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The Patriot is a 2000 epic war film directed by Roland Emmerich, written by Robert Rodat, and starring Mel Gibson and Heath Ledger. It was produced by the Mutual Film Company and was distributed by Columbia Pictures. The film mainly takes place in South Carolina (and was entirely filmed there) and depicts the story of an American swept into the American Revolutionary War when his family is threatened. The protagonist, Benjamin Martin, is loosely based on real Continental Army officer Francis Marion and other Revolutionary War figures. The Patriot was nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Sound, Best Cinematography, and Best Original Music Score.

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 increasing 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. British soldiers - Green Dragoon lead by the ruthless Colonel William Tavington (Jason Isaacs) (based on an actual British officer named Banastre Tarleton)- arrive and kill the wounded Colonials, take the wounded British soldiers back to headquarters, burn down the Martin house, destroy the livestock, except for horses, which they take for the Dragoons 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.

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