"Didn't you say that all who stand against England deserve to die a traitor's death? Burn down the church!"
Tavington
I wonder how much the british much hate Mel Gibson. He's been in two movies that have totally bastardized the english and made whoever it is they're fighting to look like total saints who have never wronged anyone in their lives and were totally taken advantage of by those tea drinking bastards. Probably the embodiment of exaggerated english dickweeds is Colonel Tavington from The Patriot. Played by Jason Isaacs, who would go on to win popularity as Lucius Malfoy in Harry Potter, Tavington is basically a bastard right from the start. His very first appearance on screen is him killing a 12 year old boy and ordering the murder of several wounded POW's and the burning of a farm... Even though the owner of the farm (and father of the 12 year old boy) cared for wounded english soldiers as well. He's one of those guys who believes that the ends always justifies the means and as long as he gets results, who cares how he got them? Even if he did get them by burning down a church filled with innocent villagers. After this movie was released, historians were quick to discredit this character as just being an exaggeration of several british officers who did some pretty questionable things, but none of them went so far as to immolate innocent people for holding their tongues. The thing that sets him apart and doesn't make him as strong as other villains is that he is never really given a backstory, so you don't really know why he thinks he can justify these terrible actions, which wouldn't really be a problem, except that this is a historical movie about things that actually happened. As long as people remember that this is a movie, and a fictional one at that, I don't think it really does any harm though, and Jason Isaacs is an extremely underrated actor who turns in a really cool performance in this movie.
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