavalry affair and was over in less than an hour.
  
  
• Errors in geography: During the movie, battles take place in Camden and Cowpens, two places that are very far inland, yet the troops march there in a day from the shoreline.
  
  
• Continuity: The scene near the end of the movie where Cornwallis is speaking to Tavington in Cornwallis' mansion, Tavington is starting to pull off his leather gloves, finger-by-finger. A split-second later, his gloves are off and his hands are behind his back.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Many of the soldiers turn their heads when firing their muskets. Although the musket was an inaccurate weapon and this would have made little difference, by 1776 the practice of turning away when firing had more or less died out. In fact, the reason the soldiers here were turning away was because the director didn't think black powder made enough smoke, and decided to use a mix of black powder and magnesium (evident by a blue color to the smoke). This created more of a flash in the pan and made turning away rather a shrewd move.
  
  
• Continuity: Colonel Harry Burwell signs a paper, then sprinkles powder from a can onto the wet ink. A split second later, he reaches for another piece of paper and neither the can nor the original piece of paper is visible.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: The orange flag with the coiled snake and the words "Don't Tread on Me" visible in, among other places, the final battle, has been confused with the Navy Jack, which had a red-and-white striped background. In fact, there were a number of "rattlesnake" flags in use around that time with different backgrounds and designs.
  
  
• Factual errors: When the rebels/patriots are returning by boat to their secret base deep in the swamp, one man moves a boat by placing his hand on a lantern, with a burning candle inside. With that style of lantern, he should have burned his hand.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Young unmarrieds would not have kissed in public.
  
  
• Continuity: In the beginning, Benjamin carries a five-stick candelabra upstairs to tuck the two small girls in. The candles are a short three inches, but by the time he gets downstairs to see the older boys, the candles have grown to five inches.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: At the party when the ship blows up, you can hear the explosion at the same time you see the blast, when it's clear that the ship is far enough away that there would be a delay between seeing and hearing the explosion.
  
  
• Anachronisms: After the ships blow up in Charleston Harbor, Benjamin and his band ride through the countryside and we see a high tension electricity pylon in the background.
  
  
• Continuity: When Col. Tavington is questioning the wounded soldier, his collar is below/above the strap over his right shoulder between shots.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: During the final fight between Tavington and Martin, when Martin picks up the musket (in slow motion) and sets the butt on the ground, the bayonet flops back and forth, obviously made of rubber.
  
  
• Continuity: In the final fight between Tavington and Martin, Martin first impales Tavington with a bayonet on the end of a musket. He then drives a second bayonet into Tavington's throat. We see the killing bayonet supposedly dropping to the ground, but in the next shot we see Tavington still standing, impaled on the musket with the bayonet still in his throat.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Great Danes were not known by that name until the late 19th century, before that they were called "Boar Hounds".
  
  
• Continuity: When Ann is speaking in the church she has a necklace on. Later on when the men are strapping up, she doesn't have it on.
  
  
• Continuity: In the final battle between Tavington and Martin, Martin's tomahawk head is bent, but when it is knocked out of his hand it's straight again.
  
  
• Continuity: When the militia arrives at Charlotte's plantation, as the British torch it, Benjamin Martin's horse rears and Martin fires a pistol. In the long shot, the pistol is in Martin's right hand. In the following close-up, the reins are in his right hand and the gun in his left.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Benjamin Martin kills many redcoats to save his son from a hanging, the driver of the horse carriage is fatally hit. When the scene fades out moments later, the "dead" driver is seen to turn his head noticeably, right before the scene becomes entirely black.
  
  
• Continuity: In the final fight scene between Tavington and Martin, when Col. Tavington slices Martin's back, you can see the bayonet sticking out of Martin's stomach. Seconds later it disappears, but the wound remains.
  
  
• Continuity: Peter Copen, who died at the Battle of Elizabethtown, is seen later at the Battle of Camden.
  
  
• Continuity: When Benjamin Martin confronts Gabriel about him leaving out to meet up with the Regulars, the blinds on the window behind Benjamin disappear between shots.
  
  
• Errors in geography: The Great Danes purportedly sent to Cornwallis as a gift from the King have had their ears pricked. This is not done anywhere but in the modern USA, and certainly not at that time in Britain.
  
  
• Continuity: John Billings walks up to Martin to sign up for the militia. He picks up a bottle takes a drink, laughs at Martin's comment, and walks off. He doesn't actually sign the book.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Occam is speaking at the end of the film, he is seen saying "Gabriel said if we won the war, we could build a whole new world. Just figured we'd start here... ." The shot cuts to over his shoulder and he finishes with, "... .with your home," but his jaw is not moving suggesting it was dubbed in later.
  
  
• Continuity: When Benjamin springs his ambush to save Gabriel, he first shoots the officer leading the redcoats from his horse. In the next shot, we see the redcoats looking around them to see who fired at them, as well as the officer still on his horse. In the next shot when Benjamin runs for his next gun, we see the dead officer on the ground again.
  
