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The Patriot Mel is back as an action hero. Yep Mel Gibson (most recently in Chicken Run), the star of Braveheart and various other action films returns as Benjamin Martin, a South Carolina plantation owner and hero of The French & Indian War. Martin, who is the father of seven children, has been left wifeless by disease and must now decide to fight for the colonies or to remain neutral in order to protect his family. Though a patriot, Martin decides it is best to stay out of the war so as to not loose any children to the conflict. But Martin’s son Gabriel (Heath Ledger), decides he can join up, and he does so against his fathers wishes. Then the war really takes off, and the patriots don’t start off to well. Anyway one thing leads to another, and then Mel joins up to free Gabriel from execution by the Brits, but loses another son to the cruelty of the British officer Col. Tavington (Jason Isaacs, The End of the Affair). Through the rest of the movie the Patriots win some and lose some, and as you should already know from elementary school, we win the war and the British go home. The Patriot will fill you with emotion like most other epic films. It will also give you the Hollywood version of American History. It glosses over the race relations in favor of harmony. It also has some great acting and directing (Roland Emmerich, Independence Day). My one major problem with The Patriot was it’s depiction of the race relations. In all my studies of history (and I do actually have a degree, Bachelor of Science 1997) I only recall various slave revolts in South Carolina and not a lot of positive slave items, which would lead me to believe that whites and blacks were not all love-dovey during the time period depicted in this film. But I digress. The rest of the cast includes Donal Logue, Adam Baldwin, Tom Wilkinson (Shakespeare in Love) as Cornwallis, Tcheky Karyo, Joely Richardson, and Chris Cooper (Me, Myself & Irene) as Col. Burwell. Another little surprise is that the film’s score was done by legendary composer John Williams, and he certainly was able to set the moods for the entire film. Of course my all-time favorite score for a movie was for The Last Of The Mohicans. The Patriot keeps you entertained for the full two hours and 45 minutes it is on the screen. It will make you laugh, it may make you cry, but if you’re an American it will make you leave saying, in Cartman’s immortal words, kick ass. And though there was no nudity, I still enjoyed this film. So I give The Patriot nine couches for the About-Movies.com rating. To borrow from Porky Pig, that’s all folks. Last updated: Thursday, March 20, 2008 02:49:34 AM |
