As an American, I was wondering if the colonists were portrayed as "the villain". As time went by, did the perspective change?
hi! this question reminds me of a tangentially-related post, which may be of some interest as some comments reflect how much (or little) the American Revolution is covered in curriculum outside the USA
I can only comment from personal experience on the history taught at my secondary school in the UK (age 11-18). The only time I touched on the American Revolution was during my twilight years at school (in the context of British politics from 1770-1840).
The Revolution was only mentioned to highlight the resource drain on the British government (the logistics of transporting supplies across the Atlantic) the war had become. The slant we were given was that the British government were not, by the end of the war, as concerned with retaining the US and were in retrospect relieved that the Empire had become more manageable when the US Colonies were lost.
As a general stance on the education of history (even while teaching students as young as 11) I have been taught that there should never be an identifiable or clear-cut "villain". When I was taught about WW1 and WW2 the Germans were not the explicit "villains". We were given information and then it was up to us to draw our own conclusions. We were taught not to rely too heavily on one source so that we could see any conflict from a variety of perspectives.