  
• Continuity: In the battle scene that is watched through the window by Benjamin, we see a soldier get his head taken off by a cannonball. Later on, in the final battle, as Benjamin runs past with the flag, we see a soldier turn his head dramatically to watch, and it is the same beheaded soldier.
  
  
• Continuity: When Gabriel is fighting with Tavington, he stabs another British officer and has blood on his knife, in the next scene it's clean.
  
  
• Continuity: When Benjamin Martin is walking out of the fort with his men, Tavington calls to him. After Tavington's comment a close up on Gabriel Martin's face reveals a seated John Billings, but when the camera returns to Martin and Tavington, Billings is still attempting to mount the horse.
  
  
• Continuity: As Benjamin is staring at the north star pendant, Villeneuve and a few others walk up behind him. Benjamin turns and walks clumsily toward them with his hands far from his sides, but in the next shot showing his front, he's walking calmly toward them with his hands clasping in front.
  
  
• Continuity: Half way through the movie, Tavistock's name changes to Tavington.
  
  
• Continuity: In the scene where Benjamin is saying goodbye to Susan before to leaves to go back to the war. Aunt Charlotte puts her hand behind Susan's back but in the next shot it is in front and continues to switch.
  
  
• Miscellaneous: A major error in the final battle (Guilford Courthouse) is when Cornwallis orders "Sound the retreat." The British controlled the battlefield at the end of the day with Greene's army having escaped intact across the river. Cornwallis delivered both the wounded British and American to a nearby Quaker settlement for treatment.
  
  
• Errors in geography: There is a scene where Benjamin and his two younger sons are running through the woods to intercept the British column who captured the older brother. They are seen jumping over and hiding around boulders to get in position. In the South Carolina low country where this presumably occurred, there are no rocks or boulders. The eastern part of South Carolina was never glaciated.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When Charlotte and the kids are hiding from the red coats in the root cellar, they creep past a basket full of bread wrapped in cellophane. Cellophane wasn't invented until 1906.
  
  
• Continuity: Near the beginning of the film, as Mel's younger son opens his chest and tries on his father's military coat, Mel enters. During the scene between them the candle sconce directly behind Mel is first lit, then in subsequent shots is "out", then is lit again.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: The two dogs are both referred to as "boys", however, the black one is clearly a female.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In the scene where Tavington is after Martin's children at Charlotte's plantation, Susan is seen looking out a window covered with a venetian blind. Venetian blinds weren't invented till the late 1800's - 100 years after the time period of the movie. The most accepted "invention" of blinds was by a man from Chile named Hernando de Venuto on May 20, 1857. Clearly, in the home used, they forgot to remove one set.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In the final scene showing the new home for the Martins, it is going up with balloon framing. This type of construction was not in practice until the early 1800's. The framing should have been of 17th century post and lintel type.
  
  
• Continuity: In the scene where Gabriel tells Tavington that he was the one to bring the letter, he walks up wearing just a shirt. Just a second later, however, we see him wearing a blue jacket.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Tavington is searching for the child hiding under the table, we hear the "jing-jing" of spurs as he walks, just as in western movies. He is, however, wearing English/dressage-style spurs, which have no rowels, and thus can make no noise.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the film, Lord Cornwallis is portrayed as a much older man. This is incorrect as in 1780, the year in which the film is supposed to be set, the real General Charles Lord Cornwallis was only in his early forties. He was, in fact, born in 1738, which would make him six years younger than George Washington.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: The British really were the masters of the sea during that era - their ships themselves actually seem to run contrary to the natural laws, as demonstrated during the party scene where we see the British ship blown up in the nearby harbor. The laws of physics state that, loosely translated, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. When the ship is destroyed we see the explosion not only spread outwards from the sides of the ship, but also the gigantic plume of fire going straight up in the air. This ship, however, remains firmly in its same position in the water, neither moving from side to side, or being pushed downwards deeper into the harbor, as an explosion of such magnitude would undoubtedly force it. Unless the ship was aground on a sandbar or rock, it should have had at least some movement away from the direction of the blast
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: In the final fight with Benjamin Martin Tavington is about to strike a final blow with his sword. Tavington starts to say "Kill me before the war is over will you? It appears that you are not the better man". In the middle of this line the camera angle changes and we can see that Tavington is no longer moving his lips but we still hear him talking.
  
  
• Factual errors: When Aunt Charlotte takes in the children after the family's home is destroyed her hair is down. Women only wore their hair down during sickness or bedtime, as long tresses in public were considered to be risqué. During the day, out in the world, and during evening socializing hair was always pinned up or tucked under a bonnet.
  
