MovieChat Forums > The Patriot (2000) Discussion > Why are there so few movies about the am...

Why are there so few movies about the american revolutionary war?


I am just curious about it.

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Because a single movie struggles to do it justice.
A mini series could pull it off though.

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History Channel just did a mini-series on the Revolution somewhat recently called Sons of Liberty. Here's a trailer:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ckyyUHfnxmU

Like The Patriot, it strays from the facts a fair amount but I found it entertaining.

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And, also, no market demand for such a film.

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If it is a good movie, I think that could be interesting for a lot of people.

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Seems to be a hard subject to capture. AMC tried a mini-series, something like Washington's Spies. I gave it an honest shot, but it just wasn't very appealing. I'm a fan of the musical and movie 1776, but it seems to have more detractors and supporters. Last of the Mohicans is an excellent movie, but it doesn't seem to address the War directly. It probably just needs the right people and the right budget to come up with a good movie.

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Mohicans actually is a good model to look at Maybe from the perspective of Daniel Boone?

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btw, there's an old Kirk Douglas / Burt Lancaster movie that I believe is placed during the Rev War. I'd have to look it up, so I guess anyone who's interested can do so also.

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Good question honestly. It seems like such a rich subject for a slice of Oscar bait or an old school historical action epic like Last of the Mohicans or Braveheart.

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The Burt and Kirk movie I'm thinking of is The Devil's Disciple, (1959) and a respectable 7.3 on IMDb. Also must mention Laurence Olivier has a large role as well.

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There really isn't a lot. I thoroughly enjoyed the John Adams miniseries that HBO did.

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Cost far too much money and most of them pretty much flop at the box office, which is a risk the studios don't want to take. Remember Al Pacino's Revolution, a film that deserves more love then it gets. It's not perfect but not as bad as it's rep would make you believe. That film was a flop at the box office and scared a lot of studios away from those type of films.

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Could be a reason that the studios do not want to make several movies which could be uncomfortable to this "special relationship" between the UK and the USA?

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Egh, lots of shows and movies still use that cliched British villain so I doubt it'd make a dent.

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Same with the Napoleonic Wars, this era was so colourful with its uniforms yet there are so few great movies or TV shows about either.

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