Mel Gibson movies

[ladyfiaran22]

Yeah, Braveheart. I hated that movie too, my Dad insisted I watch it and I thought it was depressing and had an idea that something wasn’t quite right with this film. It wasn’t until later when I began to study British history in depth that I realized the movie was bad history, Scots didn’t wear kilts with tartan until much later and Wallace’s enemies were mostly the Scottish nobles who disliked a commoner having that much power. Plus much of the Scottish nobility had little loyalty to the Stuarts and wanted to have a union with England, Scottish independence is a pipe dream and it may not work. I’ve read about Quebec nationalism, that won’t work either and it seems as though both groups are more interested in revenge against the English than running a country.

[Tim]

This video really takes Braveheart down.

[ladyfiaran22]

Great video, Tim. And of course later we found out what a whack job Mel Gibson turned out to be.

[Tim]

And a few years later, he vents his hate of England again by making the exact same movie, The Patriot (which would also make a historian weep).

[ladyfiaran22]

Jun 21, 2020 11:07:27 GMT -5 Tim said:

And a few years later, he vents his hate of England again by making the exact same movie, The Patriot (which would also make a historian weep).

That movie sucked too, more bad history. I hate how it portrays the British as evil and while there were some British generals who did commit atrocities against civilians, it was more common that Patriots committed atrocities against Loyalists out of jealousy because many of the Loyalists were rich.

And it’s funny that the evil Brit general is played by Jason Isaacs who’s made a career of playing Evil Brits, he was Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter films. Lucius is the rich patriarch of the Malfoys, one of the oldest and richest wizarding families in Britain and one of Voldemort’s henchmen until he comes to his senses in the last book. So he played an evil Brit in both films, except Harry Potter films don’t suck.

[Tim]

The History Buff went after this movie too:

[ladyfiaran22]

Mel Gibson should have stuck to doing the Lethal Weapon films, those were just brainless action films that didn’t mess up history

[Tim]

The British in The Patriot come off as proto-Nazis. 

The bit where they locked people in the Church and burned them alive.  Nothing like that happened in the Revolution.  As the History Buff points out, this is what the Germans did in World War II.

Gibson's hatred of England made him ignore the facts.

[ladyfiaran22]

Here’s some good articles about Mel Gibson being anti English:

www.google.com/amp/s/www.standard.co.uk/go/london/film/mels-vendetta-against-england-6304466.html%3famp

www.quora.com/Why-are-films-of-Mel-Gibson-so-anti-English

[Tim]

Makes sense.

Braveheart and The Patriot are basically the same movie.  Gibson venting hate on England, historical accuracy be damned.

[ladyfiaran22]

Not to mention the Revolutionary War is often taught and portrayed as this glorious thing where we fought and kicked out the evil British, without any nuance. Loyalists are portrayed as greedy rich bastards but many were just moderates who thought colonists should just behave and pay their taxes, most were ordinary middle class people. And Gibson’s character was based on Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox. Marion was a slave owner and active in persecution against the Cherokee, plus he was brutal to his men. Americans don’t want to believe our guys during the Revolution weren’t always the most honorable guys.

[Tim]

Mel should have done some research before making The Patriot.   Instead he basically transplanted the Second World War back 200 years and replaced the Nazis with the British.

And that is the reason why, IMO, people now point and laugh at this movie.