The Patriot's 'Battle of Camden' is...Abysmal

CORRECTION: Turns out the 33rd’s Colours were actually white! Pretty silly mistake on my part! Just goes to show, there’s always an exception in history.

Quite possibly the only thing worse than a Patriot battle scene is another Patriot battle scene. Not only is this portrayal of the Battle of Camden historically inaccurate, but those inaccuracies are laid in such a way as to be bad on a moral level, too. It insults the memory of those real individuals who fought, bled, and died on both sides of the field. Think I'm maybe being a little too dramatic? Well, hear me out, and see if you don't agree by the end of this video!

The book I reference in this video can be found here:

And all of the quotes not from that book, I pulled from this one:

...and his video on reenactors being 'too clean':

My video about the Royal Artillery that I show a clip from here:

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~~Timestamps~~
Introduction 00:00
Background of the Battle: 01:02
The Real Battle of Camden 15:55
The Patriot's Version of Events 23:39
Conclusion 38:50

[TheAntonicKnight]

I see The Patriot continues to haunt Brandon's every waking moment. May peace eventually find your restless heart, sir.

[destroyerofcringe]

I was actually part of a middle school reenactment of Camden while our muskets were just bought from toy stores with tubes at the end of them for us to blow into to puff out smoke, and our cavalry were kids in the dress but who pretend to gallop around on imaginary horses, I think I was a British Light Infantry soldier, however we did not use light infantry tactics, however I can say with complete and utter confidence our reenactment was more historically accurate by miles ahead of this imitation.

[caelodevorago]

PTSD, exhaustion, ambushes, skirmishing, etc has always existed, I feel like this is a detail most media forgets.
Just as an American soldier in Iraq might have PTSD from being in constant ambushes and IED detonations while constantly trying to maintain security around him at all times...
The same goes for the WW2 soldier who sitting in a bunker, fending off attacks while under constant airstrikes or artillery barrages
Same goes for the WW1 soldier marching across muddy terrain and bayoneting enemies in their trenches
For the age of musket soldier marching across fields or skirmishing in their fields, trying to make the other side rout.

The biggest one that gets overlooked though, is always the medieval period.
People for some reason believe that a professional soldier in the medieval period is someone who just... Didn't suffer from specifically PTSD. People so willingly killing each other in media. When in reality, most battles didn't feature a ton of casualties. Most battles involved a handful of men dying between two 50 men parties, and one side routing.

Sieges didn't last long, most of the time defenders would give in the moment the besiegers marched up. But we don't like seeing this. We want to see these 2 year long sieges, the immense battles of thousands of men.

[jurtra]

WHO WON?

Brandon's hatred towards THE PATRIOT

vs

Atun Shei's hatred towards GODS AND GENERALS

[dirgniflesuoh]

I love a scene in one of the "1632" universe of books where the modern Americans try to explain and demonstrate the advantages of modern tactics to the 17th century Swedish and German military.
The General Lennart Torstensson hides a smile, lets them go ahead, and get thrashed by the old school fighting.
"Of course we have thought of that, it just does not work with our current weapons technology".
The smart hero who speaks for a modern style, that is not yet feasible, that all the experts of the period are to dumb to do, is a pretty common trope.

[papabare]

I remember one of my history professors saying that "historical" movies should be considered as works of fiction.

[TheMarqueeAttraction]

As a South Carolinian, I can barely imagine walking from my front porch to my car in the summer humidity and heat. Let alone walking from Charleston all the way to Camden. 😂😅

[eddiestaud]

What Mel thinks happened: Redcoats popping Rebels Dropping
What really happened:
Redcoat 1: Did we win?
Redcoat 2: I think so, I’m gonna go take a nap now, I haven’t slept in days.

[deanmaynard]

Rule number one - NEVER get your history from a Mel Gibson film.

[TheSecretBearWeeb]

Brandon will reach 20x times the length of the actual movie before he even considers being done with criticizing The Patriot.

[WilloughbySerenity]

The previous video in the The Patriot series was released 8 months ago. How can time fly by so quickly? Anyway, 45 minutes of ripping into The Patriot will always be peak Brandon F. content.

[AgentHeroic]

I feel like I should be sobbing and begging at this point for The Patriot. "Stop! STOP, HE'S ALREADY DEAD!"

[chequereturned]

‘As Joker approaches the window’. A testament to Ledger’s chameleonic acting that it took me a couple of seconds to register that

[jonflora]

To be fair, Mel Gibson "historical epics" go down Wrong Street a bit, like the Battle of Stirling Bridge not having a bridge in "Braveheart" (that film inspired my fascination with history as a teenager, imagine my shock in finding out the sheer level of inaccuracy years later).

[michellejean]

The movie was never meant to be Historical, it was ultra nationalist porn. So it's amazing that it showed a British victory.

[finisterre]

Happy to see more content around the patriot, one of my favorite historical series on youtube

[DoctorLoudonclear]

Reminds me of how the battle of Stirling Bridge in Braveheart didn’t feature *STIRLING BRIDGE*.

Also, when asked why he didn’t include the bridge in the film, Mel Gibson said it was because “it got in the way” to which the reporter who was Scottish replied “it got in the way of the British too.”

[Fusilier]

There's something else I noticed about the Patriot's depiction of the British Army - it's all English. At the real Battle of Camden, much of the British Isles were represented in battle - Irishmen, Scotsmen, and Welshmen, all taking up arms in defence of the realm, the idea of these nations rebellious spirits did not exist during the American War of Independence, but perhaps the biggest omission, and I think you should bring it up in a future video, Brandon - is the fact there were American Loyalists fighting for Cornwallis at Camden, remember, the American War of Independence was in some part a civil war. In fact, Gates was invading a region of South Carolina that was loyal to the British, civilians refused to render aid, and join the Continentals, this is what led to the Continental supply lines to be overstretched, it was a major strategic error committed by Gates. Lots of Americans were pro-British, it was a civil war between Patriots and Tories, the Battle of King's Mountain for example, was also fought in South Carolina in 1780, was virtually an all American battle, but this would get in the way of director Roland Emmerich's hard-on for American lore, because the American War of Independence was suppose to be Americans vs. British, not Americans fighting Americans, where the native valour, vanquishing foreign rule, to build a new republic that will expand to sea to shiny sea. For once, I wish Hollywood would depict the War of Independence as a civil war, examining why some Americans still supported the crown, how extensive their numbers were, and the critical role they played in fighting for the British. By the way, my nation - Canada was in some part founded by Loyalists, fleeing to British territory after independence, ironically, we would have to fight for our independence in 1812, from an American invasion and annexation, it was not a "Matter of Marching" the Yankees thought it would be.

[ndavenuesw]

It can never be worse than casting an old emaciated Joaquin Phoenix as a young Napoleon.

[ChristheRedcoat]

This was probably the best installment in the series to date! Really appreciated how you emphasized the real history of the battle.

And thanks for the shout-out(s), as usual! :)