Question: Kind of a weird and random question, but is there any significance to when Colonel Tavington takes off his helmet in the church?
Corrected entry: When the church is burned down and Anne is inside, the congregation is burned to death. Then, when they find the necklace that was given to Anne, it is still attached to the string. How could a ribbon and metal charm still be in good shape if the fire burned down the church?
Correction: Possibly this could be explained by the fact that the British army never burned a church with people inside. While the British army did commit atrocities in North America during the war, but they never went as far as to deliberately incinerate civilians in a church.
They tried to, but after they left the town, it started raining, so the fire was put out.
Question: At the end of the movie, Martin stabs Tavington in the stomach, and then in the throat. How does he know Tavington is really dead this time? Earlier in the film, Tavington pretended to be dead twice after Martin's sons shot him.
Answer: Guns were less powerful during Revolutionary times and the wounds were more survivable. Deep and ripping knife stabs to areas like the abdomen and the neck area are more likely to be fatal. Tavington may not die instantly, but he would probably bleed out and/or bleed internally fairly quickly.
Would being stabbed in the stomach, and in the throat have been enough to kill a person as tough as Tavington?
Absolutely. A deep stab to the stomach/intestinal area would be very deadly even today. Being stabbed directly in the throat would kill someone very fast due to a lack of air and inhaling blood into the lungs.
Corrected entry: When Benjamin Martin meets with Cornwallis about the prisoner exchange and brings the dogs in (Great Danes or otherwise), Cornwallis refers to them as "boys." The black dog is female.
Correction: "Boy" for dogs is gender neutral. A lot of owners of female dogs call it a boy. Certainly with 2 dogs you'd never say "come boy and girl."
I have 3 dogs, 1 male, 2 female. No one in the family calls them boys. Sorry but I don't buy that explanation. I think it was just a miss.
1 example, an example where the females are the majority. Not really a good example I'd say. Again, "boys" is gender neutral. Also, he says it once, just once. Are you saying it is not possible for someone to call a male and female dog "boys"? It's not a movie mistake.
It is entirely possible that the film-makers chose to have a female dog play a male dog. For example, in the TV show Lassie, Lassie is played by a male collie even though it is well-established that Lassie is a female. A more recent example is the reverse, where on the CBS show Seal Team, there is a dog on there named Cerberus who is male, but is in fact played by a female named Dita.
It should be noted that people have submitted mistakes for the wrong sexed animal being used (i.e. a male dog playing a female). But really to be considered a character mistake, it would have to be out of character for the person calling a female (or male) animal "boy" (or "girl"). Calling a male and female dog "boys" doesn't seem out of character enough to be a mistake.
Corrected entry: It's strange that all the "Redcoats" in the entire film have pronounced British accents. When you consider nearly 90% of the British force was made up of German mercenaries, it's odd that we never hear any speak in German or any with the slightest hint of a German accent.
Correction: While you are right that there were numerous German mercenaries fighting on the side of the British during the war, their numbers were nowhere near 90%. Rough estimates put it at around 25%, largely located in the Northern colonies which the British felt as "captured" and those not worth wasting British troops to guard. Also, Lord Cornwallis would never have fought with any troops other than British troops he had trained and knew their duty to his satisfaction.
However, it is interesting that there are absolutely no "English" accents amongst the Americans, at this point wouldn't all American accents sound more British by comparison to today?
Answer: It's unknown, but even though he enters the church on horseback to intimidate the people inside, he may believe it's respecting God. It may also be something that a military officer automatically does when indoors. Also, men usually remove their hats once inside a building, mostly as a curtesy. A hat is protection for the outdoors, so once inside, no real reason to keep it on. He may be more comfortable talking without the chin strap, or he wants to be seen by the people he is threatening. It could be any number of reasons.
raywest ★
I've done a bit of research about the "not wearing a hat/helmet indoors" rule, since I've been curious about it before. People actually can't agree on single original meaning of this. One popular belief is that keeping your hat on makes it seem like you don't want to stay there long. It's polite to act like you are in no hurry and would love to stay a while. Or, keeping a hat on might create a feeling of distance, as if you want to be emotionally/mentally separated from the others.