Braveheart vs the Patriot Essay Example

(Ian Bannen) and the chief contender for the Scottish crown.

However, Robert is dominated by his scheming father, who wishes to secure the throne of Scotland to his son by bowing down to the English, despite his son's growing admiration for Wallace and his cause. Two Scottish nobles, Lochlan and Mornay, planning to submit to Longshanks, betray Wallace at the Battle of Falkirk the following year as a new English army invades Scotland. The Scots lose the battle and Wallace nearly loses his life. As a last desperate act a furious Wallace breaks ranks and charges toward Longshanks, who led the English troops himself in the battle.

He is intercepted by one of the king's hooded lancers and knocked from his horse, but gains the upper hand when the lancer dismounts to examine the fallen Wallace. Wallace is set to kill the lancer, but upon taking the lancer's helmet off, discovered his opponent is Robert the Bruce. Bruce is able to get Wallace to safety just before the English can capture him, but laments his actions for some time to come because of what Wallace has stood for, which he betrayed. For the next seven years, Wallace goes into hiding, fighting a guerrilla war against English forces with his remaining band of Scotsmen.

In order to repay Mornay and Lochlan for their betrayals, Wallace brutally murders both men: Mornay by crushing his skull with a mace in his bed chamber and Lochlan by slitting his throat during a meeting of the nobles at Edinburgh. Meanwhile, Princess Isabelle (Sophie Marceau) of France (Sophie Marceau) (whose incompetent husband Edward, Prince of Wales (Peter Hanly) ignores her) meets with Wallace as

the English king's emissary. Having heard of him beforehand and after meeting him in person, she becomes enamored with him and secretly assists him in his fight.

Eventually, she and Wallace make love, after which she becomes pregnant. Still believing there is some good in the nobility of his country, Wallace eventually agrees to meet with Robert the Bruce in Edinburgh. Wallace is caught in a trap set by the elder Bruce and the other nobles, beaten unconscious, and handed over to the English. Learning of his father's treachery, the younger Bruce disowns his father. In London, Wallace is brought before the English magistrates and tried for high treason. He denies the charges, declaring that he had never accepted Edward as his King.

The court responds by sentencing him to be "purified by pain. " After the sentencing, a shaken Wallace prays for strength during the upcoming torture and rejects a painkiller brought to him by Isabelle. Afterwards, the princess goes to her husband and father-in-law, begging them to show mercy. Prince Edward, speaking for the now terminally ill and mute Longshanks, tells his wife that the king will take pleasure in Wallace's death. Isabelle verbally lambastes her husband and father-in-law, then informs the weakened Longshanks of her pregnancy with Wallace's child and swears that Edward will not last long as king.

Meanwhile, Wallace is taken to a London square at the Tower of London for his torture and execution by beheading. He refuses to submit to the king and beg for mercy despite being half hanged, racked, castrated, and disemboweled publicly. Awed by Wallace's courage, the Londoners watching the execution begin to yell for mercy, and the

magistrate offers him one final chance for mercy. Using the last strength in his body, the defiant William instead shouts, "Freedom! " Just as he is about to be beheaded, Wallace sees an image of Murron in the crowd smiling at him, before the blow is struck.

In 1314, nine years after Wallace's death, Robert the Bruce, now a king and still guilt-ridden over Wallace's betrayal, leads a strong Scottish army and faces a ceremonial line of English troops at the fields of Bannockburn where the English are to accept him as the rightful ruler of Scotland. Just as he is about to ride to accept the English endorsement, the Bruce turns back to his troops. Invoking Wallace's memory, he urges his charges to fight with him as they did with Wallace. Robert then turns toward the English troop line and leads a charge toward the English, who were not expecting to fight.

The film ends with Mel Gibson's voice intoning that the Scottish won their freedom in this battle. Storyline of “The Patriot” At the beginning of the American Revolution, Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson) is a South Carolina veteran of the French and Indian War and a widower raising his seven children. In the year 1776, when the Declaration of Independence is about to be documented and signed, he and his family are called to an Assembly meeting in Charleston, where his wife's sister, Charlotte (Joely Richardson), is residing.

A levy is being made for the Continental Army and Colonel Harry Burwell (Chris Cooper), having fought alongside Benjamin in the French and Indian War, asks that the South Carolina Assembly help give its support. The levy is

passed, despite Benjamin's claims he could not fight or cast a vote while tending his children alone. His eldest son, Gabriel (Heath Ledger), is eager to join the Continental Army and fight the increasingly oppressive British forces. The years pass on to 1780 with travesties.

Charleston falls to the British, Charlotte is forced to leave for her plantation near the Santee River, and Gabriel's friend Peter Cuppin is killed in the Battle of Elizabethtown. During a battle, Gabriel returns home, stumbling, wounded into the family home and carrying military dispatches. The next day, a military skirmish has the Martins caring for the wounded from both sides. A bunch of British soldiers called the Green Dragoons led by the ruthless Colonel William Tavington (Jason Isaacs) arrive and arrest Gabriel as a spy intending to hang him after discovering the rebel dispatches.

When Benjamin's next eldest son Thomas attempts to free Gabriel, he is shot and killed by Colonel Tavington. Before leaving with Gabriel as his prisoner, Colonel Tavington orders his soldiers to kill the wounded Colonials, take the wounded British soldiers back to headquarters, burn down the Martin house, and destroy the livestock except for horses which they take for the Dragoons. Making use of his knowledge of fighting in the wilds, Benjamin and his two younger sons, Nathan and Samuel set out and ambush the British column in the woods.