  
• Continuity: When Col. Tavington slashes and stabs several militia soldiers there is no blood on his sword. It is seen more prominently in the scenes before Gabriel and Reverend Oliver are killed.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the Battle scene watched by Benjamin through the farmhouse window we see the Redcoats bayonet charge the Rebels. The order is given and the soldiers run across several hundred yards of open ground in a free-for-all. The Redcoat Army was a disciplined and well trained army. You can't have your troops running in a free-for-all across a battlefield. In that period cohesion of troops was important. Also by the time the soldiers got to their objective they would be too exhausted to be of any effect. In reality they would have "charged Bayonets" (bring their bayonets forward) and march slowly towards the enemy. When about 50 yards away they would have marched at a double quick time step (almost a jog) - enough to cover ground quickly but slow enough to remain in line. This would mean control could still be kept in case a change of direction is needed or a cancellation of the order. Finally, when a few yards away and committed, the troops would charge at full speed and engage the enemy.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: At the end of the beginning scene where Mel Gibson and his two younger boys kill all the red coats to save their brother, one of the "dead" soldiers in the wagon sits up just before the scene fades out.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the debate at the Charleston Assembly, several orators refer to Charleston as being "three thousand miles" from London. The distance is, in fact, four thousand miles. Any colonist would have known this at the time.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the town hall meeting in the beginning, Col. Burwell said, "We killed 700 of them at Bunker Hill and they just kept coming". Actually they killed 226.
  
  
• Factual errors: When Gabriel returns to the Martin plantation with a sword wound from the Battle of Waxhaws, he states that "Gates ordered us to march straight at the redcoats". Gates was not present or in command at Waxhaws, Buford was, and the American column did not march straight at the redcoats at Waxhaws, they were marching away when the British legion and dragoons attacked.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: (At 2:22:00) An African soldier is marching in the ranks of the British army at the beginning of the last battle, seen directly after the Frenchman yells, "Make ready!" The British did, in fact, recruit slaves to fight in their army during the American Revolution, promising them their freedom. One of the most famous British slave regiments was the Ethiopian Regiment, recruited by Virginia Governor, John Murray, the Fourth Earl of Dunmore.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: It is clear that Benjamin did not need to duck to avoid Tavington's sword as it would have sailed over his head anyway.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: When Benjamin and Gabriel are watching over the disastrous Battle of Camden, at which Benjamin marks Gates' stupidity at fighting muzzle to muzzle with the Redcoats, the American army are all Continental infantry. Martin and Gabriel meet up with the defeated army in camp, in command now by Colonel Harry Burwell. Later in the movie, before the final battle, still traveling with the same army, it is stated that nearly half the army is militia, yet before they were all Continentals. The Battle of Camden was 16AUG1780 and the battle of Cowpens was fought on 17JAN1781. This is 5 months after Camden. During this time, the army had undergone many changes, among them was the addition of nearly 1300 militia. The TOTAL force at Cowpens was estimated at about 1900 men. This would put the total militia at over 50%. Furthermore, it is not stated that Gates only had regulars at Camden. Infact, of the 3,700 he had at Camden, only about 1500 were regular troops, with the remaining being militia.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: At the Battle of Camden, we see the cannon firing round shot (Ball) into the Colonial line. When the shot hits, we see it knock a hole in the line of battle several feet wide as about three across are knocked down. Round shot does not work that way. One or two soldiers wide might be knocked down by round shot but not four or five. You'd expect to see that with canister shot or grape shot.
  
  
• Continuity: The movie begins before the war and ends at (or near) the end of it. This is a span of 5-7 years, yet none of the Martin children (especially the little ones) age a day.
  
  
• Continuity: JUst after Benjamin received his battlefield commission, he and Gabriel mount their horses, Gabriel is on the left. In the next scene, he is on the right.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Tavington is on the bridge watching Martin and the retreating Militamen ride down the river, he shoots at them with a smoothbore flintlock pistol, and hits one. The effective range on one of these pistols is about 30 feet and this shot was much longer, too far to hit the rider.
  
  
• Continuity: When Gabriel goes to the church to recruit volunteers for the militia, Anne Howard gets up and makes a speech about patriotism. We see her wearing a necklace (a pendant on some type of cord - possibly a thin strip of leather). As the townspeople are gathered outside a minute or so later to watch the men leave, we see Anne with a completely bare neck.
  
  

• Factual errors: SPOILER: In the final battle the British advance the full battalion. The officer giving the orders would be a Major or a Colonel. So why is the CO standing in the front line of the attack? Officers above Captains were meant to be mounted and definitely not in the front line of battle.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: SPOILER: After Martin parlays with Cornwallis and tricks him into what would eventually be revealed as a bogus prisoner exchange - Martin's men for what turns out to be 20+ hay-stuffed Redcoat uniforms - we see the freed militia prisoners all departing the British fort on horseback, even though a large portion of those captured were not on horses to begin with. We see however, that as Benjamin Martin is leaving, Gabriel Martin and another man bringing horses up for the freed prisoners.
  
  

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