Here are a couple of movies that can help us appreciate the tremendous cost of our freedom. I believe we need to make sure the younger generation understands the price of freedom. It is something we should never take for granted. We need to take our responsibility as citizens of the U.S. seriously and teach the younger generation the importance of taking responsibility. We must be informed about the issues at stake and the character and positions of the candidates in the elections in which we are privileged to vote. We must never carelessly let our freedom slip through our fingers by complacency and a lack of conscientious participation in a government that is “of the people, by the people, and for the people.”

In the year 2000 a movie called The Patriot came out, starring Mel Gibson. Gibson plays a widower and father named Benjamin Martin in the year 1776 . Benjamin tries to avoid being sucked into the conflict with the British. He has a history in the French and Indian War that he deeply regrets. On top of that, he is responsible for the care of his children. But as the Revolutionary War heats up, a spirit of vengeance overtakes him due to a senseless death of someone dear to him, causing him to join up.

The British have complained about the British officer, dubbed Colonel Tavington in the movie, who takes the spotlight and is fashioned after a real British officer, Colonel Tarleton. The British believe the cruelty of that officer and the British in general was exaggerated. There is also criticism over the fact that the British never set fire to a church filled with people. That was something the Nazis did. Gibson’s character, Benjamin Martin, is roughly based on a man who become known as “The Swamp Fox” but is a conglomeration of several historical individuals.

There is a significant amount of violence in the movie, much of it quite graphic. One of the most graphic is when Benjamin is overtaken by understandable vengeance and brutally makes a sustained attack on someone. Also, cannonballs take off the head of one soldier and the leg of another, but they are depicted in a flash of time. As for profanity, “hell” or “damn” are used about a dozen times.

Focus on the Family’s Plugged In website found abundant positive elements that seemed to overwhelm any negative elements found. I don’t normally view R-rated movies, but the rating for this one is because of the violence, not for sexual content or excessive bad langue. Neither do I normally advocate desensitization of violence by watching violence for no good reason. However, this movie made a great impact on me and made me appreciate the ugliness of war that the colonists endured to gain freedom for our nation. The Common Sense Media website recommends a minimum age of 16 for watching it. The parents’ and kids’ reviews on the site recommended age 14 and up. If you have someone particularly sensitive to violence in your family, you may want to use caution. But I do believe that a sugar-coated version of the story would not help anyone appreciate the sacrifice that was required to buy our freedom. The movie lasts 165 minutes, or 2 hours and 45 minutes. In my estimation, Mel Gibson’s portrayal of Benjamin Martin is excellent.

All For Liberty

All For Liberty is a Dove-approved movie that came out in 2012. It was originally a play called “Captain Felder’s Cannon.” It gives a different perspective of the war, showing the conflict in the backwoods rather than the front lines. It is based on the true story of a Swiss man named Henry Felder, who was brought to America as a mercenary to fight Indians. Eventually he became a prosperous farmer. He had many children.

The story takes up in South Carolina in 1775. The governor asked Felder, a man respected in his community, to write a “Declaration of Separation from England.” Felder is drawn into the conflict. He was not a young man, but he became the leader of the Patriot warriors of the back country of South Carolina. He paid a dear price to fight in the war. Others in the community also paid dearly for their patriotism in the fight. A woman owned a tavern in South Carolina that served both customers on the Patriots side and on the “Tories” side (colonists who supported the British). She used the tavern to spy on the Tories—a very risky business. The fight in South Carolina played a great role in the victory of the Patriots in the Revolution.

There were a couple of very profound statements in the dialog of the movie. The governor uttered a very profound line: “If we would not fight oppression, we bequeath it to our families.” Felder had hired a black freeman as his foreman on the farm. The freeman, whom Felder had once helped, made another profound statement: “Sometimes only one man standing up for what is right is sufficient to alter a wrongful deed.”

Since this is not a major motion picture, there is no rating. Being a war movie, there is, of course, a good deal of violence. There is no sexual content or profane language. It lasts 82 minutes, or an hour and 22 minutes. I would think it would be appropriate for age 14 and up. Although it isn’t a big budget movie, I feel that they did a very good job of giving insight into what the situation was like in the time of the Revolution in this community of South Carolina. It received nine international awards.