Question: Kind of a weird and random question, but is there any significance to when Colonel Tavington takes off his helmet in the church?
raywest
27th Mar 2024
The Patriot (2000)
10th Oct 2017
The Patriot (2000)
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.
2nd Apr 2015
The Patriot (2000)
Question: Who was the baby in Charlotte's arms in the closing scene? Why was the baby not alluded to previously?
Answer: At the end of the film, it is implied that Charlotte and Benjamin Martin have married and had a child together. It wasn't alluded to earlier because it is meant to show that a person's life can start over, even after tragedy and loss.
Answer: Additionally, in the film Charlotte says to Benjamin "I am not my sister," alluding that they were different people as Benjamin gets closer to her. As colonials were religious given the time, in the Bible in Leviticus 18:18 it says "do not take your wife's sister as a rival wife and have sexual relations with her while your wife is living." Since his wife was dead, this no longer applied and they believed in starting over, as the above post states.
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.