The Patriot

The Patriot is the type of film that is made for the fourth of July weekend. It practically wants the audience to stand up and salute the screen.Such overpoweringly obvious patriotism became dangerously close to dragging the film down. While still somewhat annoying, I tried to look beyond the overblown patriotism and watch the astounding visuals and great performances.

Mel Gibson gives his character performance grace, charisma, heart, vulnerability, temperance, and vengeance. The script gives him a character to work with, involved in situations where he's allowed to fully explore his emotions. Mel Gibson grabs you into Benjamin Martin's world and shows you his multide of flaws. The rest of the cast is also very good, with Heath Ledger making an excellent debut as Benjamin's son, Gabriel. Chris Cooper is a stone-cold general of a Continental Army. The enemy is dramatically involving, and their (not accurate?) sadistic nature is extremely cold. Jason Isaac's bloody rivalry between him and Benjamin is purely sinister.

Robert Rodat, of Saving Private Ryan fame, wrote the screenplay and it moves along fairly briskly. There's a lot of story to be told here, and The Patriot glides along allowing few wristwatch checks during its two and a half hour running time. I do, however, question some of the decisions that Rodat made when writing the story. Most prominently I question why Rodat chose to make the film's main theme be revenge rather than the independence of our country.

The film is strinkingly beautiful, and is a reminder of how innocent our country looked at it's humble beginnings. The cinematography, leading us through the wilderness of the late 18th century, is excellent. Even though the rest of the film has a great look, the extravagant battle scenes are where Roland Emmerich is able to broadcast his extraordinary talent for visual power. The battle scenes are tenacious, gory, and are spectacles to make you wince and admire. Emmerich paces and edits these scenes with a knowledgeable fluidity, allowing us to see everything going on without confusion. Emmerich thankfully chose to let the movie be realistically gory, ignoring the obvious box-office potential of having Mel Gibson in a PG-13 rated historical drama.

The Patriot has a lot in common with The Last of the Mohicans of the early nineties. It's an epic with emotion and great visuals. While not containing the human romantic drama that resonates in the latter, The Patriot does register as good entertainment. Clichés are abound in Emmerich's tale, almost too many actually, but it's best to leave your brain at the door. Try not to yell out "That's so cheesy" once the climax approaches. Just smile and nod. It's best to perceive these films as being pure entertainment.

On a scale of 1 to 10 cleaving cannonballs : 7