Continuity mistake: This mistake is painfully speculative. A British soldier falls "as if he was hit with Benjamin's bullet" but this is not shown definitely, even submitter is not sure. Ends with a question, "How did he reload his gun so fast?" Because he has extensive military experience. Because the shot may not have represented real time. Because his life depended on it. Because he may have had a second gun. If submitter does not know these things for sure, how can this possibly be a valid mistake?
Revealing mistake: The obviously painted backdrops of Charlestown showed that the scene was not shot in location.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Benjamin is saying goodbye and asking Susan to speak to him, Charlotte (standing beside Susan) puts her hand on Susan's back. In the shots of Susan (from the front), the hand remains on the back throughout the scene. In the shots from behind her (showing Benjamin's face), the hand is not on her back. There are several back-and-forths.
Continuity mistake: In the scene when Benjamin's previously silent daughter runs to him - to say that she loves him and wants him to come back, there's a continuity error in the location of her pigtails. When the camera is at her back, they're behind her head and when the camera faces her, they're in front over her shoulders.
Continuity mistake: In the fight scene between Benjamin and Tavington near the end of the movie, just as Benjamin is about to stab Tavington in the throat, the "blood" on his left sleeve appears to be green. In the next shot (as he turns away) it is a dark red. This was seen on a HD television broadcast.
Audio problem: After Gabriel shoots Tavington, he walks over to finish him off with his knife. He tosses it up in order to change his grip. When he does so, we hear metal scraping against metal, but he tossed the knife through the air, so it could not possibly have made that sound. (02:08:05)
Continuity mistake: In one scene where Benjamin rides up on the horse with the flag in the hand the flag changes. One shot it is old, the next is new. The white goes from dirty and then to clean.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Gabriel is in the tent with Benjamin and another officer, the officer has a jar in his hand and in the next shot he is handing Gabriel a piece of paper then in the following shot the jar is gone. What happened to it?
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Benjamin is meeting with General Cornwallis (when they have captured the "scarecrows"), and making agreements with him, watch the white feather sitting on his desk. First it's facing sideways then it's facing frontward this mistake continues about six or seven times in that one scene.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Benjamin and his fellow militamen got ambushed, the first wagon is half full with cargo and there are two men driving the cart, in the next scene several British soldiers jump out of the cart.
Factual error: The scenes of the Battle of Yorktown are inaccurate. The view from the highest points of Yorktown is not of the ocean or even the Chesapeake Bay - it is of the York River. There would have been no way to see the French navy - they blockaded the entrance to the bay in early September (over 20 miles away), preventing resupply and reinforcement of the British forces. The French ships never fired on Yorktown. All of the artillery fired at Yorktown was land-based.
Revealing mistake: In the close-up on the three French officers directing the bombing of Yorktown, the one on the left is trying to hold a laugh. (02:33:47)
Factual error: French navy officers arriving at Yorktown to bomb the city are wearing tricolor roundels on their hats. This is historically impossible as the three colours blue white red representing France is a result of the French revolution that took place later in 1789. Before the revolution, the flag of France was just white with the symbol of the king.
Factual error: Gabriel claims that Charlston fell to Lord Cornwallis, however the town fell to Sir Henry Clinton, as Benjamin Clinton surrendered it to him after a little over a month long siege.
Continuity mistake: During the final battle scene with Col. Tavington, a close up shot shows Ben Martin holding the last lead ball cast from his son's toy soldiers close to the muzzle of his pistol, about three inches away. The next longer shot of him shows him holding the ball about ten inches from the pistol.
Continuity mistake: After being shot by Col. Tavington, Rev. Oliver collapses, his left hand alternating between shots of him either grasping the forestock of his musket or not.
Continuity mistake: Benjamin Martin's right hand instantly changes from being below the muzzle of his musket to the top as the shots change during the scene in the tent with Harry.
Continuity mistake: When Benjamin Martin grabs the bone out of John Billings' hand, Martin is next to Billings, but when Martin throws the bone to get the dogs out of the wagon, he is at least three feet away from Billings, enough distance to allow the dogs to pass between them.
Continuity mistake: Early in the film, as Benjamin says goodnight to the girls, the candles he's carrying are approximately 3" long and remain so as he descends the stairs. As he reaches the bottom step the camera cuts and from there forward the candles are at least ½" longer.
Continuity mistake: When the movie begins it is 1776 and that is when Gabriel enlists in the Continental Army. In his letter home he mentions the fall of Charleston, which occurred in 1780. After Benjamin gets his commission as a colonel after the pitched battle, Gabriel states that he has been a soldier for 2 years. That would put the formation of the militia in 1778, 2 years before Charleston was captured by the British.
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.
raywest ★
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.
LorgSkyegon