THE PATRIOT -- MOVIE REVIEW

Reviews (5)

I had the pleasure of seeing this movie on June 30th, 2000, while vacationing in Ogunquit, Maine. Considering Hollywood's past failures to portray Revolutionary War characters and events with any historical accuracy or balance for the cinema, I was not looking forward to another repeat performance. Let me say from the outset that they did get something right -- the costumes. The Smithsonian Institute was called in for their "expertise" as far as advice for accurate costumes, weapons, and the colonial period. Unfortunately that was as far as it got. Once again, Hollywood writers and directors added their own version/s of history that is nothing but unadulterated garbage. Money talks -- history walks . . .

The following are selected reviews of the movie:

The Patriot (2000)
Columbia Pictures/Centropolis
Director: Roland Emmerich
Writer: Robert Rodat

Cast: Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger, Joely Richardson, Jason Isaacs, Trevor Morgan, Bryan Chafin, Skye McCole Bartusiak, Beatrice Bush, Rene Auberjonois, Donal Logue, Logan Lerman, Michael Neeley, Chris Cooper, Tcheky Karyo

By Wesley Morris
SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER FILM CRITIC

The "Patriot" script, by "Saving Private Ryan" writer Robert Rodat, is a curiously timid, vapid comic strip, which leaves Emmerich ample room to bombard us with a bevy of boldly unsubtle images that make Armageddon's "America Rules!" message seem subliminal. As the battlefields become more like gridirons with a bad turf-management staff, Gibson can be spied armed with a flag moving toward an unspecified goal (perhaps an end zone). He plows into obstructive redcoat-extras in the aggressive, triumphant slow motion of NFL game film, set to the colonial woodwind and beaten snare of John Williams' chowder-thick score.

Earlier, in the heat of the climactic all-or-nothing battle, we're treated to that same American flag, snaking through amber waves of grain like a prowling shark, which seems to have its jowls fixed on the British as a nation of pansies.

In England, a loud stink has already been made of how the historical inaccuracies in the script make the British into inhuman figments of terrorism, not unlike portrayals of Arabs. What with the characterization of Lord General Cornwallis (Tom Wilkinson), who rivals Liberace in his love of primping, preening and florid housecoats, plus a host of fey-accented people saying things you'd expect to read in inter-titles of King Vidor silent films, they have a case.
But in a Revolutionary War flick with nary a revolution, where's the news? When it comes to nationalism and racist caricatures, is there any better colonizer than Hollywood? Should you expect more from a director whose last film was "Godzilla"?

I had a better time at "The Patriot" imagining that while Gibson sits in front of what looks like Yoda's swamp and talks about his massacre of French troops, the British have returned to their Industrial Light and Magic space pods for an evening of glowing green tea.

Moreover, in the "Who's the biggest victim sweepstakes," the British in the film are going to have to stand behind the African slaves. Since the death of her mother, Susan, the youngest Martin child hasn't spoken. That loss must have had a worse effect on the slaves, who are so cordial and upbeat about having their lives and property gentrified in 1776 that you fear for the entire future of the blues. After the British burn Benjamin's sister-in-law's (Joely Richardson) house, she and the kids move into the escaped slave's beach haven, where the intruded-upon say nothing but do host weddings, dance and house and feed them. They're a compliant wallpaper background. But then, so is the war.

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Review By Ed Johnson-Ott
NUVO NEWSWEEKLY

What else should I have expected from a Revolutionary War epic presented by the producer and director team responsible for "Stargate," "Independence Day" and "Godzilla?" Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich are infamous for their ability to take intriguing premises and turn them into overcooked, cliché-filled, pop culture goulash. Many people find their concoctions satisfying, but as for me, pass the Pepto Bismo, please.

Mel plays Benjamin Martin, a South Carolina widower determined to stay out of the uprising against the British and raise his seven children in peace. A veteran of the French and Indian War, he is haunted by memories of atrocities committed during battle. But his eldest son, Gabriel (Heath Ledger), views the hesitancy of his father with disdain and defiantly joins the rebels.

Months later, the fighting draws near and Gabriel returns home injured. While caring for him, and other wounded soldiers from both sides, Benjamin is visited by British troops, led by the sadistic Colonel William Tavington (Jason Isaacs). In short order, Tavington has his men burn down the Martin home, arrests Gabriel and orders his execution and then shoots Martin's second eldest boy. As soon as Tavington leaves, Benjamin arms his children, rescues Gabriel and becomes leader of the area militia. His reputation as "The Ghost" grows to the point that British General Cornwallis (Tom Wilkinson) sends out his troops to capture Benjamin Martin, by any means necessary.