They kill twenty of the soldiers in an ambush and free Gabriel. One private of the attacked British soldiers survives and some Cherokee scouts bring him to the main camp. Colonel Tavington hears from the wounded private that it was only one man — a "ghost" — who

killed his fellow troops. Captain James Wilkins (Adam Baldwin), a member of the Loyalist Colonial Militia is recruited into the Green Dragoons. Gabriel rejoins the cause against his father's will again, stating it is his duty as a soldier. Benjamin decides to join as well, leaving the rest of the children in the care of Charlotte.

Benjamin arrives at the Colonial's camp, and speaks with Harry Burwell concerning the current state of the war. From Harry, Benjamin learns that the British victory at the Battle of Camden has left the Continental Army in shambles, and more ominously has left the path north open for British General Lord Cornwallis (Tom Wilkinson) to engage Washington's army. To prevent Cornwallis from marching north, Harry Burwell issues a field commission to Benjamin granting him the rank of Colonel, and instructs him to organize a militia designed to keep Cornwallis in the south until the French Navy arrives to assist.

Major Jean Villeneuve (Tcheky Karyo), a French infantry officer, is assigned to Martin's South Carolina militia unit to help train the volunteers, who are drawn from less than reputable establishments but possess a keen skill for unorthodox tactics, which Ben knows will be important if he is to keep Cornwallis in the south for the estimated six months it will take for the French to arrive and reinforce the Continental Army. Benjamin's militia uses guerrilla warfare, attacking the British supply lines and burning half the bridges and ferries connecting to Charleston.

During one particular raid they intercept and steal the personal baggage of Lord Cornwallis, including his journal and two Great Danes, Jupiter and Mars. Later that night, Benjamin reads into Cornwallis' notes

and finds out a possible major weakness inside the General: pride. Six months after Benjamin's militia is activated the British army situation in the south has reached a stalemate, as the repeated ambushes on British supply convoys have prevent Cornwallis from moving his army north.

At Middleton Place, where Lord Cornwallis and his staff are attending a ball, the General blames Tavington for creating this "Ghost" with his brutal tactics, thus preventing him from moving towards North Carolina or Virginia by now. As the ball continues on, Benjamin and his men disguise themselves as British soldiers to smuggle arms and ammunition from one of the supply ships before setting it to explode. Eventually, Tavington sets a trap for Martin's militia that results in the capture eighteen of Martin's men.

Benjamin rides to the British garrison to parlay the release of his men for Cornwallis' dogs and personal belongings, and eighteen captured British officers. As he is leaving, Tavington recognizes him and General Charles O'Hara (Peter Woodward) suggests that this man is the "Ghost. " In an attempt to aggravate him into a fight, Tavington mocks him about the death of Thomas in hopes that he will retaliate, which will allow the British to use force to restrain him. Benjamin responds by saying, "Before this war is over, I'm going to kill you.

As he leaves, Benjamin calls Cornwallis' dogs back, much to the General's surprise, and releases the "officers," which are actually a row of scarecrows in British uniforms. To combat the militia, a reluctant Cornwallis lets Tavington track the Ghost using any means, free from the chain-of-command. Tavington eventually learns from Captain Wilkins the Ghost's actual name

and the location of Charlotte's plantation, which the Dragoons burn down while searching for Benjamin's family.

However, Charlotte and the family escape, and are led to a safe haven by Gabriel, where he marries his childhood friend Anne Howard (Lisa Brenner). Benjamin's militia, later on, return from a week's furlough, still believing in the cause. Soon after the Howards have returned to their hometown of Pembroke, Tavington calls up a meeting in the church explaining that those who will inform on the whereabouts of Benjamin and his militia "may be forgiven their treason", that is, for previously aiding the Continentals.

When he finally acquires the information, he orders the church to be locked and burned with all the people trapped inside, stating that the forgiveness is "between you and God. " A grief-stricken Gabriel rides out with the rest of the town's militiamen to avenge the deaths of their families and friends. During the ensuing fight, most of Tavington's Dragoon unit, including his second-in-command Captain Bordon (Jamieson Price), and Gabriel's militia are killed, leaving the two men to resort to hand-to-hand combat.

An injured Tavington mortally wounds Gabriel with his concealed sabre and escapes. Dying, Gabriel apologizes to his father for what happened to Thomas, but Benjamin states it was his fault. Benjamin is devastated and his zeal for combat extinguished, until he finds among his dead son's possessions a tattered, but mended, revolutionary flag. He rides after the Continental Army flying the flag and rejoins his militia. The Continental-American Army faces off against the British in the Battle of Cowpens.

During the skirmish, after learning from Cornwallis' journal that the General has "no respect for the militia whatsoever,"

Benjamin and the militia contrive to lure the British into a trap, where Continentals are waiting to charge the British. Even though Benjamin spots Tavington several times on the battlefield, he sticks to his primary duty to the Continentals, who are slowly losing their morale and are retreating, by raising a revolutionary flag up high and rallying them.

The American forces push forward, gradually overwhelming the British. Benjamin meets Tavington in a vicious duel. Tavington manages to bring Ben to his knees while mockingly noting that his foe is not the better man. However, Benjamin evades Tavington's killing blow, and with a bayonet, impales him fatally in the stomach, responds by saying that his sons — Gabriel and Thomas — were better men, then stabs Tavington in the throat, killing him.

The tide of battle quickly turns and Cornwallis is forced to retreat and eventually surrender when the French Navy arrives and attacks the British during the Siege of Yorktown. Martin and his remaining family return to their home and find the militia helping rebuild it. Occam (Jay Arlen Jones), a black soldier in the militia who gained his freedom after servitude in the Continental Army, tells Ben, "Gabriel said that if we won the war, we could build a whole new world. Just figured we get started right here, with your home. " Ben smiles and comments, "Sounds good. "