Taking Liberty - 1993
The movie takes place in 1778. Imagine Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman married The Patriot and had a child that was even stranger then them that they didn't like to speak about and you'd have the movie Taking Liberty. It was originally produced as the pilot of a TV show that never got picked up so Hallmark (from my understanding) released it as a movie for a very short period. It was to say the least a flop and is hard to find now. The setting is the American Revolution in 1778. In the movie the British control Manhattan (correct), Boston (they left in 1776), and already invading the South (doesn't happen until 1779). The hero is a man named "The Eagle" who is basically a Patriot style partisan fighter. He is the only man keeping the Revolution alive; for some reason. He has a bad of fighters that include a former slave who doesn't do much. A young guy who shoots the hats off of British soldiers which is all he ever does and for some reason this scares them. And an old man who is said to have fought with Blackbeard the pirate, who died 60 years before this takes place. He meets with a woman from a Loyalist family who falls in love with him from the moment they meet. "The Eagle" decides to spy on the British commander in NY, played by David Warner (of Quest for the Delta Knights fame) and he ends up getting captured. So, the Loyalist lady decides to try and free him and meets "Poor Richard", better known as Ben Franklin, played by David Ogden Stiers. He does a good job playing Franklin but he plays him more like he's your crazy uncle that you keep locked up in the basement to keep your neighbors from seeing him. The now former Loyalist lady now takes over "The Eagles" little band of fighters in an effort to free him. She pretends to be a German Baroness and gets sexually assaulted by David Warner. But it's too late as "The Eagle" is already being shipped to Britain so she takes his place as "Liberty" hoping one day to see her love again. The movie is full of "what were they thinking" parts, other than the general plot of course. Like the wheel chair ramp and guard rail going into the jail. The "back to one" disgusted look on the face of one of the extras as they went back to their starting points which wasn't edited out. The clothing which is more fit to God knows which time period, none of it the Revolution. Filled with a cheesy early 1990s goofy soundtrack. The both under and over acting. But the title is very apt because the entire movie took a lot of liberties with history, with acting, with what they think is a good plot, and with editing. They certainly were Taking Liberty with the entire thing.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0139633/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1