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Colonel Tavington (Lt. Colonel Banastre Tarleton)

Review by Jim Lane
SACRAMENTO NEWS AND REVIEW

A South Carolina planter (Mel Gibson) joins the American Revolution when his son is murdered by a British officer (Jason Isaacs, acting like Snidely Whiplash). Robert Rodat's script is specious and false on every level - the Nazi-like British atrocities, the calypso music at beach parties, the congregation applauding at a wedding, Gibson's - ahem - black "employees." Even the title is a lie: Gibson's character does nothing out of patriotism.

Director Roland Emmerich drags the thin story out by dawdling over pastoral vistas, then jabs us awake with graphic combat and shameless manipulation. (Be warned - there's absolutely no one Rodat and Emmerich won't kill to get us worked up.) The film has the sputtering energy of shameless melodrama, but it's bad history, bad drama, and an hour too long.

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Review by Mick LaSalle
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE STAFF CRITIC

He's Just Begun to Fight
Mel Gibson blasts his way through a bloody, bloated `Patriot'
Wednesday, June 28, 2000

The American Revolution was made for color film. The Civil War and World War II can get by on black and white, but the revolution-with its bluecoats and redcoats, green fields and blood, blood, blood - needs to look like a painting come to life.

In this way, "The Patriot," which opens today, succeeds. Alas, it's the only way in which it succeeds. Director Roland Emmerich's battle scenes may look authentic to anyone who has ever stared hard at a history book, but in every other way, the film is long, empty and bogus.

In fact, it would be a mistake to think of "The Patriot" as a historical film. The movie doesn't deal with the issues of the war, and it only touches on its history. Think of it, rather, as a violent action picture, a routine summer bloodbath that, in a change of pace, uses muskets instead of machine guns and chain saws.

Mel Gibson plays a nice guy, South Carolina farmer Benjamin Martin, who wants nothing to do with the war . . . until the British get him mad. Then, look out. Unfortunately, since the movie is an absurd ly long 158 minutes, the British have to keep getting him mad just to keep things moving. So "The Patriot" ends up repeating itself: They kill people. Mel kills people. They kill people.
Mel kills people . . .

Lots of people. Throughout the picture, as farmer Ben, Gibson has to transform himself from gentle, meek and mild to homicidal maniac. In one scene, with the help of his little boys (talk about distasteful), he wipes out 19 British soldiers and then wails on No. 20 with a hatchet. By the time he's through, he is drenched with blood, and so is the movie. Both are just getting started.

To justify all this carnage, there must be more carnage. Jason Isaacs plays the villain of the piece, Col. Tavington, and at least this time there's a reason the bad guy has an English accent. Tavington kills civilians, kills the wounded, kills children. In an incident with chilling echoes of Waco, he even massacres a church congregation, locking it in a chapel and setting the place on fire.

That's when we know this villain deserves a fate worse than death. He deserves the fate that action movies reserve for only the most wicked: death in slow motion.

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Review by Serena Donadoni
METRO TIMES

With modern warfare increasingly resembling a video game, the visceral combat of The Patriot is a shocking reminder of what doing battle really means. Writer Robert Rodat (Saving Private Ryan) sets the action in the Southern colonies, knowing that the American Revolution was an altogether different beast there than in the North. Not only was it more savage, but it was also more intensely personal, pitting neighbor against neighbor in a maelstrom of conflicting loyalties.

Lifting liberally from history, Rodat recasts many individuals as archetypes, none so much as British Col. William Tavington (Jason Isaacs), the bad guy as a personification of pure evil. Based on Banastre Tarleton, leader of the feared cavalry unit the Green Dragoons (their regalia is changed to crimson for American audiences accustomed to redcoats), Tavington is a social climber and vicious sadist using this uprising in the colonies to ruthlessly pursue his own self-interest.

Tavington will meet his match in colonist Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson). This veteran of the French and Indian War has already seen more than his share of bloodshed, some of it downright Mansonesque. Martin wants to stay out of this fray to tend to his farm and seven children, which leads his eldest son, Gabriel (Heath Ledger) to see him as a coward.

In a rather brave choice, Gibson initially plays Martin as a man incapacitated by fear. But the reason is an unexpected one. When he begins to fight, Martin becomes someone else altogether, a warrior who kills with a vicious efficiency, often falling into a frenzy where he'll hack an already dead opponent dozens of times with a tomahawk.
The Patriot, directed with go-for-broke gusto by Roland Emmerich (Independence Day), is strongest when it contrasts these men, who represent two sides of the same coin (they're both fearless warriors and brilliant strategists). But although the best moments in this three-hour epic take place during skirmishes and on the battlefield, a great deal of time is spent exploring family life (convincing and compelling) and romantic pursuits (corny and contrived).

Yet this uneven film - which effectively blends brutality and gentility, but can't find the right mix between Hollywood clichés and the Revolution's complex history -still succeeds mightily in bringing the era roaring back to life. If Americans haven't upheld the principles fought for by these men, The Patriot maintains, there's no one to blame but ourselves.

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